Bayonetta fans caught a small break this week, and after the last couple of years PlatinumGames has had, small is the operative word. For everyone writing eulogies for the studio amid the high-profile departures, Platinum says the witch isn't finished. Per a report rounded up by MSN, the studio is leaving the door open for new Bayonetta releases going forward.

Why did anyone doubt it in the first place? Hideki Kamiya, the guy who created Bayonetta and basically defined Platinum's whole identity, walked out the door in 2023. When your co-founder and most recognizable director leaves, the assumption is the franchises go with him, or at least the soul does. Kamiya's since landed on his feet with his own outfit, and the internet did what the internet does: declared Platinum creatively adrift.

Except studios aren't one guy, even when that guy is Kamiya. Platinum still has deep benches of action-game talent, the people who made Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising and, yes, three mainline Bayonetta games that range from excellent to genuinely great. Bayonetta 3 had its issues, the Viola sections chief among them, but the core combat was still some of the best in the business. That doesn't happen by accident.

What the studio is signaling here matters less as a promise and more as a refusal to close the book. Nobody at Platinum is announcing Bayonetta 4 with a date and a trailer. What they're saying is the franchise remains part of the company's future, which counts for something when the narrative around the studio has been nothing but departures and doom for a while now.

There's precedent for a series surviving the loss of its creator, though I'll admit it's mixed. Final Fantasy carried on fine after Sakaguchi, and Square has been mining that vein for decades. On the other hand, I remember when Konami decided Castlevania could go on without Koji Igarashi and we got a stretch of games nobody asked for. (Nina and I have had this exact argument about whether the name on the door or the people inside it matter more; she sides with the people, and on Platinum's case she's probably right.)

This is hope, not a plan. A sliver, as the man said. Bayonetta Origins showed Platinum was willing to experiment with the universe in different genres, and Nintendo clearly still values the partnership enough to keep publishing. Whether the next proper Bayonetta game happens without Kamiya at the helm, and whether it feels like Bayonetta when it does, is a question nobody can answer yet.

But after years of studio closures, layoffs, and beloved developers vanishing into the void, I'll take an open door over a closed one. Bayonetta's been throwing us wink-nudges and breaking the fourth wall since 2009. Fitting that even her survival as a franchise works the same way: no confirmation, no denial, just a sly little grin and a "we'll see."