A notable director at Platinum Games reportedly has left the studio, possibly to found his own new studio.
Rumours about Takahisa Taura leaving Platinum popped up a few weeks ago, but there wasn’t any way to really substantiate those until now. As reported by VGC, Taura has changed his place of work on his personal Facebook change. It no longer lists Platinum Games, but instead something called “Eel Game Studio.” Company listings suggest this studio is newly formed, one that Taura is either joining at its creation, or he could be one of the founders himself.
Taura is best known as the director of the 2019 Nintendo Switch Exclusive Astral Chain, which became a bit of a cult hit on the platform. At Platinum, he also worked as a designer on Metal Gear Rising: Reveangance and The Wonderful 101, and through partnerships with Square Enix he worked on NieR: Automata, NieR Replicant, and Final Fantasy XVI.
Despite Astral Chain’s success and Nintendo publishing the game we haven’t seen any kind of sequel or spinoff. While we don’t have anything official, an interesting rumour did pop up on Reddit earlier this week, by a source that claims to have talked to someone familiar with Platinum. These rumours state that the game has essentially been stuck in development hell for years, so much so that Nintendo themselves rebooted the project. Keep in mind this information is nothing but a rumour, but Taura leaving Platinum does raise questions about if we could ever see Astral Chain 2.
That’s especially true in light of the other departures the studio has had recently. The most notable, of course, being Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya, who left to found Clover Games. Kamiya explained his reason for leaving as “Without that element of trust, I couldn’t continue working there.” He’s now working on Okami 2 in collaboration with Capcom.
In December 2024, the director of Bayonetta Origins also confirmed they were leaving the company.
It certainly looks like a turbulent time for Platinum Games. The studio’s next project is Ninja Gaiden 4, published by Koei Tecmo and Microsoft.
