Forbes: Angry 'Bayonetta' Fans Lash Out At Platinum Games Over Wii U Exclusivity

[F0X]

binary solo said:

lilbroex said:

News that ‘Bayonetta 2′ is coming only to Nintendo’s next-gen Wii U has some fans up in arms. 

 

After all, Platinum Games only had two choices in this scenario: They could either not make a sequel, or they could bring the sequel to the Wii U as an exclusive. Either way, non-Wii U owners are out of luck. Given their options, I think Platinum Games did the right thing.

Well, no they didn't only have 2 choices. The third option was to convince Sega that Bayonetta 2 would be a viable 3-console + PC multiplat. Evidently Sega are either really smart or really stupid for rejectiong PG on this. We'll see I guess.

I also dispute the claim that PG did the right thng. Arguably PG should recognise that Bayonetta is a franchise with limited appeal in a genre that really struggles to get really high sales. Basically, God of War and Devil May Cry are the only comparable franchises that have met with big success. And this gen DMC has fallen well behind. So that leaves God of War as the lone big selling H'n'S game. So PG, from a business perspective, could have been better off putting its resources into something else.

If PG was smart (which they possibly aren't) they should have got themselves an out clause to allow them to publish on other consoles if certain sales levels aren't achieved: e.g. if B2 gets at least an 80 Metascore and sells less than 1.5 million in a year then we get to try to put the game on other systems.

That way if B2 sells like Madworld it would still give PG a chance to get some sales from a fairly cheap porting process. And it gives them the choice of either old gen console or new, given 1 year after launch on Wii U it will be PS4/720 launch time.

The problem isn't whether Bayonetta 2 would be viable as a multiplatform game. The problem is that a sequel to Bayonetta is an expensive prospect with less return than, say, something with Sonic or Mario or the Olympics in the title. It really comes down to SEGA's own internal logic. What kinds of games do they want to produce? How do they reduce publishing costs? The answer, according to SEGA, is to find a capable publishing partner. Both SEGA and Platinum Games have a history with Nintendo, and it's possible that Nintendo cut them a better deal than the other options (such as, say, taking on full publishing duties and marketing the game as a must-have Wii U exclusive).

In short I believe that if anyone is to be blamed for Bayonetta 2 not being multiplatform it's SEGA for (perhaps unreasonably) not wanting to publish the game without a partner, and once again SEGA for choosing Nintendo. Or maybe we can blame Platinum Games anyway because Inaba is a Nintendo fan (especially Star Fox) and therefore probably would not strongly object to this at all.