Hideki Kamiya announces plans to leave PlatinumGames next month

PlatinumGames has announced that its founder, Hideki Kamiya, will leave his position in the company on October 12, 2023. A statement that has left the entire video game industry in shock, as Kamiya is considered one of the great minds to have passed through the medium in recent decades. A figure capable of standing out on all possible fronts and launching a multitude of works, each one more original and different. The future of the designer is unknown, although many dream of a return to Capcom, the company where he was born.

Kamiya, Video Game Industry Legend

Capcom, Clover Studio, PlatinumGames. Hideki Kamiya’s resume is impeccable, full of quality, charisma and unforgettable games. A legend who joined Capcom in the 90′s and has worked on such outstanding sagas as Resident Evil, being the director of its second part, as well as the first Devil May Cry. From establishing survival horror with one of its greatest exponents to defining a genre such as hack and slash with the first DMC, two very different fronts in which he demonstrated his great capacity as a designer.

Versatility, imagination, fun... There are many adjectives we could use to define Kamiya’s career. At Clover Studio, he was able to work magic with Viewtiful Joe and Okami, using cel-shading like never before: from one comic style to another that mimicked painting with brush and ink. Anything was possible in Kamiya’s mind, and at PlatinumGames he gave us gems like Bayonetta, for many the definitive hack and slash with one of the most charismatic characters in memory, and The Wonderful 101, another miracle within reach of very few designers: an original game full of possibilities and great ideas.

At a time in the industry when most AAA games seem to be constrained, Kamiya tried to break the mold with tremendously original ideas and even indulged in some whims. Proof of this is Sol Cresta, one of his latest releases, a new installment in a mythical SHMUP saga, a reference genre that decades ago was one of the pillars of many large companies, but today is reserved for studios of a more independent character. Even there Kamiya proves to be different, and is that this great spirit of video games does not leave anyone indifferent.