Director of Cancelled Xbox Exclusive Still Wants to Finish the Game

It’s been more than 7 years since Scalebound‘s cancellation, but it appears the game is still on the mind of director Hideki Kamiya. Scalebound was originally in development at PlatinumGames, but Kamiya is now in charge at Clovers, Inc. This morning, the developer’s official X/Twitter account shared a video of Kamiya watching gameplay from the cancelled title with other staffers. Kamiya then told the team that he’d “love to make it again someday.” Following that, Kamiya shared the post from his personal account, saying “let’s do it, Phil,” in reference to Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

The concept of Scalebound has been on Kamiya’s mind since the founding of PlatinumGames in 2006. The game actually began development in 2013, with Xbox Game Studios handling publishing duties. PlatinumGames has long had a reputation for games that put an emphasis on action, but Scalebound would have instead been an action RPG. For multiple reasons, the game never actually came together, and ended up cancelled. However, Kamiya is clearly still proud of the work that the team accomplished.

The rights to the Scalebound IP are owned by Microsoft. Decisions about the game’s fate and any potential resurrection will have to be made by the company. It’s impossible to say how much (if any) of Scalebound‘s existing build could be salvaged, or if the game would have to largely start over from scratch. If the existing build could still be expanded on, it’s not implausible to think that Xbox Game Studios could revive the project.

It’s worth noting that Xbox is in a much different position now than it was in 2017. At the time, Xbox was still focused on competing with PlayStation and Nintendo. These days, the company is focused on bringing Xbox published games to multiple platforms. That has greatly changed Microsoft’s investment strategy, as there are more opportunities to recoup costs. While Scalebound would have been an Xbox console exclusive back then, Microsoft is now publishing games on Switch and PS5 as well. It might make financial sense to bring it back as a multiplatform release, considering how well some of those Xbox games are selling on other platforms.

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For now, a resurrection for Scalebound still seems somewhat unlikely. It’s unclear whether Xbox would have any interest in bringing back a game it previously cancelled, and then there’s also the fact that Kamiya is probably pretty busy right now; Clovers, Inc. is currently working on a sequel to Okami for Capcom, and development on the game seems to be in the early stages. For now, Xbox fans that were once looking forward to Scalebound‘s release should temper their expectations.

Would you like to see Kamiya and his team finish Scalebound? Do you think Xbox will respond to Kamiya’s request to bring it back? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!