‘Let’s do it, Phil!’: Hideki Kamiya says he’d still ‘love to make’ Scalebound one day
The former PlatinumGames co-founder says the cancelled Xbox game is still on his mind
Former PlatinumGames co-founder Hideki Kamiya says he still wants to make Scalebound one day.
The Bayonetta, Devil May Cry and Okami director left Platinum a year and a half ago and is currently working on a sequel to Okami with his new studio, Clovers Inc. However, a new tweet posted by the official Clovers Inc account on X suggested that Kamiya still doesn’t have the cancelled Xbox game Scalebound out of his head yet.
The action RPG started development at Platinum in 2013 with Kamiya as director, and was to be released on Xbox and PC with Microsoft Studios publishing. However, in 2017, Microsoft announced that the game had been cancelled.
Clovers’ latest tweet shows Kamiya and other staff crowded round a monitor, as they watch YouTube videos of early Scalebound footage. “Noticed some excitement around Kamiya’s desk,” the tweet reads. “He was reminiscing about the development of Scalebound while watching YouTube videos. It never made it to release, but even now, he still feels proud of it.”
In the video, Kamiya is seen explaining to his colleagues that the protagonist has headphones and a smartphone, despite being in a fantasy world with dragons.
“Just like an isekai reincarnation,” one developer comments, referring to a sub-genre of manga and anime in which a character is transported to another world in a fish-out-of-water scenario.
“Yeah, exactly,” Kamiya replies. “That’s the big trend right now. The tweet also quotes Kamiya as saying “I’d love to make it again someday,” though the video doesn’t show this.
Kamiya then retweeted the video with the message “let’s do it, Phil”, addressing current Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
Platinum and Xbox leadership have been continually asked about Scalebound since its cancellation, but speculation was renewed in early 2022 when Kamiya said he’d like to open discussions with Microsoft over the possibility of officially reviving the project.
At that time, Kamiya had also said “Phil, let’s do it”, and later told VGC: “No, it’s not a joke, I’m totally serious about it.”
In late September, Spencer was asked by Japanese publication Game Watch if a revived Scalebound was possible, but he reportedly said with a smile that “there’s currently nothing to say about Scalebound”.
