Nintendo has explained why Bayonetta 3 wasn't shown at E3 2021, even though no new footage of the game has been revealed in four years. There has been a lot of speculation that Bayonetta 3 has been canceled, due to how long it has been since the game was announced.
Bayonetta 3 was officially announced at The Game Awards 2017, with a brief CG trailer that showed Bayonetta being defeated by an unseen opponent. Since then, there hasn't been any footage of the game released, nor any potential release windows. Developer PlatinumGames has confirmed that Bayonetta 3 is still in development, but hasn't revealed any other information about the game. The Switch fanbase has started to wonder whether Metroid Prime 4 will beat Bayonetta 3 to the market, even though its development was restarted entirely. PlatinumGames has shifted into publishing its own games and has released other titles since Bayonetta 3 was announced, so it's likely that this busier schedule has hampered the game's development.
Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct had a number of huge announcements, but Bayonetta 3 wasn't among them. The reason why Bayonetta 3 didn't appear was addressed during an interview with Gamespot (via Video Games Chronicle). Tamoor Hussain from Gamespot asked Nintendo of America’s senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen and senior director of localization Nate Bihldorff about Bayonetta 3, and the reason is simple: it's not ready yet.
According to Trinen, development on Bayonetta 3 is progressing well, but Nintendo only wants to display games when they're ready to be shown. This is especially important when the game is being developed by a third-party studio. While Bayonetta 3 wasn't ready for E3, Trinen suggested that it could be shown soon. Following the debacle around Cyberpunk 2077, which took eight years to develop and released in a nearly unplayable state on last-gen consoles, it's understandable that Nintendo would want to be a bit more careful showing off a title like this, but four years is still a long time to go without any news.
Nintendo entered the Switch generation with a stacked line-up of games, as one of the big complaints about the Wii U was its slow release schedule. This might be the reason why some games were announced way too early, as Shin Megami Tensei V was revealed in 2017, but it won't be released until November. Metroid Prime 4 was mentioned during E3 2021, but no footage of the game has been revealed. Bayonetta 3 is one of the last holdouts from the Switch's first year, but both PlatinumGames and Nintendo have repeatedly assured fans that it's still on the way. The Bayonetta fans of the world might have to wait a little longer before her next outing on Nintendo Switch, but it's just a case of making sure the game is ready to be shown again.
Bayonetta 3 is currently in development for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Gamespot/YouTube, Video Games Chronicle