We’ve known for a long time that Bayonetta 2 would not be possible without Nintendo’s funding, but the details of that particular deal have remained scarce until now. Â The game’s lead producer Hideki Kamiya is known for his colorful Twitter account, in which he’s not shy in telling fans to “f-off” if they bother him too much. This time Kamiya detailed exactly how Bayoentta 2 was saved, stating that after a period of development on the title, Sega decided they didn’t want to produce a sequel.
“As for Bayonetta, we developed the game after signing a deal with SEGA. Later it was decided to also develop the sequel, so we started working on Bayonetta 2.”
“When development had progressed to a certain degree, in SEGA’s situation it turned into “This isn’t a good plan”, so development halted temporarily.
From there, Kamiya says that Bayonetta 2 languished in development hell for a bit, as the team didn’t have enough funds to continue without a publisher and all of the other publishers that they pitched to were not interested in seeing a sequel to the game.
“Without funding we didn’t have the possibility to continue development, but we wanted to get this partially developed Bayonetta 2 available to the public one way or another. So we offered it to various publishers, but as it is a big title, we couldn’t find a partner company. Finally, Bayonetta 2 was about to get terminated completely, when…”
Nintendo acted as a saving grace for Bayonetta 2, contacting Platinum Games and expressing interest in helping fund the title, on the condition that once it was made it would be exclusive to the Wii U.
Nintendo came in and lent a hand and we were able to restart the development we so desired. Finally the game was released last week, so in five years, we were able to make Bayonetta 2 available to the public.
Kamiya then gets to his famous Twitter wit, in which he makes the point that everyone asking for Bayonetta 2 to be released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One should be asking Nintendo, not him.
As I have said earlier, if you want Bayonetta 2 on PS4 or Xbox One, how about trying to ask Nintendo… If Nintendo doesn’t say yes, it’s not going to happen… While you’re at it, try asking for Mario and Zelda too…
