Scalebound Could Happen Thanks to PlatinumGames

In January 2017, Scalebound, one of the most highly-anticipated Xbox One titles, was officially canceled. Fans couldn’t believe that a project with so much potential was completely dead, but this was confirmed to be the case by Xbox head Phil Spencer in April 2020. Resurrection is possible, however, as PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba and vice president Hideki Kamiya have expressed an interest in opening conversations with Microsoft about the doomed title.

“Kamiya has always wanted to do Scalebound,” Inaba said in a new interview with IGN Japan, “so we’d like to have a proper discussion with Microsoft.”

Kamiya, originally the director of Scalebound, continued. “We did a lot of work on it, and it’s no use Microsoft keeping the game in its current form, so we’d like to do something about it (laughs). Phil! Let’s do it together!”

In late 2021, Kamiya spoke out on the game’s fate in a series of interviews posted to YouTube, explaining that the ambitious project was a big challenge for PlatinumGames at the time.

“We were working in an environment we weren’t used to. We were developing on the Unreal engine, we also lacked the necessary know-how to build a game based on online features. The hurdles we had to overcome were very big. We weren’t experienced enough and couldn’t get over that wall, leading to what happened in the end,” Kamiya said. “I’m sorry to the players who looked forward to it, and moreover I’m sorry to Microsoft who had placed their trust in us as a business partner. I want to apologize both as a creator and as a member of PlatinumGames.”

Scalebound was an ambitious project for the time. Players would be able to control a pet dragon named Thuban, using weapons to defeat enemies while also giving commands to the friendly beast. PlatinumGames also intended the title to be more dialogue and graphic-heavy–a departure from their usual action titles. 

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