Hideki Kamiya apologises to Microsoft for Scalebound’s cancellation

PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya has apologised to players and Microsoft for the events that led to the cancellation of Scalebound.

The action RPG was originally planned as an Xbox exclusive in 2017, but the game was eventually cancelled.

In a new video on the Cutscenes YouTube channel, Kamiya explains how Scalebound came to be and why it was eventually scapped.

“Scalebound was a project we had teamed up on with Microsoft,” Kamiya explains. “They expected good things from us, and we needed to live up to those expectations with the project.

“Teaming up with Microsoft meant releasing the game on the latest Xbox console [the Xbox One]. I once again had the desire to make a high-end game. I wanted to go back to something photorealistic.

“While it was a personal wish of mine, I thought it was also a necessary mission for PlatinumGames to improve our graphical ability and get to the next step of modern game creation. So we first decided to go with a universe like that.

“I loved fantasy worlds since I was a child. I’ve always enjoyed worlds with swords, magic, and dragons. When I was a child, I don’t know if people overseas are familiar with these, but I would play Sorcerian, Hydlide, all these fantasy games from the classic PC era that I really enjoyed.

“I always wanted to make something around that theme. This is how I thought of a world revolving around a young man fighting together with a dragon. However, it was a big challenge for PlatinumGames.

“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.

“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.”

Both Xbox and PlatinumGames have previously given explanations of what happened with Scalebound, but neither has explicitly taken sole responsibility in the way Kamiya does in this latest interview.

In 2019, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba told VGC in an interview that it “wasn’t easy” to watch as publisher Microsoft received the brunt of fan ire following the cancellation news.

“Both sides failed,” Inaba said, and ultimately, the game “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.”

Further reading

Platinum ‘would love to return to Scalebound’ if opportunity arises

But IP still belongs to Microsoft, says studio head

Following speculation last year that Scalebound may be in development again, Xbox boss Phil Spencer shot the rumours down and explained that the project was definitely dead, adding that there were no hard feelings with PlatinumGames.

“It’s a tough one because I have a ton of respect for Platinum, [Hideki] Kamiya-san, the team and I feel no ill will,” he said at the time. “We talk to those guys: there’s no animosity between the teams.

“We tried to go do something and it didn’t work, and I regret that we were so public about what we tried to go do. I did some learning around Fable Legends [and] I did some learning around Scalebound about being public with things before I know that we’ve got a real, believable plan, and something I’ve felt in my hands is gonna be there.

“We just didn’t get there with Scalebound and with the team. And I say that across both teams.”