In general, it’s not easy to admit you messed up, but what’s even harder is knowing someone else is taking the blame for something you were part of yourself.
This seems to be the case with the cancellation of Scalebound, which still hurts for some people (me included). Back when it was first announced during E3 2014 by Microsoft, Scalebound received a lot of attention and hype due to the fact that it’s an RPG title with amazing graphics and a dragon companion. The title was of course being developed by none other than PlatinumGames, who built quite the reputation with amazing titles – MadWorld, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Bayonetta 2, Nier: Automata – to name a few. To add to that, Scalebound was being helmed by Hideki Kamiya, of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry fame. All seemed set for a big hit, one that Microsoft needed as exclusive titles for the Xbox One seem far and few in between to this day.
The title was seen as a big challenge for Platinum, as the studio has not made something on the same scale before. Despite this, there was widespread shock when Scalebound was ultimately canned back in January 2017, after a lengthy development period.
The initial wave of backlash, of course, fell on Microsoft, as most people saw the company fail in its publishing duties. However, in an exclusive interview with Videogameschronicle, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba stated that both developer and publisher share some of the blame when it came to Scalebound.
“Both sides failed,” Inaba said. 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," said Inaba in the interview. "Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.”
Despite this, Inaba keeps his head up high and feels that he and the studios have grown due to the downfall of Scalebound. They will surely need to, as Bayonetta 3 is currently still in development and the release of Astral Chain is nearing ever closer.
