Platinum Games' Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba headline Reboot Develop
Developers of Okami, Bayonetta and more join the Dubrovnik-based conference for its biggest show to date
Platinum Games co-founders Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba have joined the line-up at Reboot Develop, as the Dubrovnik-based conference recognises the resurgence of the Japanese games industry.
Both Inaba and Kamiya were previously involved with Capcom's Clover Studio, which was responsible for revered titles like Viewtiful Joe, God Hand and Okami. They co-founded Platinum Games in 2007, and have continued to produce quality work ever since: Bayonetta, Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and last year's Nier: Automata the highlights of a long list.
After almost a decade of working on big games for publishers, this year PlatinumGames confirmed that it will self-publish two smaller games based on fully-owned IPs.
Inaba and Kamiya join a speaker roster that already includes several prominent figures from the Japanese industry, including Panzer Dragoon creator Yukio Futatsugi, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro and Seaman creator Yoot Saito.
Other new speakers added to Reboot Develop's line-up demonstrate its representation of all sides of the games industry. Oculus VR's head of development engineering Matt Conte and Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Desilets will both give talks, alongside prominent indie figures like Vlambeer's Rami Ismail, Ultimatum Games' Shahid Ahmad, and a new talk from Ste Curran.
There will be 110 speakers at Reboot Develop this year, the highest in the history of the conference, and around 100 indies will take part in its expo and Reboot Pitching Sessions. This growth is in line with the audience itself, which will increase by 50 per cent to 1500 attendees from around the world this year.
The conference organisers expect to see several worldwide exclusive announcements at this year's show, which GamesIndustry.biz will be on site to cover. The biggest talks will be live-streamed by Reboot, and will be available to view on this website.
More information on this year's speakers - which also include Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer and XCOM creator Julian Gollop - can be found here and here, or you can check on the official website.
Reboot Develop will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from April 19 to 21, 2018.
GamesIndustry.biz is a media partner for Reboot Develop. We will will attend the show with assistance from the organiser.