Platinum Games co-founder Hideki Kamiya announced last month he was departing from the studio. Having founded it in 2006 in Osaka, Japan, later working on games like Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101, he left his reason for leaving up in the air. He simply said, “This came after a lot of consideration based on my own beliefs” and that he feels “this outcome is for the best.” Now, just a few weeks later, Kamiya has started a YouTube channel – aptly called “Hideki Kamiya Channel” – and in his first video, he reveals he’s not retiring, as first reported by VideoGamesChronicle.
In the video, we see Kamiya presumably leaving his office with a box of knick-knacks and more in hand before leaving in a Lamborghini. In the first video, he talks about how he’s currently unemployed, joking that people need to subscribe to his channel. VideoGamesChronicle reports that Kamiya says he actually hasn’t been to work for a while.
“I think it’s been about three months since I decided to quit,” he says, as translated by VideoGamesChronicle. “Once I decided to leave, I had to clean up all these toys and stuff like that. Once I finished cleaning, I was at home with my paid vacation.”
When discussing why he left, he says “there’s no way I can put it,” leaving the reason why ambiguous. However, he goes on to say, “I left the company because I wanted to follow my beliefs as a game creator [to] choose the path I think is right and move on. Yeah, so I’m not going to retire yet. I want to keep creating games.”
As for now, though, Kamiya says he can’t work in games for a year due to “reasons,” presumably non-compete clauses attached to his departure from Platinum Games, VideoGamesChronicle notes.
For more, read about Kamiya’s departure announcement.
Kamiya founded Platinum Games alongside Shinji Mikami, who is no longer there and departed from Tango Gameworks earlier this year. Some fans hope Kamiya and Mikami will reunite, although there’s no indication they will at this point. Kamiya’s idea to make a YouTube channel is similar to that of Masahiro Sakurai, who created the Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games YouTube channel while spending some time off of work following the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate earlier in the Switch’s lifecycle.
[Source: VideoGamesChronicle]
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