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Kamiya on his fears of working with Nintendo, Bayonetta 2 backlash
A portion of a Nintendo Life interview with Hideki Kamiya...
NL: When it became clear that Wonderful 101 would be a Nintendo project, what were your expectations for working directly with Nintendo?
Kamiya: I’d say rather than having anticipation or expectation for Nintendo I was filled with a lot of worries about what it would be like to work with them. Nintendo has this track record and this huge library of very successful titles, so I sort of expected Nintendo to come with all of this user research or very strong analytics about how game design led to certain sales results. I was expecting to receive these data-based instructions for how to go forward with the game, but in actuality working with Mr. Yamagami and his staff at Nintendo, it really was a mutually beneficial relationship; it felt like craftsmen working together to mutually make the game better. In the end, everyone was really happy with the relationship. It exceeded my expectations.
NL: When Bayonetta 2 was announced as a Wii U exclusive, the Internet sort of melted down. What was the mood inside Platinum at that time?
Kamiya: Frankly, I was pretty shocked by a lot of the voices heard on the Internet after the announcement. We were making progress with the game with Sega, but certain circumstances (led to it) getting shelved. There was a lot of disappointment regarding the fact that Bayonetta 2 wouldn’t see the light of day. We really wanted to be able to make that game, and so the opportunity came up from Nintendo to work together and make Bayonetta 2.
There was a combination of being really thankful for Nintendo’s support in the efforts, and there was also this large feeling of relief going from the disappointment of not being able to make the game to suddenly being in an opportunity to make the fanbase happy that a sequel to one of their favorite games is going to be coming out.
After the announcement, the disappointment from the fans, that was a little bit hard to take. It was also hard and unfair that a lot of that negative energy was directed at Nintendo too. I was left in a little bit of shock based on the Internet’s reaction to it.
Full interview here
NL: When it became clear that Wonderful 101 would be a Nintendo project, what were your expectations for working directly with Nintendo?
Kamiya: I’d say rather than having anticipation or expectation for Nintendo I was filled with a lot of worries about what it would be like to work with them. Nintendo has this track record and this huge library of very successful titles, so I sort of expected Nintendo to come with all of this user research or very strong analytics about how game design led to certain sales results. I was expecting to receive these data-based instructions for how to go forward with the game, but in actuality working with Mr. Yamagami and his staff at Nintendo, it really was a mutually beneficial relationship; it felt like craftsmen working together to mutually make the game better. In the end, everyone was really happy with the relationship. It exceeded my expectations.
NL: When Bayonetta 2 was announced as a Wii U exclusive, the Internet sort of melted down. What was the mood inside Platinum at that time?
Kamiya: Frankly, I was pretty shocked by a lot of the voices heard on the Internet after the announcement. We were making progress with the game with Sega, but certain circumstances (led to it) getting shelved. There was a lot of disappointment regarding the fact that Bayonetta 2 wouldn’t see the light of day. We really wanted to be able to make that game, and so the opportunity came up from Nintendo to work together and make Bayonetta 2.
There was a combination of being really thankful for Nintendo’s support in the efforts, and there was also this large feeling of relief going from the disappointment of not being able to make the game to suddenly being in an opportunity to make the fanbase happy that a sequel to one of their favorite games is going to be coming out.
After the announcement, the disappointment from the fans, that was a little bit hard to take. It was also hard and unfair that a lot of that negative energy was directed at Nintendo too. I was left in a little bit of shock based on the Internet’s reaction to it.