Bayonetta Veteran Confirms PlatinumGames Departure

Image: PlatinumGames

The Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames reportedly said goodbye to multiple veterans (including Hideki Kamiya) last year.

Now, in another studio update, it's been confirmed the Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon director Abebe Tinari has also left. According to his LinkedIn, he's moved on to PlayStation's Housemarque (Returnal) as a lead game designer.

He was at PlatinumGames for more than a decade and also worked on games like Star Fox Guard (including system design, enemy design and UI specification) and Bayonetta 2 (localisation) for the Wii U.

This update follows the news last month about Tinari removing his references to PlatinumGames on social media. At the time, he also acknowledged the speculation about some "directors departing PlatinumGames" mentioning how "games are not made by a single person" and signing off with the following:

"There are many talented Artists, Designers, Programmers, and Musicians still at PlatinumGames. I suggest you do not count them out yet. I can’t wait to see what they do next!"

Bayonetta Origins was released exclusively on the Switch in 2023 and is an action-adventure storybook-style game acting as a prequel to the main trilogy.

In some other Platinum news, the developer yesterday announced it would conduct a year-long event focused on the original Bayonetta to celebrate 15 years. Bayonetta's creator Hideki Kamiya left the studio last year, announcing he was working on a new Okami game in cooperation with Capcom.