Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya isn’t retiring

12.10.2023 - 17:17 / theverge.com / Shinji Mikami / Tango Gameworks / Hideki Kamiya

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

A few weeks after announcing he intended to leave PlatinumGames, Hideki Kamiya posted a video on YouTube celebrating his first official day of unemployment. In the video, Kamiya explained what he’s been up to, what his future plans are, and clarified that though he’s left PlatinumGames, he’s not planning on retiring anytime soon.

“I’m over it. I’m so over it,” Kamiya said as he exited PlatinumGames’ office carrying a box full of toys including an Ultraman figurine and a Bayonetta plushie.

Kamiya quickly recapped his nearly 30-year history developing games starting at Capcom, working onResident Evil, Devil May Cry, andViewtiful Joe. He moved on to Clover Studio to work on Okami, before finally joining PlatinumGames directing the Bayonetta trilogy and more.

Kamiya said that now that he’s left Platinum, he feels refreshed.

“When you’re at work, you have to attend those boring meetings with all kinds of important people. I don’t have to attend those meetings anymore so I feel relieved,” Kamiya said.

But he seemed to have some difficulty explaining exactly why he quit PlatinumGames, asking his camera person to bleep out his answer. Eventually, he said the reason he quit was that “I wanted to follow my beliefs as a game creator and to choose the path I think is right and move on.”

Kamiya also addressed rumors that he was retiring or not actually leaving Platinum.

“Bullshit,” he said.

Though Kamiya said he wants to and will continue to make games, he explained that has to take a year-long break from working in the industry likely due to noncompete reasons. Coincidentally, Shinji Mikami, founder of The Evil Within andHi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks who left the company back in February, tweeted today that he was ready to return to work after he broke “the spell of non-competition on myself.”

Bullshit.

Kamiya also said that his new YouTube endeavor will not be like beloved but similarly unemployed Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai.

“With my career as a game designer being almost 30 years, with that in mind, I promise to give you things COMPLETELY USELESS [emphasis his] to making games.”

Kamiya spent some time talking about how he’s improving his eating habits now that he’s unemployed, sharing his hilarious exploits trying to make homemade curry. His day-to-day activities are relatively simple.

“I’ve been watching Netflix, YouTube, Disney Plus, and stuff like that. I’ve already lost track of what day it is.”

He then ended the video with the biggest flex by driving off to the unemployment office in a late ’80s candy-apple red Lamborghini Countach.

Hone