Kamiya talks new studio: and how it values his creativity in ways PlatinumGames couldn’t

In one of the most surprising announcements in video game history, Capcom recently revealed that an Okami sequel is currently in production. But what’s especially mind-blowing is that the director of the original game, Hideki Kamiya, returned to the company after having left 18 years ago, when he helped create PlatinumGames.

Per Automaton Media, Kamiya sat down to talk with Denfaminicogamer alongside his former PlatinumGames colleague Kenta Koyama. Together, they discussed the creation of their new studio CLOVERS, an obvious reference to Clover Studios, the defunct Capcom subsidiary behind Okami, Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. To no one’s surprise, Kamiya himself came up with the new studio’s name.

Both developers explained that CLOVERS is made up of “4 Cs” that represent its current philosophy: Challenge, Creativity, and Craftsmanship. They had a very hard time deciding what the fourth and final C was going to be, but they eventually realized that it should represent each employee’s “individual C”. For example, Kamiya’s fourth C is curiosity, while Koyama’s is cleanness.

With this unique naming scheme (which is present all over CLOVERS’ official website) they are cementing how important each member’s creativity and individuality is going to be from the get-go, and it’s evident that the decisions of higher-ups have affected these two veteran game developers in the past.

Why did Hideki Kamiya leave PlatinumGames?

Hideki Kamiya infamously left PlatinumGames back in 2023. His sudden departure was a huge surprise because he was one of the studio’s original founders back in 2006, not to mention that he worked in the development of their biggest hits, like the Bayonetta series and The Wonderful 101. While he vaguely explained why he left on his YouTube channel on a few occasions, he finally gave a concrete explanation for his departure in this new interview.

Kamiya told Denfaminicogamer that his creative ideas did not match the current direction that PlatinumGames was going towards, so he spent 3 months arguing with CEO Atsushi Inaba, and they couldn’t reach a compromise that would satisfy them both. After thinking about it thoroughly, he finally decided to leave the company in October 2023, even though he had no idea what he was going to do after that. That’s why he constantly called himself “unemployed” on his YouTube channel.

Kamiya sadly left some projects unfinished, like Project G.G., but he clarified that it’s up to PlatinumGames whether to decide if it will cancel that game or not. At the end of the day, this is yet another classic story of executives not allowing creatives to do what they want, which is something that was clearly affecting him negatively, to the point that he even thought to himself, “If I continue working here, my artistic spirit will die” before he left. Nevertheless, Kamiya also clarified that he doesn’t think that PlatinumGames is better or worse than his current studio, but it’s evident that he’s hoping that his creativity and curiosity will be able to fully thrive in CLOVERS.