Nintendo's Former Managing Director Joins PlatinumGames

Nintendo's former managing director of sales, planning, and strategy has joined Bayonetta and Nier: Automata developer PlatinumGames as vice president.

Announced in a Famitsu article featured on Platinum's website, Takao Yamane will also take on the role of chief business officer after spending his last 27 years at Nintendo. Yamane became managing director back in March 2004, meaning he was there for the release of the Nintendo DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and Switch. He had other roles at the company previously, including as vice president of Nintendo France.

Yamane made clear he didn't leave Nintendo with any ill-feelings, but he had just turned 50 and wanted a new challenge. "My resignation was very smooth," he said. "My desire to take on something new and what PlatinumGames was aiming to do lined up perfectly. And to be perfectly honest, I felt like my last company would be perfectly fine without me."

Platinum has been steadily expanding in the last few years but the company isn't ready to stop yet, as its goals are "simply not possible with the numbers we have now", Yamane said. "I’m building an organization capable of tangible action from the ground up," which includes "self-publishing and promoting Project G.G. and other titles globally".

Nintendo's philosophy of prioritising game development over sales will also be brought over. "When it comes to sales and development, development takes priority," Yamane said. "Even if I come up with a schedule and think, 'this will be a hit,' if [vice president and chief game designer] Kamiya says 'sorry, but development is running six months late,' I’ll just smile and say, 'I understand'."

Platinum currently has two games in development that we know of: Bayonetta 3 for Nintendo Switch (which arrives this October) and the aforementioned Project G.G. The latter is the developer's first self-published game, and Yamane promised more details would be revealed about it in June next year.

Thumbnail Image Credit: PlatinumGames

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.