Bayonetta PS3 port is Platinum's 'biggest failure'

Platinum Games' Bayonetta is a masterful joining of splendid face-kicking action and absurd, guns-on-heels, hair-as-clothes, disco-dancing stylings. The PlayStation 3 edition, however, was a bit shoddy, plagued with longer load times, lower framerate, and worse textures than its Xbox 360 kin. This outsourced oopsie, director Atsushi Inaba has said, is Platinum's "biggest failure" so far.

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Platinum Games' Bayonetta is a masterful joining of splendid face-kicking action and absurd, guns-on-heels, hair-as-clothes, disco-dancing stylings. The PlayStation 3 edition, however, was a bit shoddy, plagued with longer load times, lower framerate, and worse textures than its Xbox 360 kin. This outsourced oopsie, director Atsushi Inaba has said, is Platinum's "biggest failure" so far.

"At the time we didn't really know how to develop on PS3 all that well, and whether we could have done it... is irrelevant: we made the decision that we couldn't," Inaba told Edge. So, Platinum handed it over to publisher Sega's porting team. "But looking back on the result, and especially what ended up being released to users, I regard that as our biggest failure."

However, it wasn't a "pointless failure," he added. "We learned that we needed to take responsibility for everything. So on Vanquish we developed both versions in-house."

Platinum recently made the surprise announcement of Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 26, 2012 8:15 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Bayonetta PS3 port is Platinum's 'biggest failure'.

    Platinum Games' Bayonetta is a masterful joining of splendid face-kicking action and absurd, guns-on-heels, hair-as-clothes, disco-dancing stylings. The PlayStation 3 edition, however, was a bit shoddy, plagued with longer load times, lower framerate, and worse textures than its Xbox 360 kin. This outsourced oopsie, director Atsushi Inaba has said, is Platinum's "biggest failure" so far.

    • reply
      September 26, 2012 9:04 AM

      As the resident Bayonetta fanatic, I'll chime in:

      Bayonetta started development near when Platinum was first formed, though Platinum's other games were on different platforms (Madworld on the Wii, Infinite Space on the DS). Bayonetta was definitely going to be a world release, since there was only English dialogue audio (with localized subtitles), but Japan's console ecosystem is about 90% PS3.

      I imagine there was a choice between internally developing on PS3 and risking delay, or letting a Sega studio do the port. Obviously, in hindsight, it was a rushed port. The texture quality looks like it was cut in half, there are no shader effects (so Bayo's catsuit looks like generic fabric, instead of a leather-like sheen, and her gold medallions don't gleam as brilliantly), and particle effects bog down the framerate.

      Still, I played the PS3 version and loved it despite the occasional 15 FPS slowdowns, and I eventually picked up the 360 version. Also, Platinum immediately responded after the PS3 release, saying that Vanquish's development was being properly optimized for both 360 and PS3 platforms. And the PS3 version of Vanquish runs very well.

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        September 26, 2012 9:14 AM

        I wonder if the sequel will eventually come out for other systems. It will kind of be a shame if the rest of the non Wii U purchasing world doesn't get to play it.

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          September 26, 2012 9:57 AM

          I would probably doubt it. Especially as it is being published by Nintendo.

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        September 26, 2012 9:26 AM

        I played (and completed) the game on PS3. It's just not my style of game but I also didn't think it was technically awful. Perhaps I played it after one of the major patches?

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          September 26, 2012 10:28 AM

          The 1.01 patch on PS3 adds an "install to disk" option that installs game assets on the hard drive, instead of constantly reading from the Blu-Ray. That was the only patch on the PS3 version.

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        September 26, 2012 3:22 PM

        A few areas where I like the PS3 version better:

        - The CriWare video playback is far more stable, which is probably helped by the PS3 and the Blu-Ray format being designed with streaming HD-quality compressed video. For some reason, my 360 Slim Arcade 4GB stutters during video playback. Of course, there are almost no pre-rendered videos during gameplay, though there is still one rather important video ("Let's Dance, Boys!").

        - The stereo sound mix on the PS3 sounds better to me, with better stereo separation and positioning. (Yes; I play the 360 and PS3 with analog stereo audio, out to a pair of headphones.) When I played the 360 version for the first time, it sounded a bit more "muddled". I'm not sure what factors there are in that, whether it's sound engine programming, or the platform differences (I have the PS3 outputting to HDMI with a secondary stereo analog audio out; my 360 has a "clandestine" HDMI plus analog stereo out, via removing the guard on the composite A/V connector).

        - When entering Witch Time on the 360 version, sometimes you can get enough particle effects going to lower the framerate, which then stretches the amount of time in witch time. The timing on the PS3 version seems to be bound to an exact clock time. Which way is "better" or "proper" in terms of combo scoring is a matter of personal perspective. I felt baffled when encountering this the first time on the 360; I was thinking, "What the... shouldn't Witch Time have ended two seconds ago? Oh well; keep attacking..."

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