Summary
PlatinumGamesappears to be working on an online game, according to a new job listing. This comes after the studio already tried its hand with online titles throughBabylon’s Fall, which was a huge failure for the studio.
This also comes after a long line of traditional single-player games, which the studio is best known for.Nier: Automataand theBayonettaseries are what will come to mind for many, but the devs were also behindAstral Chainand Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Now, it looks like the company is shifting focus once more. As spotted byTech4Gamers, PlatinumGames has anopeningfor a new game designer. In the desired skills section, PlatinumGames seeks a dev with “experience working on online action game development” and “experience in level design for online or open field games”.
PlatinumGames Might Be Working On Another Online Game After Babylon’s Fall’s Failure
While this doesn’t outright confirm that another live service is in development, this is a pretty strong indicator thatPlatinumGames is still interested in the online games space. This is somewhat surprising given how much of a mess Babylon’s Fall was, failing bothcriticallyandcommercially. After launching in March 2022,it was shut down in February 2023, lasting less than a year.
It remains to be seen how PlatinumGames approaches online games this time. We’ll also have to wait and see if this means that single-player releases are deprioritised, or if they are still developed alongside an online game.
Even putting Babylon’s Fall and another online game aside, PlatinumGames certainly appears to be changing. Hideki Kamiya, who co-founded the studio and created the Bayonetta series,left in 2023. He has gone on to say that he left becausethe studio was moving away from “creators' individuality”, and saying that he would “kill [his] soul” to remain in that environment.
