How fast can the Howard twins play Super Smash Bros.? (Photo: Nintendo)
Any chance of releasing Astral Chain on other platforms has been lost, with Nintendo as the sole owner.
Astral Chain is not only another classic from PlatinumGames, but also one of the best Nintendo Switch exclusive titles. Given its critical and commercial success, it is not surprising that Nintendo wants to maintain a close relationship with the intellectual property.
Earlier this month, however, fans of the game discovered to their surprise that the game’s copyright information had been updated to include only Nintendo and not PlatinumGames.
This led to speculation that Nintendo had taken over PlatinumGames’ intellectual property, which studio head Atsushi Inaba confirmed.
To FCC, when asked about the copyright update, Inaba simply replied, “It’s exactly as it says on the website: Astral Chain is their intellectual property, so there are restrictions on what we think we should talk about.”
Wonderful 101 was also a Nintendo exclusive title, but PlatinumGames was able to acquire exclusive rights to it, allowing it to be re-released on other platforms.
However, this does not necessarily mean that PlatinumGames will have nothing to do with Astral Chain from now on. If the sequel ever gets the green light, Nintendo will likely entrust development to PlatinumGames.
Wonderful 101 has been trapped on Wii U for seven years (Image: Platinum Games).
Inaba also had a little fun with the secret studio announcement of a fifth Platinum Four. After the last of the four special announcements turned out to be an April 1 joke, the page was updated with the fifth project, which is currently marked as a 2021 reveal.
Although Inaba tries to temper expectations by saying that the announcement will be on a smaller scale, he still promises that fans will be happy when it finally hits the airwaves.
We want to reveal it at the right time, but what we can say right now is that it has always been destined to be the ‘Platinum Four,’ so I think we should expect something more,” he said.
“We were going to bring it out a little earlier, but then came the corona virus, which I know is the usual excuse, but we hope that if we can bring it up, it will put a smile on our fans’ faces and we’ll get a good reaction along the lines of, ‘Ah, we love these platinum guys!
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Platinum seems to have its hands full at the moment. In addition to the mysterious Bayonetta 3, the company is working on its first self-published game, Project G.G., which will serve as a tribute to Japanese kaiju series like Ultraman.
It was also reported that Platinum’s senior game designer, Takahisa Taura (whose resume includes Astral Chain and Nier: Automata), is helping with the remastering of NieR Replicant, although Platinum’s overall involvement in the project is limited as they continue to try to focus on the intellectual property they own.
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