Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya of developer PlatinumGames opened up about Bayonetta 3 at Reboot Develop, a European game developers and games industry conference.
Inaba called Bayonetta 3 a turning point for the company, speaking through translator Ben Judd.
“Obviously when they announced that they were doing Bayonetta 3, they got an incredibly kind, supportive reactions about that title. Inaba-san himself is producing that. Obviously Kamiya-san is going to provide some feedback from the Bayonetta 1 angle, since he was the director on that. But for Inaba-san, Bayonetta 3 represents a turning point for the company in how they make games.
“And so Bayonetta 3, for taking a linear forward progression action game, they really want to do something new, add in new gimmicks, new ways to play the game, and then he walked it back a bit, and said, ‘Wait a second, I can’t even really talk about the job for us.’ So let’s pretend you didn’t hear that, because right now we don’t know, maybe it will be something different. However, for them, they see this as a key point to design the game because obviously Bayonetta 2 was a fantastic title, but they need to make sure this is leaps and bounds above that even.”
Kamiya, who directed the first game in the Bayonetta series, claims that his role in the third game is still undetermined. However, he assures that the high expectations for the game, along with fan support, are the team’s driving forces.
Speaking through his translator, he said:
“… To the point that was made earlier, while they may not make games for the end user, they’re certainly reticent of the fact that there’s a lot of fans that like them and have certain expectations. And so in keeping in line with those expectations, the one thing it does for them, it helps them push the bar. They know that the fans expect crazier, better, tighter action games.
“If they’re going to put out Bayonetta 3, it’s going to have to raise the bar. And so everyone’s support, all the reaction from the fans, the positive reaction, has helped build their pride to the point they know they can’t let anybody down. So obviously the end user is still very, very important to them as far as helping them to better themselves to perfect, master, improve their craft.”
Bayonetta 3 has no fixed release date and will be a Nintendo Switch exclusive.