PlatinumGames, the developer of Bayonetta, NieR: Automata, Astral Chain, and several other cult classics, has ambitious plans for its future. Earlier this year, Platinum announced a fiscal partnership with Chinese megacorporation Tencent, stating that it intends for their alliance to solely fund better games, and not influence future creative decisions. Since then, with newfound money in its metaphorical pocket, the company has announced a remote development hub located in Tokyo, away from its HQ in Osaka. Now, amidst a new series of statements and interviews from various PlatinumGames team members, the company has revealed that it's currently developing its own game engine, with the intent to use it to make its biggest games yet.
Details about the engine can do, so far, understandably scarce. That said, two members of the development team behind it, Wataru Ohmori and Tsuyoshi Odera, have provided some preliminary information about its general capabilities and their design philosophy.
This is, Ohmori explains, not the first time PlatinumGames has used an in-house engine. However, the company decided to start from scratch and develop something entirely new for future projects after finding both the in-house engine the company has used since it was founded as well as available third-party engines to all be inadequate for the games they have planned for the future.
Odera then explains that, when discussing a game engine, many people's first and foremost consideration is its oftentimes its graphical capabilities. While he does promise that graphics are a priority for PlatinumGames' new engine, they're not first on their list of priorities. Rather, good gameplay is their primary goal, with graphics to match its gameplay capabilities to follow.
Work on the engine first began two years ago, and is currently being developed by a team of six or seven. While action games are PlatinumGames' bread and butter and will continue to be, Ohmori explains that it's not prescriptive of their engine's capabilities. It's conducive to action, but something "completely different, with action elements" isn't out of the question, at least in terms of types of games the engine is capable of powering. The full set of statements and interviews includes a lot more information about PlatinumGames future as a AAA game development company, from its president, studio head and others.
Source: PlatinumGames