Hideki Kamiya wants to return to his roots with Clovers, a studio full of PlatinumGames members

At the end of 2023 Hideki Kamiya left PlatinumGames and due to his contract he spent a year in dry dock, but during that time he did not sit idly by. In addition to opening a YouTube channel, Kamiya has been working with his friend Kento Koyama to create Clovers Inc., a new development team that was discovered at The Game Awards 2024 gala as being responsible for the sequel to Okami.

In July 2023 Kamiya had already notified PlatinumGames that he was leaving. The announcement was in September and he left the company in October. Upon hearing the news, Koyama, who was the designer of the project Kamiya was working on, told him to found a development team together. At that time Kamiya was not sure, but the idea gained strength as the number of PlatinumGames employees who approached him to continue together grew. Because Kamiya couldn’t work for a year, Koyama took it upon himself to lay the foundation for what is now Clovers and has served as president ever since.

Kamiya wants nothing to do with running the company. “I’m a game developer and my skill is creating games,” says the designer. The choice of Koyama to lead the management part is not coincidental. Kamiya knows him and “I know how good he is at managing, working with money, and leading people.” Kamiya acknowledges that if he were the president his former PlatinumGames colleagues would not have considered joining the new company. “I just think about making games,” Kamiya says. “I don’t know if the company is profitable or if the management is correct.” That Koyama was the president convinced more than one to join.

To make it clear, Kamiya adds that he is the head of the studio and the chief designer. “That means I’ll direct some games and oversee all development,” he explains. The designer says that a good portion of the Clovers staff come from PlatinumGames and share a similar mindset. Why did he leave PlatinumGames? Kamiya talks about a cultural change that did not align with his philosophy when creating games. Perhaps it refers to the failed commitment to games as a service, a model that judging by Kamiya’s track record is far removed from his mentality about how games should be made.

The Clovers name is clearly influenced by Clover Studio, a defunct development team founded by members of Capcom Production Studio 4 under the creative vision of Shinji Mikami. “I’m proud to have been part of that team,” Kamiya says. “Many years have passed since the disappearance of Clover Studio, but the creative principles we had at that time are still just as important to me today.” The Clovers logo is a four-leaf clover that represents the number 4 of the aforementioned Capcom team. For Kamiya it is not nostalgia or looking back, but rather being faithful to some values.

The sequel to Okami, a game whose first installment was directed by Hideki Kamiya, will be Clovers’ first project. The studio aims to create new games from scratch, but if they get commissions from other companies that align with their philosophy and interests, they will accept them.