PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames was founded in Osaka in 2007, formed largely from the exiled talent of Clover Studio, the Capcom subsidiary that had been shut down the previous year. Its core included some of the most gifted action-game designers in Japan: Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry, Shinji Mikami, father of Resident Evil, and producer Atsushi Inaba. Determined to build the studio they wanted rather than answer to a corporate parent, they merged with another new outfit and set out to make fast, stylish, technically dazzling action games.

The studio's early output arrived under a publishing deal with Sega. MadWorld, the eccentric shooter Vanquish, and the beat-em-up Anarchy Reigns showcased its craftsmanship, but its breakout was Bayonetta in 2009, directed by Kamiya. A gleefully over-the-top action game starring a gun-wielding witch who fights angels, it set a new benchmark for the character-action genre with its fluid combat, absurd spectacle, and razor-tight controls.

Platinum became the go-to studio for publishers wanting elite action design, developing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for Konami, The Legend of Korra and Transformers tie-ins for Activision, and the Wii U cult favorite The Wonderful 101. Its highest artistic peak came in 2017 with Nier: Automata, a collaboration with director Yoko Taro and Square Enix. A melancholy, genre-bending action-RPG about androids questioning their existence, it married Platinum's combat mastery to profound storytelling and became a beloved commercial and critical triumph.

The studio built an especially close relationship with Nintendo, developing Bayonetta 2 and 3 as Switch exclusives after the series' original publisher passed on continuing it, along with the Star Fox and Astral Chain projects. This work-for-hire model brought acclaim but left Platinum dependent on external funding and without ownership of many of its creations.

In recent years the studio has sought greater independence, taking outside investment and pursuing self-published and live-service projects with mixed results, including the abandonment of the multiplayer game Babylon's Fall. Kamiya himself departed in 2023.

PlatinumGames remains one of the world's premier action developers, a studio whose name is synonymous with kinetic combat, visual flair, and an uncompromising commitment to the feel of play, still chasing the perfect action game its founders left Clover to build.