Director Hideki Kamiya has revealed the reasoning behind Bayonetta 3‘s silence in the game’s development. Kamiya has been giving out several statements in the last few weeks about the game, such as saying that it won’t be shown until it’s ready. This could be considered the most amount of information revealed about the game since its announcement in 2017.
Bayonetta 3 is in the same boat as Metroid Prime 4 of Nintendo games that are seemingly in release limbo. Ever since the game’s announcement at the 2017 Game Awards, nothing has been revealed about the game itself beyond the teaser trailer. Hideki Kamiya has occasionally commented on the game since then, often stating that development is going “very well” for the game and to not worry about the game being canceled, but with how quiet PlatinumGames has been on the title, it’s hard to not get at least a little nervous about the state of the game.
But now, there might be an idea as to why Kamiya has been so tight-lipped on Bayonetta 3. A VideoGamesChronicle interview with Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba from a week ago already had Hideki Kamiya comment that “maybe we should all reset and forget about Bayonetta 3. Then when something finally does happen, it will be a nice surprise, won’t it?” However, that same interview also has Kamiya talk about Project G.G. described as a Kaiju-brawler game, and his comments about the project inadvertently give an explanation as to why he can’t talk about Bayonetta 3. Since PlatinumGames will be self-publishing Project G.G., Kamiya said that “since we’re self-publishing, there are no publishers to get mad at me this time, so I’ll be sharing things online, putting up screenshots whenever I like…” Inaba went on to say that “We don’t have that much say over projects that we’re not publishing. And we understand different titles require different approaches, so we respect the publisher’s decisions.”
Unlike Project G.G., Bayonetta 3 is being published by Nintendo. These comments from Kamiya suggest that he can’t talk about Bayonetta 3 due to this difference in publisher. While Kamiya wasn’t explicitly referring to Bayonetta 3 in this statement, this explanation would make sense as to why Kamiya has said statements such as that he “hopes” to have something about Bayonetta 3 released this year. He also stated in that same interview when asked about providing an update on the game that “It’s not really our position to say…” From this, it seems clear that PlatinumGames doesn’t have full control over what they can talk about with Bayonetta 3.
Given that Bayonetta has remained a Nintendo exclusive series for some time, it also makes sense to treat it like Nintendo’s other IPs. Nintendo often stays quiet with its first-party titles and waits till a Nintendo Direct or E3 to release a bombshell of information on the game. It’s likely that Nintendo is using a similar strategy for Bayonetta 3, with having PlatinumGames focus on development until both Platinum and Nintendo feels that it’s ready to be showcased. The state of Bayonetta 3 is still unknown, but hopefully, when the game is ready to be showcased it will receive a grand reveal that will please the many waiting fans.
