PlatinumGames open to acquisition talks ‘as long as freedom is respected’

PlatinumGames would be open to acquisition offers by another company as long as it gets to maintain its freedom, company CEO Atsushi Inaba has said.

Discussing the recent proposal by Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard, VGC asked Inaba if PlatinumGames would consider any acquisition offers.

Inaba responded, “The most important thing for us is to have the freedom to make the games that we want to make. What I hear about the recent acquisitions, I don’t think Microsoft is going to start micromanaging Activision to where they take away all their freedom… I don’t think it’s going to be a relationship like that.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of mutual respect there and I think Activision will be able to continue doing what they do best. That’s also what’s most important to us at the end of the day, whatever form that takes for us and our company. So I would not turn anything down, as long as our freedom was still respected.”

Inaba also said he it is “weird” that there are not as much mergers and acquisitions in Japan as there are in the rest of the world.

“I agree, you don’t see that a lot [of acquisitions] in Japan and personally, I think it’s weird,” Inaba said. “For some of these big companies with all their money you sometimes think, ‘come on! Buy some companies up already!’ It does feel strange to see Japanese companies being passive all of the time.”

The next title from PlatinumGames, the self-published shoot ’em up Sol Cresta, is due out for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on February 22. After that, the cooperative action RPG Babylon’s Fall, published by Square Enix, is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam on March 3.