MadWorld was ”a mismatch” with the Wii gamer. Developer Platinum needs the next-gen consoles to ”realise what they actually want to do.”
”I think so. I guess there’s a reference to MadWorld there. Critically it got a lot of acclaim, but commercially it wasn’t the success we wanted it to be,” Hayes told CVG in an interview.
”Clearly that was a mismatch with the Wii audience - particularly in terms of the amount of cross-ownership between Wii and the other home platforms,” he said. ”If you’re going to play a mature-rated game, you’re going to get your 360, PC or PS3 out to do so. But you can’t knock us for having a go.” MadWorld scored high but sold low numbers.
Bayonetta for Xbox 360 and PS3 faired far greater for publisher Sega, and they’re now pledging to stick with the two next-gen consoles in the future, and won’t be skimping out on the quality or investment of fresh ideas.
”Bayonetta had excellent reviews and it’s gone to plan,” said Hayes. ”The great thing about Bayonetta is that it’s a product that sells well in Japan as well as North America, as well as Europe. They’re very rare.”
”Overall, Bayonetta’s shipped well over a million units globally. Again, as a great core game, that gives us something to build upon.”
”The reality is, Platinum Games is such a cutting-edge developer they need the PS3 or 360 to realise what they actually want to do. You saw that with Bayonetta - it was a very high-quality standard. Vanquish will push the envelope even further.”
“Platinum are definitely more at home on those platforms.” Vanquish is Platinum Games’ next major project which is getting help from Resident Evil creator Shinji Makami.