Summary
Hideki Kamiyahas officially launched his own YouTube channel to keep fans posted regarding the next steps in his career. This comes shortlyafter his surprise departure from Platinum Games.
Kamiya is best known for co-founding Platinum Games in 2007 alongside Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Tatsuya Minami. Priding itself on its quality action games and unorthodox gameplay and game design conventions, the studio is known for its original IPs such asBayonettaandThe Wonderful 101, both created by Kamiya himself, and also for collaborating with bigger studios on some installments of their own series, such asMetal Gear Rising: Revengeancefor Konami andStar Fox Zerofor Nintendo. Kamiya is also well-known for his blunt yet humorous attitude and the strict rules regarding how fans can respond to him on social media, which at timeshas garnered him some controversy.
Kamiya leftPlatinum Gamesearlier this year after 15 years with the company, and now he has his own YouTube channel, whose nearly 10-minute debut video explains his plans for the future. In it, he explains that he left his old job because he feels it wasn’t the right path for his career, and has no plans to retire from game design for good. However, he is currently forced into paid vacation time as due to a non-compete clause in his contract, he is unable to work for another video game studio for another year. Likewise, he has no game announcements to make for the foreseeable future, but he is looking forward to returning to game development.
While Kamiya himself seems to be happy with his decision, this does cast some doubt on the future of what he’s leaving behind.Project GGis still dwelling in the shadows with minimal updates on its development, and Kamiya previously expressedplans for many moreBayonettagamesprior to his departure. Historically, however, it has been shown that some game series can maintain their quality without their original producers (Kirbypost Sakurai’s departure, someMariogames with Miyamoto in a lessened role, etc.), so perhaps Kamiya’s legacy remains in good hands.
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