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Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

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Hoo-doo

Banned
Watch Microsoft gesture towards some vague unknown surprises in 2017 in their statement, attempting to put a quick band-aid on the wound.

Guess i'm going to have to buy Nier just to show support to Platinum this year.
 
This might not really be the right time or place.
But I do wonder what will be the point of releasing KH3 on Xbone.
FF13 series did okay, and at least established the brand on the system so FF15 did good enough.

But with all the HD collections releasing on PS4 only. If a 2.9 collection doesn't come on Xbone.

I really do wonder the point of porting it to Xbone, unless it's a really cheap port.
Actually not only do they have to make for Xbone, but they have to make for the Scropio.

I mean, what does this have to do with canceling a game in development gridlock? You think they cancelled it because the developer is Japanese? That's silly. They flew Kamiya out multiple times to shows. They invested in him and his project. It just didn't come together.
 

sonicmj1

Member
For Scalebound or Phantom Dust?

If you mean Phantom Dust, originally it was a multiplayer only game then they asked them to turn it into a 30 hour JRPG whilst still keeping the same budget.

Phantom Dust dev collapsed under Microsoft's demands

Yeah, between Scalebound, Phantom Dust, and Fable Legends, it feels like a pattern's starting to develop on Microsoft's end. If it's not Gears, Halo, or Forza, the game's as likely to die on the vine as it is to get finished.
 

Riposte

Member
I hope Kamiya recovers well. Sounds like this game really put him through the grinder.

I can't recall hearing a single word about the propose remastered Phantom Dust (announced after they canceled the proper remake). Not a good sign.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Watch Microsoft gesture towards some vague unknown surprises in 2017 in their statement, attempting to put a quick band-aid on the wound.

It's a great chance for them to announce games that will never be released in a hurry.
 

pswii60

Member
Putting this in screencap form so it doesn't go unnoticed (source is a Persona Central writer)

nj5bjLV.png


Saddening news if this is true.
Heartbreaking, my thoughts go out to Kamiya. What a talent, I hope he can clear his head and get himself well quickly.
 

Zedark

Member
So, is Platinum as a company in trouble? I get that vibe from some posts, but this thread is moving so fast I can't really get a handle on news

They have no direct financial trouble from this (Microsoft was funding, after all), but they have 100+ staff who are now suddenly without a project. That is the big problem they face right now. If they can quickly find a few new things to work on or a big new contract, then they will be fine, but more realistically they won't find enough work and there will be mandatory redundancies (layoffs). It's a hard time for them, but the studio won't stop existing at the very least.
 
Is Below still a thing? Pls say yes.
I've been looking for new on it for the past few days but there's not much out there it seems. To be honest I was surprised when I read the game was announced almost four years ago and had already been in development for a few years even before that. So at this point it's at least been six years in development? Insane.

Hopefully we'll get (good) news soon.
 

Aikidoka

Member
I didn't hink it was coming out this year, but I didn't expect it to be cancelled. Sad to hear about the mental health issues. Hopefully he gets help and is able to make his dream game in the future.
Seriously doubt Crackdown 3 is coming this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was next.
 

yurinka

Member
Super horrible news, specially for Platinum because it seems to be their biggest project by far. Let's hope they don't have to fire people or close the studio because (if confirmed) Microsoft BLOCKED them.

Let's hope they have enough money or another big project with someone else like Nintendo or Sony.

And if true, the dudes at Rare working on Sea of Thieves must be nervous right now.
 

AAMARMO

Banned
This generation the Xbox Team management has been abysmal.

For example what was the reasoning to shut down Lionhead Studio and Press Play? Also the cancellation of Phantom Dust? I do hope Microsoft realize what there doing is not helping the situation this generation with low sales and losing consumers.

I do hope one day that Microsoft sells the Xbox Division to a different company such as Amazon,Apple or Google.
 

Kneefoil

Member
LoL @ so many people making threads about this.

I haven't been very interested in Scalebound, but it still seemed pretty alright. Sucks if all that work goes to waste, and it would suck to be an Xbone owner who was really looking forward to this, since this was one of the few games that was supposed to set that console apart from the rest.
 
I wonder why Platinum pressured their staff like that.

Maybe it wasn't all PG problem. MS was setting those milestones too. Probably it was a combination of different factors and parties.

I feel that Kamiya and other leads might felt the preassure of showing that PG can still belong into the AAA world. They tried to built a new template for the company, so PG wouldn't be just an "action game" studio (the game was an ARPG). It was a very ambitious project, in which the company was betting a part of it's future.
 

UCBooties

Member
I'm in the same boat as some others in the thread wondering what I even own a XBone for at this point. Th only thing I'm playing on it right now is Skyrim and looking at the past year of releases...

I dunno... ReCore looked neat?

It's hard not to get the impression that the XBone is now solely the console of shooting and driving, at least as far as big budget exclusives go. I don't like racing games and I only play a one or two shooters a year. Halo and Gears cannot carry a console for me.
 
Oh for fuck sake. If Microsoft have some brains they won't do this, because outrage will be huge. Lionhead and some free2play garbage is one thing, but canceling Kamiya's dream game is brand suicide.

Are you perhaps saying that Microsoft... should be kissing their business goodbye?

give it to Sony, they don't abandon games that ran into a bit of a trouble

They dropped Rime like, what, last year? Game still looks great and is due out in May under a new publisher, so there couldn't have been more than "a bit" of trouble there.

You can't really equate a third-party contractor to first-party employees, either. The latter would still be a real cost whether they work on a particular project or not.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Terrible news. Sure it didn't look good but still. Wasn't this even bigger than W101? Sure W101 bombed but at least it made it to retail.

And hearing about how this is taking a toll on the team made me feel sick.
 

emb

Member
I did not expect that. Though I can say I had forgotten about this one. Didn't seem like a game that would end up not panning out.

Hope Platinum and Kamiya come out alright from this. Especially sad to hear about possible health issues involved.
 
I had a feeling MS only greenlit this game because for some reason everyone was going crazy about Platinum. But most of their games seem to bomb.

Mediocre Sales =/= Bad Game.

They've had some blunders sure, but most of their core titles are the peak of the Character Action genre. Nno one else is doing what they are doing or as well as they are doing it. If it wasn't for Kamiya and DMC1, this genre wouldn't be as far along as it is now, or maybe even exist.
 

Femto.

Member
So is Xbox going to remain as the "shooter and vroom vroom platform" ?

This sucks not only for Platinum, Kamiya, and MS, but for us as well.

I don't want Sony to dominate everything in terms of game variety despite PlayStation being my platform of choice. I really hope MS can diversify itself or Nintendo brings itself back to the SNES days.
 
Oh man guess we'll know for sure tmrw but it would be a damn shame if true. Honestly the game never blew me away every time we saw it, but considering it was Kamiya I was still excited nonetheless.
 
I am so depressed right now. Was really looking forward to this game. Hopefully someone else will pick up this game. Best wishes to Kamiya! Big fan of his
 
It's a big blow to the Xbox line up. Honestly there's a serious lack of single player story driven games. Well, exclusive ones at least. Everything is literally MP focused. Forza 7, State of Decay, Sea of Thieves, Crackdown...(and I've heard Crackdown isn't going too hot either, though nothing as bad as this).

Unless they have a bunch of first party studios secretly tucked away somewhere (which they don't that I know of), I genuinely struggle to think of what surprises they could have at E3 *as of right now*. Halo 6 is to be expected, and I don't see publishers playing ball much anymore with 3rd party exclusives unless Microsoft gives the Xbox division a huge budget to throw cash around, which I highly doubt. Their major first party IP are on a decline with Halo doing less than before and Gears 4 not selling that well at all relatively speaking (not good enough to sustain a huge studio with that many workers and budget).

What's happening now is the exact opposite of what Xbox fans seemed to want out of a Phil spencer leadership.

I remember when he became head of Xbox and everyone was saying how there'll be tons of new games, but they're still coasting on announcements from 2013-2014 and in that time, games have been cancelled, multiple studios closed including Lionhead...

As a big Xbox fan since day one, I'm not very hopeful for the future. Scorpio won't do anything without software to push it heavily.
 
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