Key Takeaways
- PlatinumGames president and CEO Atsushi Inaba says he has “a strong desire” to expand Bayonetta as a character and broaden her world, though stopped short of confirming a new game.
- The comments came in a Famitsu interview with Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung-tae at Tokyo Game Show 2026, held to promote the upcoming Bayonetta crossover for Stellar Blade.
- Stellar Blade’s director called Bayonetta “an indispensable work in my life” and listed it among his three favourite games, explaining he had to hold back while designing the crossover outfit so it wouldn’t go too far.
- Kim also jokingly asked if he could design characters for the next Bayonetta himself — Inaba responded by simply saying to wait and see.
- The Bayonetta x Stellar Blade collaboration brings four free costumes — Bayonetta, Jeanne, Nun, and Black Tresses (Kim’s own original design) — launching November 5, 2026 across PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
- Series creator Hideki Kamiya and Bayonetta 3 director Yusuke Miyata have both left PlatinumGames, while Japanese voice actress Atsuko Tanaka passed away in August 2024, casting uncertainty over the franchise’s direction.
The Bayonetta conversation has been a complicated one for a while now. The franchise’s creator is gone. The director of the last mainline entry is gone. And the beloved Japanese voice actress who gave the character her most iconic voice passed away in 2024. For a series with as much identity tied to its specific creative team as Bayonetta, those losses matter. Which is why PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba deciding to speak openly — and with genuine enthusiasm — about wanting to take the character further is actually a bigger deal than it might appear at first glance.
What Inaba Said — and What He Didn’t
The comments came during a Famitsu interview at Tokyo Game Show 2026, where Inaba sat down alongside Stellar Blade director and Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae to talk about the ongoing Bayonetta x Stellar Blade crossover collaboration. When asked directly about PlatinumGames’ next move with Bayonetta, Inaba didn’t dodge the question — he just framed it carefully.
“I can’t really answer that right now,” he said. “As for Bayonetta, I strongly feel that I want to expand her as a character and broaden her world.” When pressed specifically about whether a new game is coming, Inaba went to “no comment” — which, combined with everything else he said, reads more like strategic restraint than a flat denial. He even joked during the conversation that the series needs to keep going “until Bayonetta 10,” which is the kind of thing you don’t say if you think the IP is in its final chapter.
PlatinumGames hasn’t released a game for Nintendo Switch 2 yet, and Inaba acknowledged the platform during the conversation, saying he believes it is “a console with tremendous potential.” Reading between the lines, the message being sent to Nintendo — who co-own the IP and have published every Bayonetta sequel as a platform exclusive since Bayonetta 2 in 2014 — seems fairly clear. Platinum is interested. The question of timing and what form a new entry might take is still open.
Kim Hyung-tae’s Love Letter to the Series
If Inaba was measured in his enthusiasm, Kim Hyung-tae was anything but. The Stellar Blade director used the interview to make plain just how much Bayonetta has meant to him personally, calling it “an indispensable work in my life” and naming it one of only three games that rank as his all-time favourites.
That context makes the crossover collaboration feel less like a marketing arrangement and more like a passion project. Kim said he had wanted to do this for years and that the Switch 2 port of Stellar Blade Complete Edition gave him the opening to finally make it happen. He even asked Inaba, half-seriously, whether he could design characters for the next Bayonetta himself — and when he described the process of creating the crossover’s fourth original costume, Black Tresses, he admitted he had to actively restrain himself so it wouldn’t go too far into his own aesthetic sensibilities.
“I toned down my darker side and approached the costume carefully,” Kim told Famitsu, “but if I get the opportunity, I would love to show you a version where I completely gave myself over to it, with all my heart and soul.” Given what Kim’s full-throttle aesthetic looks like in Stellar Blade, that unreleased version is something the internet has already started speculating about enthusiastically.
What the Bayonetta x Stellar Blade Collaboration Actually Includes
The crossover brings four free costumes to Stellar Blade’s protagonist Eve across PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 Complete Edition. Three of them are direct Bayonetta franchise designs — the iconic black outfit worn by Bayonetta herself, Jeanne’s red ensemble, and the Nun disguise from the series — while the fourth is Black Tresses, the original design created by Kim himself.
Black Tresses imagines how Bayonetta might look if she existed in Stellar Blade’s world, keeping the red and gold details of the original while introducing exposed sections that blend both games’ visual DNA. The outfit was revealed on stage at Tokyo Game Show 2026, where cosplayer and model Seika Amakawa wore it in person, and it’s drawn a divided response from fans — some love the fusion aesthetic, others feel it leans more Stellar Blade than Bayonetta. Kim has acknowledged as much, which is part of why he floated the idea of showing a wilder, more Bayonetta-pure version if given the chance.
All four costumes drop as a free update on November 5, 2026 for PS5 and PC players, and come included at launch with the Stellar Blade Complete Edition on Nintendo Switch 2. The Switch 2 demo for Complete Edition is available on the Nintendo eShop right now if you want to try before committing.
Why the Franchise’s Future Is Still a Complicated Question
Inaba’s enthusiasm is genuinely welcome news, but the context around Bayonetta’s future is worth being honest about. Hideki Kamiya — who created the character, directed the first game, and envisioned a nine-part saga for the series — left PlatinumGames in October 2023. He has since said he may take those ideas “to the grave” with him, and is now focused on an Okami sequel at his new studio Clovers. Whatever vision exists for Bayonetta going forward, it won’t be the one Kamiya planned.
Yusuke Miyata, who directed Bayonetta 3, has also departed the studio since that game shipped in 2022. That’s two of the franchise’s most significant creative voices gone, which matters enormously for a series where the director’s specific combat design philosophy has always been central to what Bayonetta feels like to play.
Then there is the matter of Atsuko Tanaka, the Japanese voice actress who brought Bayonetta to life in the original games and their Japanese dubbing. Tanaka passed away in August 2024 at the age of 61. Her voice was a defining piece of the character’s identity for Japanese-speaking players, and replacing her — if a new game moves forward — will require delicate handling out of respect for both the actress and the fanbase.
None of this makes a new Bayonetta impossible. PlatinumGames still has talented action game developers, Inaba himself has been a producer on the franchise since the beginning, and the IP is too valuable to simply be shelved. But whoever makes the next entry will be building without the people most responsible for what made the series special — and that’s a creative challenge that goes well beyond simply green-lighting a sequel.
The Most Optimistic Reading of the Situation
For all the caveats, Inaba stepping up to speak about Bayonetta with this level of conviction is probably the most positive signal the series has received in three years. The last major public comment of note was Kamiya’s “to the grave” statement in 2023. Inaba talking openly about expanding Bayonetta as a character, suggesting the series should reach double digits, and saying this at a high-profile TGS interview rather than in a side comment is a deliberate move. PlatinumGames is not treating this like a closed chapter.
And Kim Hyung-tae’s involvement — even at the level of a costume collaboration — is a reminder of how deep the cultural roots of this franchise run. Stellar Blade exists in no small part because Kim was inspired by what PlatinumGames built with action game design, with Bayonetta specifically sitting near the top of that list. When the director of arguably the best action game of 2024 calls your series indispensable to his creative life and asks half-seriously to help make the next one, that’s not nothing.
If you’re keeping up with this week’s gaming news, our breakdown of the Dynasty Warriors producer’s thoughts on remasters vs new games is a good companion read — another veteran developer being candid about where he wants to take his franchise. And for the biggest free update this week, 007 First Light’s Extended Operations DLC dropped today with New Game Plus and a brand new 00 difficulty mode.
