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[Shpeshal Nick]

MS can't cancel Cuphead, even if they wanted to (and they don't, they've been awesome to us). I'm not sure how else to put this.

Yeah I edited after I saw your other post. All good.

Hope Cuphead is a success for your studio.

 

[Neonep]

Damn, does Platinum at least own the IP?

Nope, Microsoft does.

 

[singhr1]

I am honestly baffled at so many posts saying that no one cared about Scalebound before this announcement

People cared because its a partnership btwn MS and a Japanese dev, people just didn't think it demonstrated anything noteworthy though. If anything it looked mediocre or bad. Go look at old threads

 

[The Antitype]

'It might not be MS's fault, why are you fingering MS' is a fine thing to say the first time it happens.

The second time it happens with an MS-published game, it's suspicious.

The third time, it's a trend.

Which other publishers, exactly, have canned games that have been in development, been shown at game shows, etc., as many times as MS, that aren't publishers that are in dire financial straits?

Activision.

The two companies are actually very similar lately, as far as their singular objectives to drive costs down and maximize ROI on a few successful products.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

Its the direction the majority of the industry is headed in.

Really Sony 1st party should be commended in terms of still producing major, expensive, single player focused narrative games. They are one of the few players in town still doing it.

That is because Sony knows is important as platform holder to do both .
Or to have games even if there are not big sellers or will lose money .
Yes Sony games will also go that way but there not going to forget everything else.
There making Knack 2 should tell you something lol.

 

[dmr87]

Partnership between Platinum & Capcom and they team up to make Power Stone 3 a PS4 exclusive.

Itsuno and DMC 5.

 

[Jarmel]

Platinum will have essentially two full teams not working on anything in the next month. That's probably half their studio if not more. Some will get shifted to Granblue but people are definitely getting laid off.

 

[Mattakuevan]

Noooo goddamnit. I was really lookig forward to this.

 

[a Master Ninja]

I wonder if we'll ever see another exclusive Japanese game for Xbox ever again. Probably not, right?

 

[DragonQuarter]

Very bummed to hear. Hope this doesn't hit Platinum too hard.

 

[Trago]

I hope this doesn't do anything to affect of any future Japanese AAA Microsoft published titles. As a major player, it would suck for them to just stop trying with these kinds of games.

 

[Nydius]

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
My take on all this, and I've been seeing this for a while, is that Microsoft is transitioning all their games to the 'live service' model.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Basically Microsoft want to have their games emulate what Minecraft has been able to do.
Long lifecycle, large user base, Increased spend.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Microsoft's future direction is about being able to offer the Xbox games and live services on multiple devices that run Windows 10.

Seeing a lot of people shocked by these tweets. If this comes to pass, it really shouldn't shock anyone. This is the model that Microsoft CEO Nadella has been working on for years. He was in charge of cloud infrastructure, client services, and overall services. He was crucial in migrating Office from stand alone software to service-based subscription. Enterprise Windows 10 is more of a service than an OS at this point and there's no reason to suspect that they won't be doing the same thing with home versions later on in its lifespan, once the adoption rate is high enough to justify doing so.

Nadella has never really been a big "hardware" guy. Under his "embrace-and-expand" philosophy, he basically undermined ALL of Microsoft's attempts with Windows Phone by taking every major exclusive feature and rolling out similar software versions on Android and iOS (Office Mobile, OneDrive, Xbox, etc.). Migrating to services has been Nadella's entire plan since taking over after Ballmer.

 

[icespide]

People cared because its a partnership btwn MS and a Japanese dev, people just didn't think it demonstrated anything noteworthy though. If anything it looked mediocre or bad. Go look at old threads

I think a lot of people were very much excited about the game, it never showed well but they still had faith because it's Platinum

 

[rocketskates]

Platinum hasn't had a game sell as much as MGSR. All their games underperform. They live cuz of good faith, but I worry exactly how much faith they still have to support their company. If they're hoping Nier will save them then I worry for them.

Exactly. Never any huge commercial successes but someone's always got faith in them. NIER won't sell like hotcakes but as evidenced as the commercial trainwreck that was Drakengard 3, Square-Enix has faith in Yoko Taro.

This was by far their biggest project. Automata is essentially done at this point and this cancellation seems to have been a surprise. Their remaining projects, Granblue and Lost Order, aren't anywhere near big enough to compensate for this.

Lol Scalebound is definitely not their biggest project "by far"

 

[HighResTomato]

Waiting for Phil Spencer tweet about "wanting to do better" "please, give us feedback, more feedback!" even got Bonnie Ross talking about feedback.

If their E3 is not on point they can expect major feedback in the form of a middle finger from a lot of people that stuck with Xbox waiting 3-4 years for games that are getting canceled one after the other.

 

[Elfstruck]

Capcom should hire this team and have them make something or have them help Itsuno make whatever it is he is making.

The team isn't going anywhere. They will work on whatever project that Platinum has in the pipeline.

 

[KingBroly]

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
My take on all this, and I've been seeing this for a while, is that Microsoft is transitioning all their games to the 'live service' model.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Basically Microsoft want to have their games emulate what Minecraft has been able to do.
Long lifecycle, large user base, Increased spend.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Microsoft's future direction is about being able to offer the Xbox games and live services on multiple devices that run Windows 10.

The one-size-fits-all approach is a terrible way to do things. It limits your platform's scope and breadth of content. Only a handful of games could do it.

Sports games could do it, EASILY.

Online Shooters could do it, EASILY.

Fighters can't. Platformers can't. RPG's can't. Action games can't. But then again, I'm left wondering 'what's left anymore?'

 

[semiconscious]

Man if this got the time it needed to be great it would've been sick. It didn't look nearly done, but a multiplayer the last guardian with some action gameplay? That sounds sick if they were able to do it well

Maybe it'll get picked up sometime, it had potential!

i'm not sure what exactly this game was gonna be (tho the protagonist in the original reveal was truly awful), but, aside from 'hey, there's a giant beast!', i'm seriously doubting there would've been any genuine last guardian similarities whatsoever ...

 

[KurtSloane]

Do people realize that the Scorpio is still an Xbox One??

The jump is more equivalent to a next gen machine, I believe many casuals will take ot as so.

 

[DeadManWalking]

I'm legit socked. Game did look interesting and after years of hype this sucks. Better prepare to buy HaloForzaGears for a next decade.

 

[Voror]

Shame as this was one of the titles that made me perk up back about Xbox One way back when it was announced. Would be curious to know the full story but not sure if we ever will anytime soon.

 

[bitbydeath]

Its the direction the majority of the industry is headed in.

Really Sony 1st party should be commended in terms of still producing major, expensive, single player focused narrative games. They are one of the few players in town still doing it.

It's only MS bowing out on this, Nintendo still produce fantastic single player experiences as well.

 

[Self_Destructive]

The only way they could fix this is if they cancelled it because they bought the rights to Bayonetta and wanted Kamiya and the team on that...

It's not sounding like they bought the rights to Bayonetta...

 

[Teletraan1]

A damn 70 page thread for Scalebound, in a couple hours. Where was any of this pent up interest during the last 3 years .

Interesting times we live in

To be fair 60 of these pages was that dogpile.

 

[twobear]

Activision.

The two companies are actually very similar lately, as far as their singular objectives to drive costs down and maximize ROI on a few successful products.

Which major Activision games were cancelled?

The one-size-fits-all approach is a terrible way to do things. It limits your platform's scope and breadth of content. Only a handful of games could do it.

Sports games could do it, EASILY.

Online Shooters could do it, EASILY.

Fighters can't. Platformers can't. RPG's can't. Action games can't. But then again, I'm left wondering 'what's left anymore?'

Actually, MS have already done it with fighters with Killer Instinct?

 

[SenjutsuSage]

You're saying that most people in this thread are posting here to attack Microsoft.

It sounds like you have a persecution complex.

There it is. I missed that word lol. Nope, just telling it like it is. Where was this level of interest in the actual fucking game? Now all of a sudden people really want to play it and are so broken up about it being canceled. I will repeat what I said. Most of the people making this so large didn't give a shit, and I'm okay with saying that.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Platinum will have essentially two full teams not working on anything in the next month. That's probably half their studio if not more. Some will get shifted to Granblue but people are definitely getting laid off.

They might have secured a contract with Nintendo for a Switch game though? Let's wait and see.

 

[Jarmel]

Lol Scalebound is definitely not their biggest project "by far"

Scalebound was a huge openworld AAA game that was supposed to be their push into the Western market with a big online multiplayer component. What, do you think Nier is comparable to it?

 

[Lucifon]

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.

Whilst I agree with all this the problem is MP focused games sell far better than single player story driven games outside of some special edge cases. People vote with their wallets and the mass market is much more drawn to mp focused things, frustratingly.

 

[SneakersSO]

Any real possibility Microsoft have a ton of unannounced projects waiting to be announced this year or...?

Depends on what you think a 'ton' is, and whether you truly consider games like Forza 7 & Halo 6 to be unannounced. Outside of those two.... yeah, don't hold your breath in terms of volume.

Whilst I agree with all this the problem is MP focused games sell far better than single player story driven games outside of some special edge cases. People vote with their wallets and the mass market is much more drawn to mp focused things, frustratingly.

The thing is, Sony is proving that you can do both. Sure, MP games by & large sell more, but notice that Sony has tended not to really try & compete in the same genres & subgenres that the big tentpoles currently do. All Sony has really done is placed heavy limits on budget & team sizes and stuck to letting their developers try & target things gamers are interested that 3rd party isn't providing. Its worked for Sony ins large part now because they have this 3rd party support.

For example, I hear this criticism for Sony on the lack of their big fall games, and I always laugh because how many non-tentpole titles that release in the fall need to be buried before we make the realization that Sony avoiding fall/holiday is a deliberate decision on their part, to better serve the games that they are working on? MS has routinely just tried to blitzkrieg the last 4 months of the year and buried just as many games as 3rd parties do who think they'll be able to breakthrough the noise of the blockbuster releases.

 

[Vic_Viper]

Woah wtf Microsoft! I was really looking forward to this one.

 

[Mcdohl]

I don't care about Scalebound, nor have I ever cared.

But it's always sad to hear about games, specially from passionate studios, getting the boot.

Will this be the future TLG/FFXV? Someone has to fill the vaporwave gap after all, huh?

 

[Jarmel]

They might have secured a contract with Nintendo for Switch though? Let's wait and see.

This doesn't seem planned and the game just got canned in the past two weeks. They would have to start preproduction first.

 

[icespide]

There it is. I missed that word lol. Nope, just telling it like it is. Where was this level of interest in the actual fucking game? Now all of a sudden people really want to play it and are so broken up about it being canceled. I will repeat what I said. Most of the people making this so large didn't give a shit, and I'm okay with saying that.

you honestly think this thread is so big now because people want to feign concern and not because they were actually looking forward to the game?

 

[rocketskates]

I wonder if we'll ever see another exclusive Japanese game for Xbox ever again. Probably not, right?

Wait until KH3 gets cancelled for the west and the answer will be more clear.

 

[Ushay]

Any real possibility Microsoft have a ton of unannounced projects waiting to be announced this year or...?

We'll find our in June I guess.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Platinum needs to start owning its IPs
I wish them the best, hope they still have some great stuff in development

 

[PositiveGamer]

This is my problem with MS. They have no variety in their lineup, and can any project that doesn't look like it is going to sell well - even WAY down the development cycle. They take no risks at all, and just rehash more and more every time I turn around

And the developers have noticed. All of the JRPG's are skipping MS with the exception of FF (newest one only, and probably short-lived as well). Basically the entire lineup is shooting, racing, or such type of games. No creativity in any of the AAA projects, with the exception of Sea of Thieves. But I honestly expect that to be canned as well at this point.

No innovation. No creativity. Fewer games that bomb to be certain, but no exclusives. Sony doesn't always get it right, but at least they try, and for that I have to give them my money. And the lineup is more varied. Secretly, I'm still rooting for Nintendo to return from the ashes...


XB1 is no more than a W10 store front at this point... so I don't see much hope for Scorpio either. The games will be pretty, but just more of the same as well.

As a big xbox fan.. I agree with your statement and it sucks..

I remember how awesome the OG Xbox was.. it had so many unique games! :-(

 

[Coda]

This news still saddens me for some reason even though I didn't care about the game too much.

I just don't think we've seen a game like this get canceled in this day and age, or a Platinum game for that matter.

Also Platinum has a really good correspondence with Nintendo and I think they're going to make some great new titles on the Switch. Who knows, they may even announce a new game in a few days.

 

[Obliterator]

That is because Sony knows is important as platform holder to do both .
Or to have games even if there are not big sellers or will lose money .
Yes Sony games will also go that way but there not going to forget everything else.
There making Knack 2 should tell you something lol.

I totally agree. I really respect what Sony is doing in the positioning of its current studios. Let the 3rd parties provide these big online games like Destiny, For Honor, Ghost Recon, COD, Battlefield etc. and double down on something we aren't seeing much of which is these big story based single player games. Even if they don't all sell gangbusters its worth maybe a few misses to design your platform as a place for gamers interested in those experiences to invest in your console on.

Lol Scalebound is definitely not their biggest project "by far"

In terms of budget being provided it almost certainly was the largest current source of revenue

 

[plufim]

The jump is more equivalent to a next gen machine, I believe many casuals will take ot as so.

Irrelevant when there won't be Scorpio exclusives

 

[gdt]

This is a huge bummer. I was really looking forward to the next Kamiya game on PC. My Xbox is dusty as fuck and I guess that isn't changing any time soon. Thanks for the pc ports though!

 

[singhr1]

I think a lot of people were very much excited about the game, it never showed well but they still had faith because it's Platinum

Having faith in Platinum is almost a joke in 2017. They are so hit and miss with so many B and C teams you never know what Platinum you're going to get.

I love their style to death but man have their recent releases been so mediocre.

 

[Audioboxer]

you honestly think this thread is so big now because people want to feign concern and not because they were actually looking forward to the game?

The OT for the game would probably struggle to hit 70/80+ pages ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It's a combination of things, but sure, the majority either looked forward to the game, or at least respected that it was an exclusive game that wasn't the usual "racing/bald space marines/sports". Plus anything linked to Japanese games development on an Xbox platform is like gold dust.

 

[FinaruDensetsu]

The problem for Platinum is they now have 100+ people sitting there, needing to be paid, who do not have a project to work on.

You don't just walk away from a major cancellation like this unscathed. There will be more than likely layoffs, but yes Platinum will survive it.

Yup the major talent will get funneled to the other existing projects while the redundant employees that now don't have SB to work on will have to be laid off.

 

[IDontBeatGames]

Hi. Cuphead will come out.

Good to hear!

 

[tiebreaker]

A damn 70 page thread for Scalebound, in a couple hours. Where was any of this pent up interest during the last 3 years .

Interesting times we live in

I mean, Scalebound is the most anticipated Xbox One/Windows 10 exclusive on GAF.

 

[Sesha]

Damn, does Platinum at least own the IP?

Platinum doesn't own any of the IPs they've worked on so far. They have hopes of doing so for at least some potential future IPs, though.

 

[old manatee]

Hot damn we could have had another Mutants in Manhattan on our hands.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

That sucks. I bever would have played it due to not owning an Xbox 1 but it looked really cool.