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Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

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level1

Member
There's a way, go mobile.

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ironcreed

Banned
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?
 
Honestly scalebound seemed like the most interesting game they had. If true after fable and this, everyone will question them if any games they show will be released. One is fine but two? Nah
 

Guess Who

Banned
Scalebound looked a shit ton more ambitious at the very least in terms of graphical fidelity.

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.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
At least it's not as bad as the time that MS cancelled Banjo 3 to make a Lego car game instead.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I can't say i expected it, but its not surprising. The demos didn't look well at all, Kamiya and co always seemed to be at odds with MS over something.

With the focus tested main character, weird direction and such, i never thought they really had a unified and confident direction for the project.
 

robotrock

Banned
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

These games don't really demo well. I think E3 showings are rarely indicative of a game's quality.

Kamiya's name might not mean anything in sales, but I'm inclined to think it would have been a quality game with him helming the project.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Depends on how those milestones were used. See: Bethesda.

If this was some no-name dev or a studio known for trouble like Silicon Knights, I wouldn't bat an eye. But this is Platinum. They're the ones you get to make a sequel fast and under budget. They're the ones you contract to replace the game your bigger team bungled.

Every showing for Scalebound has been mediocre at best. Platinum has little to no experience making a game of that size and quality. The obvious answer is that Kamiya bit off more than he could chew. This isn't a game that was looking stellar and Microsoft just pulled the rug up from under them.
 

harSon

Banned
The game must have been in pretty rough shape for this to be true. For them to cancel a game this late into development means they believe the project is fundamentally flawed at not just a technical level, but a gameplay level as well - and no amount of extra money or allotted time injected to the project will change that fact. Platinum has never been in that position before, so it's hard to believe. All of their other projects look pretty fucking polished and enjoyable, so did Kamiya bite off more than they could chew and give Microsoft their leftover development hours or something Lol?
 

D i Z

Member
Yeah it always looked pretty bad. Just lost in a time when a game like that looked familiar and expected. Over a generation ago. I have to wonder if this is in trouble because its key features have already been master classed by several recent and upcoming titles, and this still looked like it played like a budget en devour.
 

DNAbro

Member
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.

How is that different than Bayo 2 though?
 
I don't think Nintendo would swoop in and rescue Scalebound. I imagine MS owns all the work done on that game and it's not like Bayo 1 where the first game and characters are beloved.
 
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.

But people voted the character for Smash!!

That means Nintendo will make Bayo 3!

/s
 

LordKano

Member
What does Microsoft have in store for 2017 ? Crackdown 3 ? It could very well be cancelled too.
Sea of Thieves ? I guess this one will come out, as it seemed to be pretty far along in development.
 

Arklite

Member
What does this mean for Xbox, Microsoft Studios, and Platinum Games? Can't be good.

It's a big loss for Platinum games. A well funded and marketed title out the door would have been great for them. On MSoft they lost on an investment, however large it may have been, but not really a loss on a big selling title.
 

Drencrom

Member
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.

Christ....

Buy Nier: Automata, people!
 
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.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
If it's true my guess is too much MS meddling. They simply do not seem to have a good grasp of properly managing game developers.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
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.
 

killroy87

Member
That would be super disappointing. I'ts always looked a bit rough, but I had faith it would come through in the end.

Come on, Nintendo to the rescue!
 
Why? Nintendo is invested in Platinum IP (Bayonetta) and has worked with them on quite a few titles (Wonderful 101, Star Fox). Or do you just mean you'd prefer Sony?


But none of those games sold very well and Starfox was a critical bomb too, mostly due to Nintendo (Miyamoto)input on the project.
 
Not surprised in the slightest. The concept is aweful, the look is aweful and there has been zero marketing hype for this game. I always feel like this game exists merely as a tool for XB1 launch so MS could say "hey, we got exclusive game from Platinum yo. Don't know when it coming but buy our console now anyway!" The lack of communication makes it feel like MS never had confidence in the product once the actual gameplay was shown.
 

KDC720

Member
I really hope this isn't true, I like Platinum and Kamiya and was really looking forward to this one.

The evidence is there though with all the delays and the previous few showings not being all that great
 
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