A mysterious “Platinum 4” website teaser has been launched by Platinum Games and it’s got the Internet in a tizzy trying to figure out what it means. Are we getting a new Bayonetta game? Something new in the NieR: Automata universe? Or is it something else entirely?
The Platinum 4 website is pretty barebones at the moment. It features the Platinum Games logo at the top left of the screen, a large number 4, and four stars surrounding the number. The source code has nothing of interest in it, either. Interestingly, Platinum Games may have teased something about The Wonderful 101 recently as evidenced by this picture featuring that game’s director (and legendary gaming Twitter figure) Hideki Kamiya:
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Speculation is running rampant, but one of the most interesting theories I’ve heard is right in the replies to the tweet that announced this teaser website.
“4 is for four-leaf CLOVER, which was the studio many Platinum folk worked under Capcom,” read a tweet from @OcTokoro. “Thus this announcement is obviously hinting at Platinum acquiring Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand licenses.”
Indeed, Clover Studio has been the source of quite a few interesting games in its short life. Here’s what they made:
- Viewtiful Joe (GameCube, PS2)
- Viewtiful Joe 2 (GameCube, PS2)
- Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble (GameCube, PSP)
- Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! (DS)
- Okami (PS2)
- God Hand (PS2)
Notably, The Wonderful 101 isn’t included on that list. That game was published by Nintendo rather than Capcom, but it bears many similarities to Viewtiful Joe.
Platinum 4 teaser aside, what’s fueling this speculation? Earlier this year, Platinum Games confirmed that Tencent had invested in them, a move that gives them the opportunity to expand their development operations. It’s possible that they may have used a portion of this cash injection to acquire older IP that many of their current employees had a hand in.
Porting older games to start things off would certainly require fewer staff than a larger project. Platinum Games has a pretty hefty catalog to pull from, and the newer architecture of this generation and the next generation of consoles would make it much easier to launch multi-platform releases.
In any case, people are likely going to be speculating what this Platinum 4 teaser means for the next few days. Whatever it will be, it’s sure to be filled with spectacular action!
