Leaving PlatinumGames TL;DR:
Differences with Inaba both creatively and with the direction the company was heading while working on Project G.G.
Spent three months talking it out but couldn't come to a compromise in the end
Kamiya felt he wouldn't be able to continue expressing his creativity at PG and his artistic spirit would die if he remained there
He seemingly wasn't happy with Project G.G. and didn't want to release a game he couldn't take responsibility for
Interim TL;DR:
Initially refused Koyama's offer to form a new studio
Considered going freelance like Yoko Taro, joining up with another company or even going back to his hometown
Enthusiastic PG staff came up to him and would tell him that they would love to work with him again somewhere
Eventually gave Koyama a call which was the catalyst to getting CLOVERS off the ground
CLOVERS TL;DR:
Three Cs, challenge, creativity, craftsmanship, fourth C is for each employee to decide for themselves
Koyama's fourth C is cleanness. Kamiya's fourth C is curiosity
CLOVERS currently has 20 employees, the plan is to expand the team to 70
Want to keep the team small and work with other development studios on their games instead of doing everything themselves (we're already seeing this with Okami 2 as M-TWO and Machine Head Works are developing the game alongside CLOVERS).
Focus on creating games with a strong creative vision
Prefer smaller AA to indie-scale projects over massive AAA ones
Kamiya wants to support younger creators at the studio while also directing his own games
CLOVERS will pitch their own original games to publishers directly in order to receive funding on a project by project basis
Kamiya prides himself and the studio on their ability to create new IPs and wants to focus on that, just like when PlatinumGames was first formed
Kamiya recognises that modern AAA games have become too focused on avoiding commercial failure leading to a lack of creative vision behind it
This is the exact reason he left PlatinumGames
He wants their games to reflect the individuality of their creators
Kamiya also wants to maintain their commitment to the three Cs by avoiding third-party capital, which is why they're handling things this way
Kamiya isn't ruling out a future PlatinumGames collaboration and would jump at the chance to create something using an IP owned by Platinum (their only IP being The Wonderful 101 of course