Hideki Kamiya, the colorful director of the Bayonetta games as well as Capcom cult classics like Okami and Viewtiful Joe, is set to leave PlatinumGames, the studio he co-founded in 2007.
The news was announced by Platinum on Twitter/X and subsequently confirmed by Kamiya. Platinum said that Kamiya will leave the company on Oct. 12, after a 16-year run.
However, I feel this outcome is for the best.
I will continue to create in my Hideki Kamiya way.
I hope you’ll keep your eyes peeled.
(2/2)— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) September 25, 2023
“This came after a lot of consideration based on my own beliefs,” Kamiya said, “and was by no means an easy decision to make. However, I feel this outcome is for the best. I will continue to create in my Hideki Kamiya way. I hope you’ll keep your eyes peeled.”
“We are truly grateful for his creative ideas, leadership, and contribution to the growth of PlatinumGames from our start-up to this very day,” Platinum said. “We believe that he will continue to succeed in his future endeavors as a game creator. We are looking forward to seeing the game industry grow into a better place with him in it. We wish him all the best for the future!”
Kamiya is known for making the kind of flamboyant action games with razor-sharp mechanics that are synonymous with the PlatinumGames name — as well as for his pugnacious but tongue-in-cheek persona on Twitter, where getting blocked by him is considered a badge of honor.
At Capcom, Kamiya worked on the original Resident Evil and directed Resident Evil 2 before serving as director and writer on the first Devil May Cry. Along with producer Atsushi Inaba and Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, Kamiya set up the influential but short-lived Capcom internal studio Clover, where he directed the gorgeous Zelda-like adventure Okami.
When Capcom shuttered Clover, the trio left to found PlatinumGames, where Kamiya created the Bayonetta series, about a gun-toting witch, and The Wonderful 101, in which players control a horde of tiny superheroes. Kamiya was frustrated to spend years working on Scalebound, an ambitious open-world fantasy action game for Xbox, only for Microsoft to cancel the project.
What this rockstar creator is up to next is anyone’s guess, although some speculate on a reunion with Mikami, who left Platinum in 2010 to found Tango Gameworks, where he made the Evil Within games for Bethesda. Mikami left Tango in February this year, and his next project remains a mystery.