Scalebound might have been too ambitious for its time. In January 2017, the Xbox exclusive title was officially canceled, and in 2020, Phil Spencer himself confirmed that the game was totally dead. Gamers have had years to mourn what could have been–it seemed a waste to cancel a project with so much potential. Players would be able to control a pet dragon named Thuban, using weapons to defeat enemies while also giving commands to their pet beast, all in a gorgeous open world.
Just last week, PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba and vice president Hideki Kamiya sat down for an interview with VGC, both expressing interest in opening conversations with Microsoft regarding the scrapped title. Kamiya, originally the director of Scalebound, immediately gave fans hope. “We did a lot of work on it,” he said, “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!”
VGC has asked Kamiya to elaborate on these comments, and it seems like he was dead serious.
“I think it’s really strange because, to be honest, I’ve been in a lot of interviews since the project ended and I feel like I’ve said many times that I’d love to be able to bring it back,” he said. “Having gotten somewhere with it, as a creator I’d like to see it to the end. And I hear fans saying they really want to play that game, which is too bad, and I want to give that to them when I hear that.”
Kamiya mentioned that he’s brought the project up in past interviews, but this is the first time he’s seeing such a huge reaction. “No, it’s not a joke: I’m totally serious about it, yeah,” he said in regards to bringing Scalebound back from the dead.
When asked if Platinum was in conversations with Microsoft about the potential project, Kamiya’s answer wasn’t what some might expect. “I can’t confirm or deny anything, but we could be talking to Microsoft. But we could also be talking to Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, Konami, or anybody,” he replied.
