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[Alebelly]

This confirms what I suspected. Platinum hadn't had a hit in a while, and with Scalebound imploding before release, they can't have been in a great spot financially.

But I'm guessing between Nier:A and Bayonetta PC, things are probably looking a lot better now

I think they are still a studio in need of specific work, Scalebound was their big venture into AAA and it cost them, but Neir saved their butts.

Sega is the one reaping the benefits of some titles, but Platinum is able to keep working, so thats good regardless

 

[Kthulhu]

God bless you Taro.

 

[aadiboy]

Platinum's business model doesn't seem sustainable. Then again, they haven't died yet, so I guess it's working for them.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Platinum's business model doesn't seem sustainable. Then again, they haven't died yet, so I guess it's working for them.

independent larger developers are hurting all over since gen 7

 

[jayu26]

This confirms what I suspected. Platinum hadn't had a hit in a while, and with Scalebound imploding before release, they can't have been in a great spot financially.

But I'm guessing between Nier:A and Bayonetta PC, things are probably looking a lot better now

Will people stop saying this? The game was sold for $20 and it barely crossed 200k. Whatever little money was to be made was made by Sega.

 

[Kent]

It's not so much that they didn't sign them up for a sequel to Sunset Overdrive immediately as it is that they didn't contract them for any project. It's been years since Sunset Overdrive, and I'm sure Insomniac was available to contract for work at least once or twice during that timeframe between projects. Clearly Microsoft wasn't interested in working with them again.

It still doesn't make sense to think that it's explicitly the notion of Microsoft not wanting to work with them is somehow what's "clearly" true here.

Consider the two major games they've worked on since then: Ratchet & Clank, and Spider-Man. Both are PlayStation exclusives, both are IPs controlled by Sony, a company with which Insomniac has a long-running history.

It's far more likely that this established work history led to ease of landing contracts, and when it comes to this sort of business, jumping on a contract you believe your company would be well-suited for makes far more sense than waiting to see if someone else wants work done. If the opportunity presents itself to be guaranteed suitable work, why wouldn't you go for it?

Clearly the information at hand is not actually indicative of whether or not Microsoft wants to work with Insomniac. All it actually says is that business opportunities with Sony occurred, and Insomniac accepted their contracts. It's non-indicative of any business relationship status with Microsoft.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Will people stop saying this? The game was sold for $20 and it barely crossed 200k. Whatever little money was to be made was made by Sega.

Has a bigger impact than just sales numbers to (potentially) resurrect a franchise that goes through you for a future installment.

 

[TatteredHat]

The two are a match made in heaven, honestly.

 

[Dragon1893]

I could only afford one game in the first trimester, I'm glad I put that money into Nier. Not that I would ever miss out on it after how much I loved the first.

 

[jayu26]

Has a bigger impact than just sales numbers to (potentially) resurrect a franchise that goes through you for a future installment.

200K sales doesn't do that. The only thing it does is preserve the game without having to wait for a good emulator. As it is Bayo 3 is far more likely to be a switch exclusive than come to PC or PS4.

 

[Evil Monkey DTT]

In this darkest timeline this really brought a smile to my face. I'm so happy for everyone involved.

 

[Elfforkusu]

200K sales doesn't do that. The only thing it does is preserve the game without having to wait for a good emulator. As it is Bayo 3 is far more likely to be a switch exclusive than come to PC or PS4.

Bayo 3 is more likely to exist now than it was if the franchise languished on Wii U.

 

[Technosteve]

Everyone bashing W101 like they actually owned it and played it! W101 is an amazing new IP that needed more time to fix the stylus mechanic.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Bayo 3 is more likely to exist now than it was if the franchise languished on Wii U.

I can see a Bayo3 multiplatform scenario with amiibo function with the smash meebs for Switch.

 

[Wishmaster92]

He singlehandedly saved Platinum. I can't wait to see what the future brings, Nier: Automata was a 10/10 masterpiece.

 

[ZoddGutts]

Platinum needs to continue hiring good writers, their previous games sans Nier are laughably bad, maybe get Matsuno to work on a pseudo JRPG game, he's already working with Platinum on a mobile game, so maybe they can continue working on something else afterwards.

 

[AAK]

Nier's success has to this point given Platinum a new fanbase, a growing staff, a brilliant success story, an increase in qualified job applicants, and a great favour. Normally, I can't help but do everything by myself... it's a pitiful story, but to say that Yoko-san saved Platinum would not be an exaggeration. I cannot thank him enough.

What does he mean by "I can't help but do everything by myself"? Is he taking the majority of the credit for the previous successes of PG before Nier:Automata?

 

[vala]

Sequel confirmed...

 

[Funyarinpa]

<3

 

[DR2K]

Do we know what happened here though? Perhaps the game wasn't coming together well, and Microsoft decided to stop throwing money at it. Why should Microsoft keep funding a project they aren't happy with?

So perhaps Platinum almost killed themselves by making a bad game?

Microsoft made unrealistic demands half way through development, with the intention of sabotaging the product. Then proceeded to cancel it when their demands weren't met to their satisfaction.

 

[badcrumble]

Nier: Automata makes me want Platinum to work on the first post-KH3 Kingdom Hearts spinoff title.

 

[K.Jack]

Nier saved you, so would you mind fixing the PC port?

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Microsoft made unrealistic demands half way through development, with the intention of sabotaging the product. Then proceeded to cancel it when their demands weren't met to their satisfaction.

Why this out of all their other exclusives?

 

[Ridley327]

What does he mean by "I can't help but do everything by myself"? Is he taking the majority of the credit for the previous successes of PG before Nier:Automata?

Kamiya has a really similar work ethic to Kojima or Sakurai, in that he's personally involved in every aspect of a project's production, even if he's not doing any of the actual work in those areas where he doesn't. He takes on a lot of personal responsibility, as we already saw this year with him taking the blame for Scalebound not coming together in time.

 

[NightShift]

This is so weird. I never thought Nier Automata would be so succesful. It seemed like a much more niche game than all of Platinum's other titles and the way Yoko Taro goes about creating his games is so unconventional it would turn a lot of people off.

I hope Yoko Taro continues to work with Platinum. They're a match made in heaven.

 

[True Fire]

i feel like dragon quest really needs a reboot

Absolutely disgusting

 

[Lord of Ostia]

It still doesn't make sense to think that it's explicitly the notion of Microsoft not wanting to work with them is somehow what's "clearly" true here.

Consider the two major games they've worked on since then: Ratchet & Clank, and Spider-Man. Both are PlayStation exclusives, both are IPs controlled by Sony, a company with which Insomniac has a long-running history.

It's far more likely that this established work history led to ease of landing contracts, and when it comes to this sort of business, jumping on a contract you believe your company would be well-suited for makes far more sense than waiting to see if someone else wants work done. If the opportunity presents itself to be guaranteed suitable work, why wouldn't you go for it?

Clearly the information at hand is not actually indicative of whether or not Microsoft wants to work with Insomniac. All it actually says is that business opportunities with Sony occurred, and Insomniac accepted their contracts. It's non-indicative of any business relationship status with Microsoft.

I gave the example of Song of the Deep as well, Microsoft could've published that if they wanted to keep a relationship going with Insomniac. I mean, whenever anyone asks about Sunset Overdrive 2,Insomniac always says they'd love to do it but it's up to Microsoft. The ball is in their court, to sign Insomniac for any project. The fact that Insomniac hasn't had any Microsoft projects since means Microsoft hasn't approached them.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Absolutely disgusting

i agree, dragon quest's battle system is absolutely disgusting in 2017

 

[Seyavesh]

Why this out of all their other exclusives?

this also happened with phantom dust
https://kotaku.com/how-a-small-game-studio-almost-made-it-big-1696997142

the scalebound thread had some stuff coming from jschreier as well w/ the same shit happening to scalebound iirc

 

[Mivey]

Will people stop saying this? The game was sold for $20 and it barely crossed 200k. Whatever little money was to be made was made by Sega.

Honestly, I don't even know why Kamiya writes anything about Nier. Clearly he should thank Sega for porting their old stuff cheaply to PC. That's were Platinum's future lies.

 

[Ridley327]

Honestly, I don't even know why Kamiya writes anything about Nier. Clearly he should thank Sega for porting their old stuff cheaply to PC. That's were Platinum's future lies.

I'm not sure there's much of a future there, when there's all of two titles that can be realistically ported to the PC that Platinum worked on and Sega controls, beyond what we've already seen with Bayonetta and Vanquish. Bayonetta 2 would require a miracle of biblical proportions to happen, and that would still not be enough for Platinum to live off of.

 

[The Giant]

That's good news. Now hopefully we will see their switch game/s they are working on this year.

 

[LordBaztion]

Who would have though that the sequel to a 360 game I only remember because of its soundtrack would save one of my favorite developers after the cancellation of one of my most anticipated games.

Thank you Yoko, I will but the game later.

 

[ArjanN]

I'm not sure there's much of a future there, when there's all of two titles that can be realistically ported to the PC that Platinum worked on and Sega controls, beyond what we've already seen with Bayonetta and Vanquish. Bayonetta 2 would require a miracle of biblical proportions to happen, and that would still not be enough for Platinum to live off of.

He was clearly being sarcastic.

That said let's not pretend that the Bayo PC port didn't basically print money compared to what it costs to port a game lke that. It's just that it mostly printed it for SEGA.

 

[Philippo]

The real thing we can deduce from this is that now Kamiya will have to buy Yoko Taro an immense amount of alchohol to show off his gratitude.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

The real thing we can deduce from this is that now Kamiya will have to buy Yoko Taro an immense amount of alchohol to show off his gratitude.

i wonder how long until YT drinks himself to death

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

this also happened with phantom dust
https://kotaku.com/how-a-small-game-studio-almost-made-it-big-1696997142

the scalebound thread had some stuff coming from jschreier as well w/ the same shit happening to scalebound iirc

But why sabotage?

 

[hydrophilic attack]

the scalebound thread had some stuff coming from jschreier as well w/ the same shit happening to scalebound iirc

i just did an extensive search and found nothing of that sort so it seems you recall incorrectly

sneak fuck did break the story that it was likely cancelled though, so maybe that's what you're thinking of

 

[Ninka_kiwi]

It's nice to hear Nier was such a success.
I dunno if this was posted on one of the earlier pages, but I'm hoping Platinum and Yoko Taro continue a partnership and work on Drakengard 4 using scalebound as a base. It'd be a win win, the scalebound work wouldn't go to waste and i think it'd have much better direction as a new drakengard game rather then being a new ip which seemed to kinda lack an identity, other then "Your a dude with dragon powers that looks vaguely like a rejected PS2 era capcom character design" their really wasn't much out about the game that seemed to have a clear vision. Hell, I don't think we learned literally anything about it's story.

(Whoops it was mentioned a few pages back, but the thought still stands)

 

[Yearsoflurking]

Scalebound was never released so you can't say it would have been a bad game.

Good games don't get cancelled. It would have been released if it was good both financially and universally praised. After 2 delays and a terrible public perception on both showing we can agree that game would have bombed

 

[DangerMouse]

Well done Yoko Taro!

 

[Magusx]

If I only wasn't poor I would have bought more copies

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Good games don't get cancelled. It would have been released if it was good both financially and universally praised. After 2 delays and a terrible public perception on both showing we can agree that game would have bombed

Um, plenty of good games, or at least games with potential to be good, get canceled.

 

[Seyavesh]

i just did an extensive search and found nothing of that sort so it seems you recall incorrectly

sneak fuck did break the story that it was likely cancelled though, so maybe that's what you're thinking of

yeah that's probably what it is then. guess i'm mixing streams whoops

But why sabotage?

who knows? you tell me. i'm just lettin' you know where that impression comes from for him

 

[Yearsoflurking]

Um, plenty of good games, or at least games with potential to be good, get canceled.

I can't name many projects that was good financially and critically that were cancelled. You might have to help me out....

 

[Lord of Ostia]

I can't name many projects that was good financially and critically that were cancelled. You might have to help me out....

Just because a game is canceled, doesn't mean it wouldn't have been good.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Good games don't get cancelled. It would have been released if it was good both financially and universally praised. After 2 delays and a terrible public perception on both showing we can agree that game would have bombed

just off the top of my head

final fantasy XII fortress (by grin) and silent hills are both games with potential to be great that were cancelled due to corporate stupidity

 

[TriAceJP]

Just because a game is canceled, doesn't mean it wouldn't have been good.

Most of the time, it's a 'you've spent too much and are taking too long' situation.

 

[Yearsoflurking]

Just because a game is canceled, doesn't mean it wouldn't have been good.

just off the top of my head

final fantasy XII fortress (by grin) and silent hills are both games with potential to be great that were cancelled due to corporate stupidity

Both games were cancelled due to project mismanagement which is my point(cost)

 

[Kent]

The fact that Insomniac hasn't had any Microsoft projects since means Microsoft hasn't approached them.

Or that when Microsoft has approached them, the time window they were shooting for was already taken up by other contracts.

Or that it is actually scheduled, just farther into the future to where they can't talk about it yet.

Or that negotiations are ongoing.

etc.

You can't use the lack of proof of A to prove that B, C, or D cannot be the case.