Platinum Games' Inaba And Kamiya On Wonderful 101's Switch Kickstarter

Way back in September we had the chance to sit down with Platinum Games’ Atsushi Inaba and Hideky Kamiya to discuss the impending Kickstarter campaign for Wonderful 101 Remastered, a port of the former-Wii U exclusive that will now be coming to Switch–the campaign was fully funded in less than 30 minutes, and other platforms are now on the table as stretch goals.

Since our interview, a lot has changed for Platinum, insomuch as Tencent has stepped in with an investment in the company and its future projects. It was a surprising development at the time the news broke, and has since been met with concern by people who are wary of Tencent’s continued march into big, well-known game studios and publishers. How it will play out is anyone’s guess, but Wonderful 101 Remastered’s Kickstarter campaign seems to have launched without a hitch.

With the shifting state of Platinum’s involvement with the likes of Tencent and Nintendo, some of the interview below may not align with current plans, but it’s a good indicator of Platinum’s approach to its catalog of legacy titles and its view of crowdfunding, both as creators and customers. The following text has been edited for clarity and flow.

Do you have any hesitation about crowdfunding in general?

Inaba: It’s our first time, so yes, there’s a bit of concern. However, we want the game to reach more users than it did on Wii U, so we have a lot of confidence in our fans and that the project will raise enough money to reach our goal, and ultimately reach a lot of people.

Kamiya: As the game’s director, I have a lot of confidence in it. I would like to bring it to Switch, that’s my main goal. In terms of stretch goals, that’s where I’m really interested to see how passionate fans are and what other platforms they’ll get it to.

As the director, now that the game has been out for a few years, is there anything about the game that you would change?

Kamiya: I think that the game already has a lot of content and I’m very satisfied with it. If there’s anything I would like to add or change, it would be tweaking a few things. Perhaps, make the interface easier for players. In addition, though I can’t say too much about the stretch goals at this point, there could be some for adding features or modes.

Is there anything that must change, given that you’re porting it from the Wii U to more traditional consoles?

Inaba: The original game was designed for two screens, but there won’t need to be major changes–just enough to make it playable for one screen.

Have either of you ever Kickstarted things in the past?

Inaba: I have done a few small things, not game related.

Kamiya: I supported the Flip Grip.

What about your peers that might have run crowdfunding campaigns in the past. Have they given you any boosts of confidence to pursue this for Wonderful 101?

Inaba: In particular, we were really impressed by Bloodstained, from IGA. I was really impressed that he was able to interact with backers and incorporate their feedback during development of the game. I thought it looked really fun, so I hope I can do the same with our fans.

Kamiya, you definitely have an interesting relationship with your fans online. Are you going to be interacting with them directly during this campaign?

Kamiya: Yes, I do, and I look forward to more of that. I can’t talk too much about the details about the campaign, but there should be a stretch goal that should be good for the fans that deals with me interacting with them.

What’s your overall outlook about the video game business of today? Crowdfunding is a bit unusual for Platinum. Is this a positive opportunity, or is it just a necessary step?

Inaba: So, the fact is that we are just developers. While many people have this grand image of Platinum, we do not have the efforts to self-publish. So, what we would like to do is unite the fans together to get this out.

Are there any other games that you would like to revive in the future?

Inaba: I think this is a special case. We wanted to bring back Wonderful 101, so, we’re glad Nintendo is allowing us to do this. In the future, we’ll have to see how this one goes and we may consider another in the future.

As developers, to what extent do you think you look back vs forward, and how much of that is due to personal versus business reasons?

Inaba: We are looking towards the future. As creators, we want to make something new. We consider W101 to be a particular case. We just feel that it didn’t quite reach the users we think it deserved. We do plan to continue moving forward with bigger and better things.