Atsushi Inaba Takes Over as PlatinumGames President

Today PlatinumGames announced a change in leadership, with former president Kenichi Sato stepping down.

His successor will be very familiar to those who follow the studio and he’s Atsushi Inaba, who was already promoted to vice-president with the previous leadership shuffle in September 2021.

This is not Inaba-san’s first rodeo in a top leadership role, as he had held the same rank during the brief history of Clover Studio before leaving with Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami and forming SEEDS, which would become the seed of PlatinumGames (pun entirely intended).

Sato-san will still help out at PlatinumGames in an advisory role.

Below you can read Inaba-san’s message as newly-appointed president, which was published today.

Create, and deliver.

Creating innovative forms of play.

That is the belief PlatinumGames was founded on.

That is something that will never change.

Games come in all different styles for all different kinds of people. At their nature, they are a true expression of liberty: thoughts come together freely to create an idea, to expand upon it, and then, to actually play it. The real enjoyment from games comes from the freedom given to both the creator and user – which is why I believe them to be such an amazing form of entertainment.

Approaching “fun” with complete sincerity has always been important to me. I believe every one of our staff take pride that they are entertainers, always attempting the perfect balance between play and professionalism.

Creating a new, enjoyable game starts with the creator being able to enjoy the game themselves. The creator then has to continually build on their idea until they have something that communicates that sense of fun to anyone who experiences it – that consideration of the user makes all the difference.

Our overarching goal for entering self-publishing has been unchanged since its conception: to invent something new and share it with the rest of the world – showing our sincerity towards creation every step of the way.

People speaking different languages, from different backgrounds, all brought together through a controller. Made to smile by a new type of game.

It connects us, and sets us free.

It’s a job that I’m extremely proud of.

As I move forward towards the new challenges of the future, I hope to provide more and more experiences for all our users to enjoy.