When it was announced that Scalebound was cancelled, those looking forward to the next big thing to come out of PlatinumGames were certainly disappointed. Considering it was poised to be quite the huge exclusive for Xbox One, something many gamers feel the platform is rather lacking, it was a bit surprising when the project was scrapped seemingly out of nowhere. Ever since then, much of the blame has been placed on Microsoft, but the studio head at PlatinumGames has stated that both parties involved in the matter are at fault.
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Speaking with VGC, PlatinumGames head Atsushi Inaba stated that it was not easy to watch fans place the blame entirely on Microsoft for the cancellation of Scalebound. “Both sides failed,” he said. The title “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer. Watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over the cancellation wasn’t easy for us to watch. Because the reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed.
“I think there are areas where we could’ve done better and I’m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could’ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.” Inaba then went on to discuss the lessons the studio has learned from the experience of Scalebound being cancelled.
“At the bare minimum, it’s unique for us as a title in so much as we feel that we didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer,” Inaba said. “There were a lot of painful lessons, but that helped us grow as a studio. We obviously can’t go into details about it, because there are rules of engagement as a developer. We want to make sure that the publisher who gave us a chance to make a game in the first place isn’t treated poorly. The truth is, we don’t like to see Microsoft take the brunt of the fan ire because game development is hard and both sides learned lessons, for sure.”
Scalebound was rumored to be picked up for the Nintendo Switch earlier this year, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to become reality considering Microsoft holds the IP. It’s definitely unfortunate that everything has played out the way it has, but we can only hope that Hideki Kamiya’s vision comes to light at some point in the future.
What do you think about all of this? Are you still bummed that Scalebound was cancelled? Do you believe the game will ever get made? Sound off in the comments section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!
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