This is a question I often see come up on VGC hence I thought a bit about it, and here's what I came up with.

1. Platinum's first major HD game suffered huge technical problems on its biggest platform: Bayonetta suffered major technical problems which effected its gameplay on PS3. The big problem was that most of Bayonetta's customers bought the PS3 version, which probably made them look at Platinum as a poor developer.

2. Platinum's games are short: Gamer's today seem to care far more about quantity than quality, and that's a problem for Platinum as their games are very good but also very short. Their games are usually 10 hours long, but one of their games MGR: R is just 5 hours long, with most of that time being cutscenes. That stops many people from buying their games even if they really want to play it.

3. Platinum's games are of niche genres: Most of Platinum's games are hack n slash, which is a very niche genre. The only mainstream game series in the genre is God Of War, even though their are many other series of this genre. The one which aren't hack n slash, like Wonderful 101 are even more niche. Platinum needs to broaden their appeal.

tag.

It's "biggest" platform wasn't the lead platform, I believe the port wasn't even done by Platinum if I'm not mistaken.

I thought Platinum had a pretty good rep as a devs.

Well, most of their games are pretty niche, with all things considered Rising and Bayonetta did decently. Nothing wrong with that as long as they can make a profit.

They don't appeal to wide audiences; games are pretty niche.

hmmmm...

The only thing I see is that their WiiU exclusives underperform.

Their past games sold ok.

Bayonetta1 around 2.1mil
Vanquish around 1mil
MG:R around 1.60mil

For a Western dev, selling 3mil+ is a commercial success and deserves a sequel. For Platinum, they probably use less budget per game so the bar is lower.

Their games are pretty niche.. I think we can all agree on that.

niche aside, people care more about hype and "brand-name" (or IPs, really) than quality, and I think that contributes. it's why Nintendo has to keep milking Mario, Activision CoD, Ubisoft AC, etc.

Yeah I know PS3 wasn't its lead platform but that is where Bayonetta sold the most, and that's exactly where they missed the mark. That was my point, most of the people who played Bayonetta played it on PS3 and it left a bad impression on them.

It's still got their name on it.  Handing a port off to the publisher does not absolve a developer of responsibility, as they're still getting money from it.  That's why they called it their biggest failure.  The average consumer isn't going to read up about it being the publisher's fault, they're just going to conclude that it was a crappy game.

As far as Bayonetta goes, its legacy is always going to be that of an IP that was held back by being goofy as hell.  It's not that hack 'n slash is necessarily niche, it's that they made it niche by wrapping it in something akin to a supernatural Barbarella.

The flopping of the W101 is a shame, though.  I still think it could have performed much better in the west with a strong advertising campaign.