Prior to launching the extremely successful Wonderful 101 Kickstarter campaign, PlatinumGames’ Studio Head Atsushi Inaba and Director Hideki Kamiya sat down with Nintendo Everything to talk about the upcoming remaster. In the interview, the two developers talk about the future of Wonderful 101 and how they had aspirations of expanding the single title into a series of games.
Unfortunately, in its original release, Wonderful 101 didn’t sell as well as PlatinumGames would have wanted, likely due to being exclusive to Nintendo’s relatively unpopular Wii U. However, thanks to the Kickstarter campaign, a Wonderful 101: Remastered has been fully funded and is ready to be developed for the much more popular systems.
According to the interview, when Wonderful 101 was originally being developed, the team at PlatinumGames had always intended to turn the game into an ongoing series as opposed to the one-off title that it turned out to be. When asked about the development process of Wonderful 101, both Inaba and Kamiya commented that when working on any title, the overall series is usually considered all at once. In fact, one of Inaba’s specific comments shows exactly why this didn’t happen before the long teased remaster hits PC, PS4 and Switch, as the game didn’t gain enough traction on its original console.
Clearly some of what the developers have planned for the series is already making its way into The Wonderful 101: Remastered through the new content coming to the new release, currently referred to as Luka’s First Mission. This is a pretty clear indication that PlatinumGames already has an idea of where to continue the series in the future, and if the remaster has a successful launch, then a sequel is likely to quickly go into development. While there is little information about what direction the new game might go, even with the answers given from the interview, fans can at least be assured that PlatinumGames has plenty of plans to work from.
“So if fans support this and things go really well for The Wonderful 101, then I’d say it’s pretty natural that we’d want to make another game in the series!” - Atsushi Inaba
With any luck, the actual launch of The Wonderful 101: Remastered will be successful enough to make the way for a further series of titles within the same universe. After receiving a Tencent investment, a successful franchise like Wonderful 101 may be exactly what PlatinumGames needs in order to earn its interdependence and begin self-publishing its games. With successful franchises like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata already under its belt, the company is well on its way to becoming a gaming giant.
The Wonderful 101: Remastered is set to launch in April on PC, PS4, and Switch.
Source: Nintendo Everything
