• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

Status
Not open for further replies.
To be honest, I always thought the game looked like utter shit, but I never said it too often because to diss Platinum round these parts is akin to kicking the hornet's nest, and I'm not too keen to stir up trouble. But the game just looked pants from the outset.

This is huge if true though. Game has been in development for a long time now.
 

Ridley327

Member
The game looked really bad at E3 last year, but to have the whole thing scuttled? That has to be tremendously damaging for the likes of Platinum.
 
This is insane if true.
Game was revealed in 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qcwiZEu1fA
And to just pull the plug now.
I wonder if it was starting to enter development hell and Microsoft said NOPE NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
Or if they (slow pokely) looked at the budget and realized this game probably won't even break even in terms of making a profit. But that seems odd since Microsoft is really throwing money into Xbox right now. And I'd say Scalebound is currently probably the biggest announced game for Xbox that isn't out yet.

lol, Nintendo. Microsoft own the IP.

This. I recall this not EVER coming to PS4 because it is owned by Microsoft.
But maybe Platinum can buy it back from them or something like that?
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Oh, certainly. I'm sure Microsoft gave them a much bigger budget than Square-Enix did. But you can see Microsoft's creative control over the project in everything from art direction to gameplay to marketing. Scalebound was clearly a "Microsoft wants to give us a lot of money and we need it, so god damn it we're making them a game" project.

Nier strikes me as much more in the style of games Platinum had been making independently.
Again that was all Kamiya, he has literally talked about how this is his dream game for a while, MS didn't control the art style at all, Platinum was given a ton of creative control if you had even remotely read a single interview about this game. People seriously need to stop projecting about this game man.
 
It's me or MS are too "trigger happy" this gen when it comes to cancel games?

maybe! easily could be. But the canceled games, with the exception of MAYBE the game the coalition was working on, didnt ever seem like they were looking fantastic. Scalebound had some bad demos, and there was some really rough feedback from fable legends.
 

SOR5

Member
My biggest 'hope' is that they've transitioned development to a different team or something like that, like what they did with Killer Instinct

If it's still on, crisis averted, great, nice one.

If it's cancelled MS can absolutely fuck off for a minute because these cancelled games cannot be mere coincidence.
 
Obviously we need more information before much can be said, but Platinum has not had a good time lately. Like, have they made a "good" game since Bayonetta 2, and what really good games did they touch between Bayo 1 and 2? I know Star Fox Zero wasn't completely Platinum's fault, but they still seem to be on a really bad streak. Did the developer just get over-hyped after the, imo, fantastic Bayonetta games? Again, I don't want to immediately throw them under the bus, but jeez. It doesn't look they've been having much success the past few years.

Edit: hoping that the cancellation rumors are false :(
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
At this point I would be happy if Microsoft just bought up some exclusives. Gears, Halo and Forza are great... but damn. Where is the new life?

Aside from depriving PS4/PC owners of potential good games, what would that achieve?
 

gow3isben

Member
Damn it this was the secondary reason I bought an Xboxone besides Gears 4. Now what do I do with that machine? Wait around for Gears 5? Maybe Quantum Break isn't as bad as people say.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Well that sucks :( The game looked bad, but I was hoping there would be some Platinum magic to pull it off in the end. Guess not.
 

renzolama

Member
By6lWipCIAA80pf.jpg

I feel like I know this guy. Is this a public meme?
 

Rymuth

Member
Not at all shocked, tbh and pretty much expected it.

- Kamiya calling MS shits and fucks on twitter
- The fact that Kamiya always looked like didnt want to be there whenever he was on stage
- The Gamescom reveal that looked like garbage and the E3 re-reveal that wasn't too hot either
- That they've gone a long time without any word of this

Bad vibes all around.
 
I love Kamiya and every single on of his games, super bummed if this is true. On the plus side I'll have literally no reason to buy an XBOne or a PC anytime soon so my wallet can rest easy.
 

SgtCobra

Member
Its a joke because of Bayonetta 2 and Beyond Good and Evil 2 (reportedly)

Probably because a similar situation happened with SEGA dropping the funding for Bayonetta 2, before Nintendo took over the project.

I just hope someone, whoever it could be, will save the project.
Thanks guys, had a feeling it was due to this, they haven't been the only ones who have saved other games though. I don't care who ends up "saving" the game, preferably a third party though as it will reach a bigger audience, Nintendo are not the only ones with money.

I don't really feel bad for Kamiya personally as he tends to act like an ass, but it would be a waste of all the hard work he and his employees at Platinum have done. Simply a shame.
 
I don't think the demos looked that great, but I was starting to become a believer in the concept.

How unfortunate. Maybe it will get re-worked and they salvage what they can.

There's gotta be some reworking of this possible. Hell of a lot of work and assets will go to waste if they can't. Shame for Platinum if this is true, they've put a lot of themselves in this project...
 
Holy shit first Phantom Dust got canceled and now possibly this?

Less and less reasons to own a Xbone.

Mmm, already happened with Fable too. I'm a big proponent of what MS do, I think they've had a strong software line-up despite their hardware woes, but it sucks to hear this stuff. I mean, the game being rough and big cuts didn't stop them putting Recore out so I wonder what the state of the game was.
 
I'd love to watch a Keighley directed Lost in La Mancha (chronicled the production woes and eventual canning of Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote film) style docu on this.
 

brad-t

Member
But none of those games sold very well and Starfox was a critical bomb too, mostly due to Nintendo (Miyamoto)input on the project.

I don't think that makes Sony a better suitor though. And lots of Wii U games didn't sell that well haha

I just think Nintendo would be more likely out of anyone, if that situation arose. But it may not, or PG might just disappear instead of being acquired.
 

Bluenoser

Member
Outside of indie games, it's rare for projects to be saved by a third party. Devil's Third is the only remotely recent example that comes to mind.

I totally meant MS as that company that throws more money. My bad for not making it clear.

The way I see it, this is a game they were very proud to announce and be a part of, and even if development was not going well, there's always a chance to save it if they are willing.

Look at Last Guardian- no one thought that would ever come out, and it did, and it wasn't half bad by most accounts. Seems like Sony is more willing to stick by projects than MS, and at this point MS can't really afford to lose more IP's as they only have a few left.
 

Markoman

Member
PG needs a true home. I don't want to see them waste their talent on projects like this and the license whoring. SB looked like a travesty from the beginning - the main char was Kamiya's way of bending down. Nintendo or Sony , your move...
 

oti

Banned
It's me or MS are too "trigger happy" this gen when it comes to cancel games?

I'm just wondering what they believe an interesting portfolio for the upcoming Scorpio would look like.

I mean, even shinier cars in Forza 7 sure are nice but that can't be it, can it? With Halo and Gears not pulling the numbers they used to... what's left?
 
People can try to blame MS as much as they want to for this and they likely share some blame. But people can't just ignore Platinum. The game has looked rough as hell at every showing and it was them developing it.

Eh, MS is more at blame here than you'd think. But that story will be out in due time, don't worry.
 

VariantX

Member
Time for Nintendo moneyhat?

The game would require even more work, as they would have to adjust the scope based on the lower specs and the fact it has to run in tablet mode. The very selfsame game that seemed to run choppy on XB1 HW.
 

Ferr986

Member
I actually liked what I saw about the game, and Kamiya games are awesome, so it's sad to see the game going down (even if I don't have an X1 and I'm not sure my PC is capable of running a game like this).
 

Griss

Member
Damn, this is crazy. Platinum games have tended to sell terribly, but unless I'm mistaken they've never had a problem getting quality product out the door before.

And just a couple of days ago Scalebound featured heavily in that 'Predict the disappointments of 2017' thread. I guess people sensed it.
 
I imagine this will be an issue for Platinum.

1.) They have over 200 staff, presumably at least half of which were making Scalebound.
2.) Nier Automata is about to go gold, and Yoko Taro makes it sound like it's not going into sequel mode right away.
3.) Activision killed off their licensed game division, so that's not an option anymore.
4.) They have the Gran Blue Fantasy project and Lost Order, but I'm assuming that was going to take on Nier's staff given Kamiya wasn't attached to it.

Now they need to get a project from someone on a short turnaround for a ton of staff in an era where that kind of thing is pretty hard to do, and they were struggling to get contracts even when that was less true.
First thing that came to mind. PG are struggling and this looked like their biggest game so far. This is bad news for them.
 
I doubt the outrage will be huge. Most people haven't even been impressed with it.
I know everyone here thinks MS is pure evil but from the game's showing it's seem to hint quality wasn't there and they've been working on it for a while. Kamiya's name itself doesn't mean much, if it did the Wonderful 101 wouldn't have bombed that badly.

Xbox brand seems to be transitioning into Halo, Forza, Gears and Windows 10 Store/PC gaming
I know, but people like to jumping on conclusions without knowing details, we already getting posts like this:
Microsoft killin' Platinum
Canceling ambitious game like this is very bad PR. They should at least give us detailed statement about situation with this game, but since it's Microsoft i highly doubt they'll do this.
 

Seik

Banned
I'd be pretty surprised if Nintendo was interested in signing Bayonetta 3.

It would be among their most expensive games by far, Sega won't have footed most of the bill, and it has pretty terrible sales potential.

Not to contradict you, but this logic applied pretty well to a sequel to Bayonetta before 2 was even announced.

First one was a success, for its genre and it also was multiplat...but making it Nintendo exclusive, on Wii U from all console? This is almost a guaranteed money dump.

So as for Bayo 3, I'm still hopeful.

That said, if this really ends up being cancelled, I fear for Platinum...I shall buy Nier Automata day 1 as encouragement.
I was already going to buy it after playing the demo. :lol
 
This is never good when it happens, but Microsoft also has to be careful I think. The game just really never looked as if it was getting Platinum's full talent/resources. Not sure why that was, but it really looked like something big was missing from the traditional platinum games polish and gameplay, and I don't know what the history is like with either Microsoft or other publishers getting burned in this way, but during that time Platinum released quite a few other titles. If this turns out true it makes you wonder now if Scalebound ever truly had Platinum's full arsenal of talent or attention, because, honestly, it didn't appear as if it did.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom