Summer Flame Day 2021: Prove Bayonetta 3 Exists
Another E3 season and accompanying Nintendo Direct has passed with no news whatsoever about Bayonetta 3. Platinum Games and Nintendo first announced the game’s development at Game Awards in 2017, one introduced by former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, for an impression of just how long ago that was. It was clear the game was early in development at the time given the short teaser provided, but no one could have possibly guessed that it would take this long. With the lack of a showcase from the newest events, you cannot blame anyone for being very concerned about its progress and the developer’s wellbeing.
The damage control, of course, has been quick to follow. “It definitely still exists, I can confirm it,” replied Nintendo of America senior director of localization Nate Bihldorff when asked about its existence from GameSpot’s Tamoor Hussain. Senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen one-upped him by saying “I will even go one further and say not only does it exist, but it’s progressing well.” Bayonetta 1 director Hideki Kamiya is also clearly fed up with receiving questions about it on Twitter.
Not one of these assurances are convincing. I won’t go as far as to say that Bihldorff and Trinen are lying to Hussain and the gaming audience about how well (or not well) it’s progressing, or that Kamiya is assisting with stringing fans along for this frustrating ride. (I can understand getting peeved with inane tweets, though.) But we are far past the point where words are enough. Showing the game is the only way they can prove that everything is fine, nothing to see here please disperse.
Consider just how long it’s been missing in action. They announced this game three-and-a-half years ago, and there’s no non-worrying explanation for why it’s been MIA for so long. It took Bayonetta 2, for example, less than a year to surface after Nintendo announced it at their pre-launch event for Wii U in 2012. The game was shown for the first time at E3 2013, and it released in the fall of 2014. The wait to even see Bayonetta 3 has been longer to a considerable degree, for a platform pretty close in power to Wii U.
What’s the explanation for this? No one can say outside PG and Nintendo. It’s not as if PG has released a bunch of games since the end of 2017. In another concerning anecdote, they have released a grand total of one console game since Bayonetta 3’s announcement: Astral Chain, another in which they partnered with Nintendo. That game aside, their titles have consisted of the crowdfunded rerelease The Wonderful 101: Remastered and mobile game World of Demons.
The lack of releases and progression of other titles in development speak to bigger issues that have occurred within PG. Babylon’s Fall was announced in 2018 for a 2019 release, but only surfaced for the first time in that year. It then went MIA again (with the COVID-19 pandemic being at least partially blamed), only to resurface as a live service game at E3 this year with reduced graphical fidelity to accompany the requirement for more simultaneous players. It’s still a mystery as to why Granblue Fantasy: Relink was in development at PG for years but was moved to Cygames’ internal offices for the remainder of its production. Last Order, another PG and Cygames collaboration that was being directed by Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics veteran Yasumi Matsuno for mobile platforms, went MIA after 2017.
There’s also the sheer number of staffers who’ve departed over the years, including Bayonetta 2 director Yusuke Hashimoto. It’s a total mystery as to who’s handling Bayonetta 3, though with Kenji Saito now helming Babylon’s Fall following Cygames’ takeover of Relink, it has to be either Kamiya or someone comparatively inexperienced within PG. The chance of Kamiya being deeply involved depends on how deep in development Project GG is, PG’s first big independent project. If Bayonetta 3 ever surfaces, having a new director at the helm will be the next concern.
Let’s not get too ahead here, though. Anyone who enjoyed the previous Bayonetta games has all the reason they need to be very concerned about Bayonetta 3 and PG, and any efforts by Nintendo or PG employees to put the audience at ease will deservedly fall on deaf ears. There is only one thing they can do to assuage the concerns, and everyone knows what that is.
Perhaps Bayonetta 3 could surface on a Nintendo Direct in a few months, rendering a portion (but hardly the entirety) of this post meaningless. Trust me when I say that I would love for PG and Nintendo to prove me and plenty of other vocal very online people wrong and show that it actually hasn’t been in development hell. But I am not the least bit convinced that will happen given the amount of time that’s passed since its announcement, and the comparatively minimal amount of time between the reveals and releases of prior Bayonetta installments. In the meantime, expect the pain to continue.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
