Bayonetta 2 director Yusuke Hashimoto left Platinum Games

After the announcement of the Astral Chain action, the Osaka studio Platinum Games reported unexpected news: Yusuke Hashimoto left the team after almost thirteen years of work. 

The information that Yusuke Hashimoto removed all references to Platinum Games and Bayonetta 3 from his Twitter profile, which became the basis for rumours about leaving the studio, appeared earlier on the ResetEra forum. He has officially confirmed this information yesterday in his Twitter.

Hashimoto was considered by many to be the successor of the legendary Hideki Kamiya and one of the most reliable developers in the company, where he spent 12 years since 2007. Hashimoto doesn’t talk about the reasons for leaving, but he speaks warmly of his former colleagues and assures that the memories of the production of Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2 and Star Fox Zero are invaluable to him. Yusuke doesn’t specify his plans.

Before PlatinumGames, Hashimoto worked at Capcom, where he participated in the development of the Resident Evil, Devil May Cry series and other games. Yusuke Hashimoto was the producer of the original Bayonetta and the director of Bayonetta 2 and Star Fox Zero. Taking into account that Hashimoto had a connection with the Bayonetta series, it would be logical to think that he participated in the third part development. Nintendo claimed in the latest broadcast of Nintendo Direct that the development of Bayonetta 3 continues. It looks like the team can deal without Hashimoto, and the game won’t be restarted, as it happened with Metroid Prime 4. Bayonetta 3 has no exact release date yet.

Bayonetta 3 was announced during the Game Awards 2017 ceremony along with the first two games reissuing for the Nintendo Switch. Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 appeared on a hybrid platform in February 2018.