Hideki Kamiya of PlatinumGames has explained the purpose behind the investment the company received from Tencent, which has more to do with mobile games than with console titles.
PlatinumGames has worked with a number of different publishers over the years, including Microsoft, Nintendo, and Square Enix. The issue that the company has had with these partnerships is that the publishers own rights to different PlatinumGames franchises. As such, Platinum decided to move into self-publishing its games, which was kicked off with the Kickstarter project for The Wonderful 101: Remastered. Despite this, Platinum still has plans to develop games based on its previous franchises, including Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch.
It was revealed earlier this year that Platinum was able to move into self-publishing with the aid of Chinese gaming/media company Tencent, though the details of this partnership weren't specified at the time. Hideki Kamiya has clarified the deal between Platinum and Tencent on his Twitter page. According to Kamiya, the deal is all about mobile games.
Kamiya has claimed that Tencent's investment is all about letting Platinum create whatever games that they want. In exchange, Tencent wants priority when it comes to creating mobile games based on these new properties. Tencent wants Platinum to make top-quality titles that can be expanded into franchises and drum up interest in mobile games.
Platinum has produced some incredible titles over the years and it's exciting to see what games the developers within the company will make, now that they have total creative freedom. If Platinum produces some amazing games, then Tencent's deal will have paid off for everyone involved. There is always the concern that any restrictions the publishers had on the projects created by Platinum in the past were part of what made them so great, but we'll have to wait and see. The producers at Platinum now have the chance to make whatever kind of games they want, so it will be interesting to see what they do with this freedom.
Source: Hideki Kamiya/Twitter