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Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

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D

Devilgunman

Member
BlueSparrow said:
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2

They have five exclusives coming up in 2017 at this moment, FIVE.
I'm not counting small downloadable titles here, but still, you get the point.
I had really hoped for more since the phil spencer era started.
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that all five games will come out this year.
 
R

robotrock

Banned
Dizastah said:
wat...

zzzzzz_zps2awttgfz.gif
Click to expand...

It's a really good game
 
D

Dreamwriter

Member
Devilgunman said:
From what I read, it seems like this is on Platinum, or specifically, Kamiya. The bits of "pressuring staff to take vacation" was really bizarre, and that might cause the project to miss milestones and eventually MS had enough of it.
Click to expand...

I didn't get the vibe from that article that they were pressured to take vacation, I got the vibe that they were under too much pressure working on the game and were forced to take vacation to keep from being burnt out. Game development suffers horribly when the developers burn themselves out, it's better to delay a game than to make people work through that.
 
W

Wolfgunblood Garopa

Member
shinobi602 said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. There have been clear signs of bigger problems, but this seems like a bigger deal to me. I think Xbox could be sliding towards a very different future than we would have expected, faster than we could have anticipated.
 
A

Arklite

Member
BlueSparrow said:
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2

They have five exclusives coming up in 2017 at this moment, FIVE.
I'm not counting small downloadable titles here, but still, you get the point.
I had really hoped for more since the phil spencer era started.
Click to expand...

Phantom Dust is back after cancellation? What are they doing.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
BlueSparrow said:
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2

They have five exclusives coming up in 2017 at this moment, FIVE.
I'm not counting small downloadable titles here, but still, you get the point.
I had really hoped for more since the phil spencer era started.
Click to expand...

PD is a HD port of an OG Xbox game. I would consider that as negligible and less valuable than small downloadable titles, tbh.
 
S

shingi70

Banned
shinobi602 said:
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.
Click to expand...


This 100%.


My Xbox will be my main system still because of multiplayer and third party games but as a fan of Microsoft studio this sucks. I'm going to be going into E3 2017 expecting the worse.


It's a shame because the start of the gen the Xbox showed so much promise and they have a great back catalog of IP.
 
R

RichiRamjag

Member
J-Skee said:
I respect the hell out of Phil Spencer. Under his leadership, Xbox has truly tried to get the games that people have been asking for. But it just hasn't been working out the way he wanted it to. Maybe the Scorpio will turn that around.
Click to expand...

What would new hardware tied to the old hardware change in any way?
 
Mediking

Mediking

Member
NESpowerhouse said:
Are you thinking of Green is Noises?
Click to expand...

Hey, NESpowerhouse!!!

Hahahah I said Delaney is seconds away from being put in the same boat as Lights Waves/Lights and Waves because long ago.... LW made a thread that had Gone Girl text in it and people got confused.

Delaney took Gone Girl and tweaked it to this Scalebound situation. Lol
 
M

mcmmaster

Member
Interesting to read Platinum's presidents message for the new year from earlier this month and seeing no mention of Scalebound.

I do wonder what else they have lined up next year other than Nier Automata, only thing I can think it could be with short notice is the wanted Bayonetta/Vanquish PC ports.
"And now it’s 2017! We’re starting this year off strong by releasing “NieR:Automata” at the end of February in Japan and early March in the West, and we have a few more releases planned before the year is over."
Click to expand...
 
T

Theorry

Member
"After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: https://news.xbox.com/2017/01/05/xbox-closes-milestone-year-in-2016/."

"Microsoft said that they have great respect for Platinum Games and that Scalebound's cancellation came down to "business decisions."

http://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-exclusive-scalebound-has-been-canceled
 
S

SneakersSO

Member
shinobi602 said:
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.
Click to expand...
.

Seconded. This is a topic that has badly needed discussion on GAF, but most criticisms of MS' portfolio has been hand waved away with 'Scorpio' for the last 2-3 months.

This cancellation is a bigger blow than the last few studio closures & Fable being cancelled because it directly feeds into a larger trend that many have wanted to ignore, but can no longer do so.
 
O

Obliterator

Member
Diprosalic said:
maybe Halo but that's not even worth that much these days. Rest? hell no.
Click to expand...

You think Halo would be a cheap IP currently? And I'm sure Sony wouldn't mind putting out Forza or Gears game either for the right price. Gears even being down is still a multiple million selling franchise. Gears 4 will sell 3+ million more than likely
Honestly some of the stuff I read here I can't even tell if they are serious or not.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
When the real postmortems come out for Scalebound and The Last Guardian I'll bet it'll turn out that they ran into a lot of the same problems.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
Honestly, I don't agree with the Microsoft in trouble posts. Microsoft will always have something else in the wings. I just personally wish they would go to to Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker now.

If they ended up canning Scalebound for something instead from Sakaguchi and Mistwalker, I would consider that an upgrade. Here's to hoping for best.
Click to expand...

They definitely have stuff waiting in the wings. The problem is that not enough of it is making it to curtain call right now.
 
J

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
I'm gonna have to keep an eye out on what kinda deals retailers are going to give to people who trade their One S in for a Switch. I want to like the thing but, outside of Sunset Overdrive and Forza (not a fan of GoW and Halo, unfortunately), it just hasn't given me anything worthwhile. Given the fact that nobody has anything to say about Crackdown and all Xbone 1st parties are going to also be playable on PC (right?), I'm having a hard time seeing the point.
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences.

Microsoft said that they have great respect for Platinum Games and that Scalebound's cancellation came down to "business decisions."
I asked Microsoft if they felt there was now a gap in their line-up after the loss of Scalebound, but they told me that Crackdown 3, Halo Wars 2, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, as well as unannounced "experiences" are still on the way for 2017. Microsoft said they feel that their portfolio is very strong for 2017 "and beyond," offering clues to future unannounced projects.
Click to expand...

http://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-exclusive-scalebound-has-been-canceled
 
D

Dascu

Member
Delaney said:
I'm so much happier now that I'm dead. Technically missing. Soon to be presumed dead. Gone.

And this lazy oblivious and incompetent "Microsoft" company will go to prison for my murder. They took my pride and my dignity and my hope and my money. They took and took from me until I no longer existed. That's murder. Let the punishment fit the crime. To fake a convincing release date for Scale-fucking-bound you have to have discipline. You befriend a local foold, Platinum Games. Harvest the details of his hundrum life and cram him with stories about how development will be "doing fine", how the the game will soon be playable from start to finish. Secretly create some money troubles: forced online co-op, micotransactions, western bullshit. With the help of the unwitting, you bump up your life insurance. Purchase the Xbox One. With the Elite Controller. Generic. Overpriced. Pay cash. You need to package yourself so that people will truly mourn your loss. And I don't know how much you know about Japan, but they truly believe in honor, it's an important part of their culture... You know what's hard? Faking your excitement for this game. First, you pretend to follow all the dishearting news about this trainwerk of a game. Watch every damn E3 showing. From the first CGi vaporware trailer. Wake up at fucking 3.a.m, June 2016 just to see how this game has been resorted to a How To Train a Flying Potato simulator. Then you steal a Recore copy. And you pretend to like it. Voila! The game is nothing like you wanted. You wasted 60 dollars. Happy 3th Anniversary of this game's announcement. But then you go on NeoGAF, and post "wow I loved the E3 demo, MS is doing a great job :)" while you dry off the tears running down your face. Wait for the clueless director to announce the release date. Off he goes... and the clock is ticking. 20 weeks away from the release day and they haven't even shown final console footage yet. You feel fisically ill. A lot. A lot. A lot. You start to post about how the game is likely being saved for Scorpio How the game still retains that Hideki Kamiya-sama magic, even though you know deep in yourself that's one hell of a lie. June. E3 starts and they fucking bring a broken demo on stage. "Well, Platinum has never made a bad game, so there's no reason not to trust them". I repeat to myself. But everyone else playing the demo booths agrees that it is just bad. And because you're you, you don't stop there. You go back. To the day this fucking game was announced. Start with the fairy-tale days. The biggest Xbox One exclusive. A system seller title. From the creator of Resident Evil 2 and Bayonetta. Those are true. After that, you invent. "Scalebound was supposed to relive the Xbox brand" "X1 would likely outsell PS4 when this game gets released... at least in the US" The spending, the abuse, the fear, the threat of violence... burn it, just the right amount. Make sure the fans will find it. Finally, honor tradition with a very special treasure hunt. And if I get everything right, the world will hate Microsoft for killing his beautiful, legacy franchise. And after all the outrage, when I'm ready, I'll go out on to GameStop and buy a Playstation 4 + NieR: Automata bundle. And when my mother finds me investing my precious time trying to bond with this hot anime girl, I'll look straight into her eyes and say "but have you looked at her butt? Have your really looked at her butt?" In that very moment, she knows. She fucking knows. As she handles me the nugget pieces she previously cooked for me, she leaves my room with these words: "NierR is the true savior of Platinum Games". And that's when the people will know, Microsoft dumped Scalebound like garbage, and it floated past all the other abused, unwanted, inconvenient titles like Phantom Dust and Fable: Legends. The Scalebound fans will be gone, but then... we never really existed. We loved a game we pretended to like.

"An Xbox One exclusive".

Gamers always use that, don't they? As their defining compliment: "Quantum Break is a true Xbox exclusive". A true Xbox One exclusive is hot. A true Xbox One exclusive is game. A true Xbox One exclusive is fun. A true Xbox One exclusive never makes its fans angry. It only smiles in a chagrined, loving manner. The Platinum Game fans like what they like, so evidently they're vinyl hipsters who loves fetish Manga. If they like girls gone wild, Claire Redfield was a good example of empowering woman design. Bayonetta is sexist trash.. When I met Phil Spencer I knew he wanted "true Xbox Exclusive experience". And for him, I'll admit: Scalebound truly was it. He created an empty development funded by vapor and nothingness. Microsoft rewrote the concept to fit those Sony esclusive games everyone loves. They put headphones into the game because we all love headphones. They showed the game, semi-regularly. I lived in the moment. The same dragon portion for three years. I was fuckinging game. I can't say I didn't enjoy some of it. Microsoft teased out in me things I didn't know existed. A lightness, a humor, an ease. But I made them smarter. Sharper. I inspired them to rise to my level. I forged the company of my dreams. We were happy pretending to be other people. We were the happiest couple we knew. And what's the point of being together if you're not the happiest? But Platinum got lazy and Microsoft stubborn. They delayed the game. Microsoft actually expected me to love support their Xbox console unconditionally. And before finishing with Platinum, they delayed the game another time. From Holiday 2016, to simply "2017". We knew it was coming. We knew that what the press sneaks were telling us, was true.

You think I'd let Microsoft destroy me and end up happier than ever?

No fucking way.

They don't get to win. I don't know how much the rest of you know about social culture (I'm an expert), but grown-ups work for things. Grown-ups pay.

Grown-ups suffer consequences.
Click to expand...
Gone Game
 
HighResTomato

HighResTomato

Member
After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: https://news.xbox.com/2017/01/05/xbox-closes-milestone-year-in-2016/
Click to expand...

Yeah a pretty much nothing statement.
 
R

Relaxed Muscle

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
Honestly, I don't agree with the Microsoft in trouble posts. Microsoft will always have something else in the wings. I just personally wish they would go to to Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker now.

If they ended up canning Scalebound for something instead from Sakaguchi and Mistwalker, I would consider that an upgrade. Here's to hoping for best.
Click to expand...

Sure, they are significantly paring back their single player lineup, to go after a team specialized on single player JRPG.

Also, I feel that Mistwalker are too confortable in their mobile space
 
Bitch Pudding

Bitch Pudding

Member
shinobi602 said:
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.
Click to expand...

I think this is a pretty good summary of the current situation.
 
Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

Member
Theorry said:
"After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: https://news.xbox.com/2017/01/05/xbox-closes-milestone-year-in-2016/."
Click to expand...

Too bad. Is this Microsofts fault though? I hope we find out what went wrong.
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
BlueSparrow said:
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2

They have five exclusives coming up in 2017 at this moment, FIVE.
I'm not counting small downloadable titles here, but still, you get the point.
I had really hoped for more since the phil spencer era started.
Click to expand...

At this point you have to look at the actual ACTIONS of ms studios. Not what has been said.

two titles you can reference

Project Spark
Fable Legends

I don't expect Crackdown 3 to be 2017- if anything it'll be a BETA or EARLY ACCESS title

Sea of Thieves - until they release the public beta, they will not commit to a 2017 release. Marketing just needs something to put on the screen instead of "COMING SOON, I THINK. PINKY SWEAR"

Phantom Dust? .... nope, not happening this year.
 
S

SamNW

Member
Pretty disappointing, to say the least. Bought a One S for backwards compatibility and a few exclusives and this was one of my most anticipated games on the platform.
 
T

Theslammer

Member
GuitarAtomik said:
It is. At least as far as we know. What they are referring to is the version that was originally announced which would have been a ground up remake. Basically the original game but probably with some new stuff thrown in and with gameplay tweaks on the table for modern day. That version was cancelled. What's coming now is essentially a remaster.
Click to expand...

Ah, so something like Ratchet & Clank, which feels like a brand new game with modernized controls, was what was announced in 2014. Thanks for the info.
 
Riposte

Riposte

Member
The game looked baseline competent, perhaps not up to par with Platinum's best (certainly missing a certain spark in terms of speed and action), with the biggest mark against it being a bad showing of a multiplayer boss fight at a live press conference. Not nearly enough to call it "garbage". The Wonderful 101 got a lot of hate for its showing too, but ended up converting a lot of people.
 
B

Black Duke

Neo Member
BlueSparrow said:
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2

They have five exclusives coming up in 2017 at this moment, FIVE.
I'm not counting small downloadable titles here, but still, you get the point.
I had really hoped for more since the phil spencer era started.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Phantom Dust canceled some time ago?
 
G

GTSweet

Neo Member
FelipeMGM said:
its official
http://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-exclusive-scalebound-has-been-canceled
C1wYCVCXEAEgeRT.jpg:large
Click to expand...

PR Statement in that article:
"After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: https://news.xbox.com/2017/01/05/xbox-closes-milestone-year-in-2016/."
 
M

mcw

Member
Time to bet everything on Sea of Thieves. Man, that sounds like a real winner of a strategy.

Best of luck to everyone at Microsoft and at Platinum. Seems that we are only now getting the faintest idea of how hard this generation has been for everyone over there. I really loved the first gameplay demo for Scalebound and have been looking forward to it since... And the failure of a project of this scale will probably kill that whole studio.
 
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