PlatinumGames is seemingly working on another online action game, according to a new job listing.
The listing, as spotted by Tech4Gamers, is for a game designer for an upcoming new title, suggesting it’s still in the early stages of development.
While the majority of the job listing from the Bayonetta studio features the typical requirements expected of any game designer role, there are two points in the ‘desired skills’ section that appear to suggest the game will have online elements.
According to the listing, the ideal candidate for the role will have “experience in online action game development” and “experience in stage composition (level design work) for online or open field games”.
Both points seem to point to an action game with an online open-world element, which is particularly notable given that Platinum‘s last attempt at such an experience was a flop.
Babylon’s Fall, released in 2022, was an online action RPG which was widely panned by critics when it launched and struggled to attract an audience. Six months after its release, publisher Square Enix confirmed that the game would be shutting down and that the “large-scale update” planned for it had been cancelled, a move that angered its small community of players given that the game cost $60.
Despite what can only be described as a disastrous first attempt at a live service game, Platinum CEO Atsushi Inaba told VGC later in 2022 that it hadn’t affected the studio’s plans to make more live service games in the future.
Inaba claimed that restrictions around the publishing arrangement prevented him from commenting in detail on Babylon’s Fall, but his comments to VGC appeared to imply that working with Square Enix had a negative impact on the game’s development given that Platinum and Square Enix seemingly had different strategies for the game’s success.
“There’s a lot that we learned from this experience, and it’s not changed our future plans or outlook moving forward regarding doing live service games at all. Live service games are definitely something we do want to do and put our effort in moving forward,” Inaba told us at the time.
“There are two pillars, so to speak, that we can look at internally for our development teams, that being the people within the same company. The first is just the sheer fun of the core game mechanics that you have in the live service game and secondly, performing the live service itself.
“I think these two pillars are values that need to be strongly connected internally, and need to be viewed, treasured, and valued by the same people, on the same team, at the very same company. Otherwise, if one of these is valued over the other or if they’re not connected, things usually don’t turn out the way we would have wanted them to. We want to focus on keeping that connection and that balance between those two pillars moving forward.”
Platinum is currently collaborating with Team Ninja on the upcoming Ninja Gaiden 4, which is set for release in Fall 2025 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
