The Platinum Games official web site is now putting CPUs through their paces with a lovely looking teaser for... something. Something Platinum Games-made, something that will be revealed... soon? If we're reading the clock's ticker right, it should mean a zero hour sometime later this week. Friday-ish?

Will it be Platinum Games member—aka Resident Evil and God Hand creator—Shinji Mikami's next game? A sequel to one of the developer's already established properties? Or will my longshot guess that Platinum will be handling the port of After Burner Climax be more than just a loosely formed theory?

We'll probably know more later this week, as early as tomorrow if reliable Famitsu leaks feature anything Platinum Games related. Your best guesses and wishes are welcome in the comments.

But not Shinji Mikami. The creator of the Biohazard/Resident Evil series has already decided that he will not like the game and is planning to avoid it at all costs.

"I won't like it, because it's not going to be the game I would have made," he told Official PlayStation magazine, "It'll just cause me stress if I play it. I think it could be fun for gamers to play it, but not for someone who has developed Resident Evil games.

"If I see anything in Resident Evil 5 that isn't done well, I'll be angry!"

Mikami: "I won't play Resi 5" [CVG]

I went into my interview with the two Japanese developers with a bunch of questions I knew I couldn’t ask; I lived in Japan long enough to learn that the direct approach is usually not the best. The questions I did ask, though, had some fun answers:

“What do you think of MadWorld?” I shot this one off at Suda directly and he didn’t even wait for the translator. His face lit up and he exclaimed something about how cool it looked – like Sin City. And something about how he had a similar idea, but my Japanese ain’t that great, so I had to wait for the translator to explain that Suda had a similar idea for a futuristic game that now he couldn’t do because it would look too much like MadWorld.

Mikami didn’t seem as thrilled. He’s an “external board member” at Platinum Games, so he probably knows all the guys on MadWorld’s dev team and wouldn’t want to comment on anything of theirs that could be secret. Mikami is the man for horror, though, and that’s how this odd partnership came about.

Suda 51 makes his games with a story first and fits them to genre later. His newest idea (the mysterious new project to be published by EA) seemed to fit well with the horror genre and so he took it to Mikami.

Now we get into globalization business talk. Skip this paragraph if you don’t give a damn. The Japanese gaming industry is mostly closed off from Western gaming; at least, they’re not as chummy as the US gaming industry is with the European industry. The tendency for independent developers in Japan is to find a big studio with a Western presence (Capcom, Sega, etc.) and work through them. But every independent developer is always afraid of having their idea screwed with in the name of brand marketing, and in Japan, the eternal “We’ll think about it” runaround keeps games from getting made for years at a time. Not so with EA. Mikami and Suda pitched their idea and received an instant “When can we start?” which lead to GHM’s new partnership with EA. So while it might look weird on paper to see Mikami paired with Suda and GHM paired with EA – it all makes sense in the global view of gaming politics.

Mikami especially wants to give Japanese developers the chance to go global; and Suda says collaboration is the future of gaming. There are a lot of rock star developers in Japan (Kojima, Miyamoto, Itagaki, etc.) that want to take their ideas to a worldwide audience and that’s always good for the market.

Or at least it’s good for me – I heart Japanese games.

I also heart horror games, so this is going to be an amazing year for me – Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space… That’s an awful lot of horror games on the market already.

What do Suda and Mikami think about the possibility of too many horror games? Not much, really. They like horror too – and more horror can only be good. Bear in mind though, that Suda is an action man first and foremost. So whatever we see from the dream team is going to be a blend of action horror; with Suda as the action and Mikami as the horror. We will not see Resident Evil: The No More Heroes Experience, and we probably won’t see Killer 7 Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The last thing we talked about in that awkward interview of my lousy Japanese, their lousy English and the translator trying to keep up (don’t you just love language barriers?) was the concept of developing games for multiple platforms. Like Epic Games, GHM doesn’t believe in making a game and then trying to squeeze it onto a system in a watered-down form to fit the audience; but they are determined to bring their game to as many people as possible.

The number one challenge, Suda says, is developing for the Wii. Its audience is less cut-and-dried than the 360/PS3/PC crowd (what with the inclusion of old people, young people and casual gamers) and what appeals to Wii people might not appeal to 360/PS3/PC people. He just has to have faith that his idea is good enough on its own to bring in the fans and not worry so much about maxing out an audience on a specific console.

I’ve got to say I was feeling pretty good about the mystery project when I was ushered out of the door. It normally irks me when a studio gives the “we can’t tell you” spiel, but Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami are guys who know what they’re doing. And hopefully EA trusts them to make an awesome game as much as I do; but then, if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made them partners, right?

Shinji Mikami: Money. [Laughs]

Goichi Suda: I was really surprised at things such as the size of their studios and their massive marketing and production teams. I've never had the experience of working on such a massive team before. We haven't done voice recording yet, but I know EA would be a huge help in finding talent and getting them to the studio and the motion capture as well. In other cases, I would want to do something before but couldn't, and since working with EA, they've provided everything I wanted. I get tremendous support from EA... Of course I had a chance to present it to different publishers, but EA was the company that understood the game and understood my approach to it. That's why I took the chance to work with EA. Also, EA produced Rock Band, so they understand the "soul of rock."

Shinji Mikami: ...Also, EA has strong marketing power. If Suda just keeps on doing what he wants to do, players might not understand what they're playing. But with EA's strong marketing power, they know what people want from a game, and we combine both their knowledge and his creativity to help create a better game.

This is one to watch.

Mikami and Suda Talk EA Partnership [1Up]

UNTITLED PLATINUM GAMES PROJECT
One of our spies informs us that Grasshopper is currently discussing a new game with the ex-Clover studio.

[Thanks, 87th!]

The meaning of "platinum" is that it doesn't deteriorate, and it holds its quality over time. Users won't be betrayed by the quality, which will remain high.

Hit the jump for a pic of Kamiya's Gundamized desk.

Squint and maybe you can see what they're working on...

PlatinumGames [Official Site]

Amid the usual banter and camaraderie, there was as an announcement from Mizuguchi that his next project "is not going to be a video game" but an interesting environmental/convservation themed something. Sounds interesting. I hope that Q? Entertainment can break out of their puzzle rehash rut.

Also hinted at was that Kojima and Grasshopper's Suda 51 may be working on a Snatcher related project. Will it be a sequel to the Sega CD classic from Konami? We don't know! But we're anxiously awaiting the next Hidechan podcast to see what Kojima has to say about it. Michael McWhertor

Kojima Meets Mikami in Snake vs Zombie Event [1UP]

Critics darling and Killer 7 producer Goichi Suda talked about artistry and business at last week's GDC. He explained that there are two types of creators: Business-oriented and art-oriented. For business devs, the client's wishes and expectations are priority numero uno. But the arty-types, it's their vision. (Though, Suda does admit that basically all game developers must be business-oriented, because, well, it is a business!) But at the end of the day, he says that he and his company Grasshopper Manufacture hold art in the highest regard thanks to, and we quote, "punk spirit." Not so much anti-authority, but rather, he's talking about doing something different from others. Take Killer 7, which he made with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Suda explains:

There are so many big games and big titles, but most of them are copycat... these games are important, but it's really hard to find a [different kind of] game. ...I really hate doing things that other people do... We need to create that kind of game... I'd like to ask publishers to help us and support us [to make more punk games].

Yeah, 'cause do we really wanna be sedated with pedestrian games? Check out the trailer for Suda's upcoming title here.

Hey! Ho! Let's Go! [Next-Gen]

Here at Kotaku, we don't have a cracker jack team of proof readers. When we fuck up, it's because we, and we alone, are checking each of our posts. Ourselves. But, when big companies make an boo-boo, it's because groups of people screw the pooch.

Take the GameCube box for Capcom's Killer 7, which apparently lists the game's website as www.killer7.com, a NSFW site that has nothing to do with video games but everything to do with interracial gang bangs. (The actual game's site is www.killer-7.com.) Whoops! Brian Ashcraft

Eds. Note: Capcom just dropped word that when the game was originally released, www.killer7.com was the game's official site. Since then, it was not able to renew the URL. Another company did instead.

Capcom's Nudie Link [iBloggedThis]

As of today, the studio behind Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand is no more. Clover Studio was shuttered by main shareholder Capcom. At a Board of Directors' meeting was held, and it was decided that Clover should dissolved. The reason? According to the Capcom IR release:

Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting.

The studio was established on July 1, 2004 and takes its name, "clover," from an abbreviation of "creativity lover." Under president and CEO Atsushi Inaba and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, the studio turned out a handful of inventive titles that were anything but mainstream. Sales, unfortunately, reflected that, and Capcom management took action. It's okay to love creativity, just don't expect it to turn a profit. Clover Studio will be officially liquidated March 2007. Brian Ashcraft

Read The Depressing Release [Capcom, Thanks Torokun!]

1965: Shinji Mikami is born. He is best known for creating the Resident Evil franchise, as well as his input with Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry and the upcoming PS2 title God Hand. Happy Birthday Shinji Mikami - it's a good thing you were born! His interests include creating awesome videogames and talking way too close to really phallic microphones.

2000: Nintendo releases Paper Mario for N64 in Japan. Sure, the fireflowers are pretty badass. But the most fearsome attack: the super paper cut. Slice Bowser's...horn right off.

2003: Vivendi Universal announces Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds went gold. Is this really news? Probably not. Are we massive, frothing-mouthed Buffy fans? Maybe.

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you'd like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com

Leather clad dominatrix power spanking? Check. Rapid fire mantis-style testicle stabbing? Check. Hard Gay-esque prancing bad boys on the receiving end of an ethereal baseball bat? Err. I guess. Proof that Shinji Mikami and team Clover are three sake carafes deep at each and every post-lunch design meeting? Check!!

Look, God Hand was one of my favorite games at E3, and, paired with Dead Rising, all the proof I needed that developer of the century is the amazing and prolific Capcom. Any chance I can get to see more God Hand, tell you about more God Hand, or have new fodder to write erotic God Hand fanfics, I'll take it. This most recent trailer gives us far more insight into the depth of the game's fighting engine, the move-buying upgrade shop (*sigh*) and the just plain nutball, whacked-out antics that await us come fall. Michael McWhertor