Astral Chain, a 2019 action-adventure hack and slash game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, is reportedly now owned by Nintendo.
Earlier this month, fans noticed that Astral Chain’s copyright notice no longer mentioned PlatinumGames. When studio head Atsushi Inaba was asked by VGC about the change, he responded, “It’s as it is written on the website: Astral Chain is their IP and as such there are limitations on how much we feel we should talk about.”
Set in a dystopian future, Astral Chain, which was directed by Takahisa Taura, follows a special police task force that protects remaining humans from extraterrestial creatures that invade Earth. The game has been critically acclaimed for its dual-character gameplay, world building, presentation, customization, and soundtrack.
When asked about Taura’s future, Inaba told VGC, “It feels like he has lots of ideas, lots of things that he likes and wants to try out and there’s a lot that we want him to do. It could be him wanting to do his own thing, something like Astral Chain again, or it could be somebody coming to us and saying, ‘we really like Taura and we want to do something with him’ like what we did with Nier. So, there are a lot of ways his career could take off.”
Astral Chain was Taura’s directorial debut. He had previously designed NieR: Automata. Since its release in August 2019, the game has sold more than one million copies, making it one of Platinum’s most successful original game launches. In a 2019 interview Taura said he would like to develop a sequel, telling Malaysian site Bunny Gaming: “I do have a lot of ideas at my disposal and if there’s an opportunity to make a sequel or more entries, I’d be able to do so.”
The game, which has sold 1.08 million copies worldwide as of March 2020, was nominated for Nintendo Game of the Year at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards and for Best Action Game at The Game Awards 2019. In its review, TheGamer wrote, “Astral Chain is another epic home run for PlatinumGames and is probably the most fun action title of 2019 thus far.”
Source: VGC