Just promoted to president of PlatinumGames, Atsushi Inaba already stands out. The new CEO of the company has just revealed that he was not opposed to an acquisition of the Japanese studio if his creative freedom was guaranteed. What he considers to be the case for previous takeovers by Microsoft.
The American firm announced in January its intention to acquire the publisher Activision Blizzard King. A 68.9 billion dollar operation which must now be approved by the competent authorities in the coming months. However, and despite the exceptional nature of this transaction, Microsoft is still and always attentive to the opportunities that the market may offer. A situation that Atsushi Inaba commented on during an interview with the magazine VGC.
The CEO of PlatinumGames thus said he was open to all scenarios in the future, and in particular that of a takeover. A hypothesis that Inaba however conditions on an essential imperative: that of remaining independent and free to create what he wishes! “The most important thing for us is having the freedom to make the games we want to make” he underlines during the exchange with VGC. Before continuing and taking the Activision Blizzard case as an example.
From what I hear regarding recent acquisitions, I don’t think Microsoft is going to start controlling Activision to the point of taking away all of its freedom. I don’t think it will be such a relationship. […] I think there will be a lot of mutual respect and that Activision can continue to do what they do best. It’s also what’s most important to us at the end of the day, whatever form that takes for us and our business.
PlatinumGames is one of Japan’s most esteemed developers. Although his productions have not always met with success, they have often received rave reviews. With Bayonetta, Astral Chain or NieR Automata, the firm has built a prestigious aura that goes well beyond the borders of Japan. In 2020, Tencent had also invested in the company to enable it to develop its production capacities.
Recently, PlatinumGames had called for Phil Spencer to reconnect to develop Scalebound. Will its future be written alongside Microsoft? In any case, its CEO does not rule out this idea and concludes that it “would therefore refuse nothing, as long as our freedom is always respected”. And when we know that Xbox had, in all likelihood, considered acquiring the studio for a while, the soap opera might well last a few more months!