Even though Bayonetta 2 has yet to launch, there are already talks about what the third game could be like and, furthermore, how it could still end up being a Wii U exclusive.
IGN picked up quotes from an article on CVG where they spoke with Yusuke Hashimoto, the game director on Platinum Game's upcoming, over-the-top, third-person shooter, Bayonetta 2.
According to Hashimoto, the team is actually looking at doing a possible third installment of the game just based on how well they like working with Nintendo, saying...
Should the opportunity arise I’d definitely like to keep nurturing this franchise,”... "In terms of nurturing the content of this game, there’s a lot that we learned from Nintendo and if possible we would love to do it again and keep nurturing our child.“I feel that it’s important to let your creativity flow and Nintendo has been able to provide us with the freedom to create what we had originally envisioned. We were able to have a lot of back-and-forth and they were able to provide objective feedback. I feel that was really good and helped push Bayonetta 2 to even higher quality.”
That's very interesting, as it seems to fly in the face of other rumors that have stated that Nintendo was usually very harsh and strict with second and third-party developers. However, Platinum seems to be making it known that they have a very good working relationship with Nintendo.
Hashimoto continues on to shower Nintendo with some level of praise, without getting too specific about the kind of support or guidance they offered them, saying...
“We started out with a fundamental freedom, with Nintendo telling us to go and create the game as we saw fit. But as the game started to take shape and we were starting to put all the pieces together, they were able to point out some things that we didn’t realise ourselves. That was really helpful for us.”
This is definitely a promising position for Platinum Games to be in. The company has yet to ship Bayonetta or Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U, but their previous effort on Nitnendo's system, The Wonderful 101, didn't quite fare as well in the marketplace when measuring sales. The question then becomes: will Nintendo continue to bankroll games from Platinum even when the SKU sales don't quite live up to being startling successes?
Platinum Games can't be hurting for work, though. They're one of the few development studios that always seem to find a way to land on their feet with a new project under their wing. In fact, they're already hard at work on the brand new Legend of Korra game due for release on home consoles this fall under the Activision publishing label.
So even if Bayonetta 2 doesn't quite live up to expectations (although it seems unlikely to fall flat on its face as far as gameplay mechanics and fun-factors go), Platinum still has a few other projects to keep them going. Hopefully Bayonetta 2 does do well enough as a Wii U exclusive and we can potentially see the series go out with a bang with a third game.
You can look for Bayonetta 2 to launch on the Wii U this October in North America. For more info feel free to visit the game's official website.
