Hideki Kamiya Explains and Defends Nintendo’s Rights over Bayonetta 3
When Nintendo announced the development of Bayonetta 3 at The Game Awards, they revealed that it would be a Switch exclusive. Although it doesn’t come as a surprise given that the second installment was a Wii U exclusive, many fans were disappointed
Now, Platinum Games designer Hideki Kamiya sheds light on the reasoning behind the exclusivity on Twitter. Apparently, the game was developed using Nintendo’s funding from the start following their contribution to the second installment. He goes as far as saying that the game wouldn’t have been made without Nintendo.
Here are some quotes from tweets:
“We are a developer that creates games by signing contracts with publishers and receiving funds from them in order to cover development costs,” he said. “For Bayonetta 1, we signed a contract with Sega and received funds from them, then we proposed a design for the game and entered production. All of the rights belong to Sega.”
“When we started making Bayonetta 2, we initially received funds from Sega to develop the game for multiple platforms, but the project was halted due to circumstances at Sega. Nintendo then stepped in to continue funding the game, allowing us to finish it.”
“As such, the rights belong to Sega and Nintendo. The rights owners decided the game should be made for Wii U. Nintendo was also kind enough to fund a port of Bayo 1 for Wii U, and they even allowed us to use the Japanese voice track we created for the Wii U version in the PC version of Bayo 1 as well.”
“I am extremely thankful to Nintendo for funding the game, and to Sega for allowing them to use the Bayonetta IP. As for Bayonetta 3, it was decided from the start that the game was going to be developed using Nintendo’s funding. Without their help, we would not have been able to kick off this project.”
The information definitely provides a better understanding of the trajectory of the series and you can’t really argue with Kamiya’s honesty.
Bayonetta 3 currently has no release date. On February 16th, Switch users have the option of enjoying ports of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2.