Platinum Games In Talks To Extend Sega Partnership

Vanquish developer Platinum Games is in talks with publisher Sega to extend the companies' recently ended four-game publishing deal, according to comments from a executive at Platinum. Speaking to Develop, Platinum Executive Producer Atsushi Inaba said no new agreement had yet been set, but that he had been pleased with the companies' relationship. “When we created Platinum Games, we of course talked to a lot of publishers, and Sega offered us the most freedom to develop games, Inaba said in the interview. "I think the partnership has been great, and I’m really grateful for their support." In addition to Vanquish, the last two years saw Platinum Games develop three original IPs for Sega: Bayonetta on the Xbox 360 and PS3, MadWorld on the Wii and Infinite Space on the DS. Sega owns those IP going forward, and while Inaba said he was satisfied with the deal that led to that situation, he said Platinum "would like to eventually be a company that owns its IPs." He added that while the company wasn't opposed to making sequels, they'd prefer to continue creating completely new games as well. "The whole point of Platinum Games is to create our own IP," he said. "That’s what we do." Platinum's games for Sega have had a mixed reception at retail. While Bayonetta sold 1.1 million units worldwide within a month of its Western release earlier this year, last year's release of MadWorld only attracted 66,000 sales in the U.S. over its first month of availability.