Recently, Reddit user PlatinumGamesFanboy spotted that several members of PlatinumGames have potentially left the company.
To be more precise, Kenji Saito (Metal Gear Rising’s director), Takahisa Taura (Astral Chain’s director), Masaki Yamanaka (Anarchy Reigns’ director) and Abebe Tinari (Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon’s director) may have left the company. On their social media accounts, they have removed any mention of being part of PlatinumGames’s staff.
What’s particularly concerning about this is that all of the above people are all credited as directors in their respective games, according to the MobyGames database. As of the time of writing, it is unknown whether they’ve all willingly left the company, or if they’ve been left go as part of an internal company structuring. Neither PlatinumGames or the individuals in question have made any comment on the matter.
Some users have speculated that Takahisa Taura in particular may have left for Nintendo’s EPD team, due to his work in Astral Chain, and since Nintendo has full ownership of the IP, he might be the one that could direct a sequel title, which has been highly requested by fans. Another user suggests that since Taura is credited for his work in NieR: Automata and Final Fantasy XVI, that he might have also joined Square Enix.
As for Abebe Tinari however, he made a post today on Bluesky with a video of him changing his profile to say “director based in Helsinki (the capital of Finland)”, instead of Osaka, which is where PlatinumGames’ headquarters are.
