A follow-up to a beloved Nintendo Swap sport has been topic to inner delays in accordance with a brand new hearsay, however there’s nonetheless hope for it on Swap 2.
The way forward for Bayonetta and NeiR:Automata developer PlatinumGames has been a priority for followers for a very long time now, particularly following a string of employees exits.
Issues began to look notably dangerous following the departure of co-founder Hideki Kamiya, who has arrange a brand new studio with a few of his former Platinum colleagues. Others have left the studio as nicely, together with Bayonetta Origins director Abebe Tinari who has joined Housemarque.
Fortunately although there have been some current indicators of life, with promised Bayonetta anniversary celebrations and the annoucement of Ninja Gaiden 4, however a brand new hearsay claims the developer has additionally been engaged on a sequel to Astral Chain, however that it has been topic to ‘important delays’.
The hearsay comes from the PlatinumGames subreddit and pertains to info allegedly obtained from an ex-employee on the studio, which dates again to winter 2024.
Based on the publish, Astral Chain 2 has been within the works since early 2021, two years after the unique sport launched in 2019. The sequel, nonetheless, is claimed to have confronted ‘quite a lot of inner issues’, together with widespread finances cuts and employees being shifted to different initiatives.
Kamiya is cited as serving to to get the venture again on monitor in 2022, previous to his departure, with the group behind the sequel supposedly being ‘principally the identical’ as the primary. Astral Chain was directed by Takahisa Taura, alongside Nintendo’s Kaori Ando and Makato Okazaki.
A yr later in 2023, nonetheless, it’s claimed Astral Chain writer Nintendo ‘rebooted’ the sequel as a result of ‘important delays’ and ‘cash being recklessly spent’ at PlatinumGames, with the intention of it being a Swap 2 title.
Whereas the supply doesn’t know what occurred to the sport after it was allegedly rebooted, they declare Platinum ‘was participating in discussions to retain the sport’s improvement, as Nintendo was threatening at hand the venture (or a part of it) over to a different exterior studio’.
Since Astral Chain 2 has by no means been formally introduced it’s essential to take all this with an enormous grain of salt. Nintendo does personal the Astral Chain IP although, so it’s actually attainable {that a} sequel is in improvement with out Platinum’s involvement.
The massive thriller in all that is the whereabouts of Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura. He was imagined to have left Platinum final yr, after eradicating the studio from his Twitter profile, however that is unconfirmed.
His Fb profile lists him as working at Eel Sport Studio although, which seems to be a brand new enterprise in Tokyo, primarily based on firm listings.
If there’s fact to this hearsay, it’s attainable Taura might be engaged on the sequel to Astral Chain at this new enterprise in partnership with Nintendo. GameCentral has reached out to PlatinumGames and Taura for remark.
Whereas it’s unclear if a sequel to Astral Chain is in improvement, Taura mentioned the unique sport bought higher than anticipated. In June 2020, it had bought 1.14 million copies, which is larger than most Platinum titles, in order that actually seems like sufficient motivation for a follow-up.
Except for Ninja Gaiden 4, we all know little about what PlatinumGames is engaged on subsequent. The studio beforehand introduced Venture G.G., but it surely’s unclear whether it is nonetheless in improvement following director Kamiya’s exit.
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