Things have died down a lot since last week. No new major announcements. Now begins the wait for all those that were able to get a pre-order in for the Wii U.. But there is still some people talking about the big announcements last week. The cause: Bayonetta 2.
The original Bayonetta was a single player mature action game that was released in late 2009/early 2010 depending on where you live. The game was developed by Platinum Games and Sega was the publisher. It can now be played on just the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The game has received great reviews and awards and sold just under 2 million copies since it was released. Like possibly many other Nintendo gamers, I have not been able to play this game due to it not being released on a Nintendo system. This game series as a topic went from recently off the radar to be one of the most talked about discussions currently. Even after most other discussions have died down after last weeks announcement, this discussion keeps going on and new information keeps coming out. Bayonetta 2 being exclusive to Wii U was a surprise announcement last week. For myself I first thought it was great that Nintendo was putting focus on a core game that was releasing exclusively for Wii U. I felt Nintendo needed to show something like this to show that they wanted to be the system not just for casual and the Nintendo loyal but for everyone. Unfortunately many did not see this the same way. There was a large amount of people that went to the internet to voice negative opinions regarding this which was far more then those that felt this was a positive at first. Things have slowly died down as the week went on and this was in part to additional news. Executive Director Atsushi Inaba came out and said that without Nintendo there would be no Bayonetta 2. After piecing together a lot of information a larger story appeared. There have been reports of Sega going through a low period. There were rumors that they had to cancel the development of Bayonetta 2 due to not feeling it would be profitable enough to continue. We don't know if Nintendo saw this and made the first step or if Sega or Platinum Games had been looking for publishers (and if so if Nintendo was first). One would assume that even either way that other avenues would have been looked at to either make it multi-platform or at least released on one or both of the systems the original was released on. If that was the case then it would seem Nintendo publishing was the only way. This stopped a lot of hate as it could no longer be viewed as Platinum Games selling out to Nintendo's money. Platinum Games show they want to make a sequel and have been responding to fans several times this week.
One now may wonder what would happen if this was a core gamer franchise that had even more popularity and was also never released on any Nintendo systems. One that had no risk of not continuing. Would history repeat and a larger outcry would happen? One could imagine what would it be like if the internet was how it is now back when the Final Fantasy series was only on Nintendo systems and then suddenly Final Fantasy 7 was announced for PlayStation exclusively. Back then the developer stated they needed what the PlayStation had to make the game they wanted to make. Was that wrong back then and would it be wrong now for a developer to do the same with the Wii U if they felt they needed what it has? Another thought is to buying exclusivity. It isn't exactly a secret that money has been spent in the past to buy exclusivity whether it be a timed exclusive, extra content, or complete exclusivity. Many currently find that Nintendo saving Bayonetta 2 as a good thing as it would never be released otherwise but what if it was a series that would have no issues releasing a sequel on the platforms it had originally released on. Would this be wrong and if so, where is the line? These are questions on my mind and possibly many gamers after the fallout from this news.
One good thing that came out of this news is I know a lot more about the Bayonetta series then I have before. I feel that this might be the case for many other gamers also. I would be very interested in purchasing the original if it comes out to a system I own now or in the future. I personally hope there is news of this happening in the future or that the sequel is released in a way that assists those that have not played the original.
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