Platinum Games, the developer behind Bayonetta and Vanquish, among others, has become a popular choice for publishers looking to spice up a franchise by handing the reigns over to a third-party developer. While the unique aesthetic and gameplay sensibility reflects the developer’s original vision, Platinum Games CEO Tatsuya Minami explained that the studio had originally planned to stick to its own ideas, but left that aspect of its vision behind to become the company it is today.
“We used to have the idea that we wanted to be a studio that only made 100 percent original games,” Platinum Games CEO Tatsuya Minami said, according to Kotaku. “However, it turns out that only doing that is considerably difficult, and so now we take on various work.”
From 2009 to 2012, Platinum only made original IP, including the original Bayonetta. In 2013, the game applied its signature fast-paced action mechanics to its first third-party collaboration, the Metal Gear spin-off, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Since then, the studio has adapted a number of popular franchises in its house style, such as The Legend of Korra and Transformers, while working on original titles, such as Wii U exclusives Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 100. While taking on work related to previously established franchises generally leads to publishing constraints, Platinum Game Director Eiro Shirahama said the studio’s reputation has afforded them artistic freedom that other work-for-hire developers generally don’t receive.
“The IP holders also are like ‘Let Platinum Games do what they do for the action parts,’” Shirahama said, “so we are given tremendous freedom with development.”
Taking on projects for other publishers has allowed the studio to expand from 60 people to 180, who are currently working on four games, Star Fox Zero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, Nier: Automata, and Scalebound.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.