PlatinumGames Appealed to Microsoft on the Ressurection of Scalebound
PlatinumGames said that they would like to return to the development of Scalebound and showed their intention to negotiate with Microsoft saying "Phil! Let’s do it together!"
PlatinumGames expressed its desire to return to the development of Scalebound, the dragon-buddy exclusive for Xbox that was canceled in 2017. "We’d like to have a proper discussion with Microsoft", said the developers.
In an interview with IGN Japan, the new Platinum CEO Atsushi Inaba revealed that Hideki Kamiya, the vice president of the company and the director of Scalebound, “has been talking about wanting to work on Scalebound again for a while.” Kamiya also added: "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. Phil! [Spencer] Let’s do it together!"
Both Inaba and Kamiya noted that the studio's desire to go back to the IP is not just a whim but a serious intention to really negotiate with Microsoft about the game. "Often in an interview, you might hear a developer politely saying, ‘Yes, if we had the opportunity we’d love to work on that again', but we don’t mean it that way," shared Inaba.
Previously, PlatinumGames along with Xbox gave explanations of why Scalebound was canceled. However, in November 2021 Kamiya took full responsibility for the project’s cancellation saying that the game "was a big challenge for PlatinumGames". He clarified that at the time the team didn't have enough experience to create the environments they desired to. He also added: "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." He apologized to the players as well as to Microsoft.
In 2020 CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer shot down the rumors about Scalebound's resurrection saying that the project wasn't in the works. He also added that there were no hard feelings with the studio.
You can find the original interview with Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
