Support NeoGAF

[ioriyagami]

And this is the last Xbox One exclusive title I was interested on...I really can't care less about "Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and other great experiences".

Also, I do hope Platinum Games can land on their feet after this cancellation. They are still one of my favorite developers.

 

[Eolz]

Its not an insult if thats what you mean. They were probably stressed out so much that they suffered a menral breakdown.

And they also probably didn't suffer a mental breakdown and were put on the side for other reasons...

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Yikes. I don't remember hearing much praise for the game at the various conference reveals, but MS isn't doing so hot with their Japanese collaborations. With this game gone, do they even have any Eastern games in the pipeline at all?

You kind of have to wonder about the wisdom of canning games that already have had a considerable investment, when you're in distant second place, have less titles released overall, and can afford to to quietly release a few less-than AAA games under the guise of being "experimental". I'm still baffled that Fable got canned despite being playable (and decent) at multiple show floors.

 

[Tecnniqe]

You mean
Halo Wars 2
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Cuphead
Crackdown 3
New Forza Motorsport

E3 is still coming as well as Scorpio and more BC. I'm OK with it, thank you.

I have a PS4 and I will buy a Switch. Play games, be happy

That's too easy of a solution. You must pick one and stick with it.

 

[DopeyFish]

Phantom Dust, Fable Legends, Black Tusk's new ip, and now Scalebound. It's one thing if you have a ton of studios to pick up the slack but Microsoft certainly doesn't. Well, at least there is a Halo and Forza game every year.

MS has more studios than any other first party.

Some of them just don't have names. MS can be quite fluid.

 

[malfcn]

They were doomed.

Get bad press for canceling the game.
Get bad press for releasing a bad or poor selling game.

The game looked rough. Most people probably forgot about it. After this blip it will be forgotten again. Only PG fans will truly be hurt and have lasting memory of this.

It's sad. Not sure what our when it went wrong. A single player focused experience would have been best. But every title needs micro transactions and multiplayer.

 

[Deadly Joker]

So MS has 4 upcoming games?

Don't forget Halo 6, Gears of War 5, and Forza 7.

Yeah...

 

[MiamiWesker]

I am shocked, this sucks. I am down for anything Kamiya makes. If this should be saved I hope Nintendo saved it.

 

[Bronetta]

Wow to think I almost bought an XB1 at several occasions mostly for this game.

Bullet dodged. Sucks for Platinum but I think its a valuable lesson for them and they'll retool the lessons they learned from Scalebound going forward.


I think what really sucks is that this wasted 3+ years of Kamiya's time and a potential game or two he'll never get back, he could have made another game for another publisher. Imagine spending the majority of the past 3-4 years of your life on something only for it to be cancelled. I rememeber an interview with Kamiya talking about his work ethic where he said he would sleep at the office on the floor during crunch time to save on travel time just so he'd have more time to work.

A damn shame. I really hope a respectable publisher steps in and works with Kamiya and his team next, hopefully someone with similar ideologoes.

 

[Clear]

Seriously, Kamiya and Yoko need to go out drinking and mash out the remnants into a Drakengard sequel...

And honestly, if there was a fundamental problem with how Platinum works, they'd have come a cropper a lot sooner and wouldn't have a seasoned pro like Yoko complimenting them publicly on their efficiency.

Fully admitting my complete ignorance on the specfics, I'd still bet heavy on the problems emanating from MS imposed creative/marketing demands derailing production on Scalebound. I suspect Kamiya being unusually invested in the project has tried his hardest to fight the good fight, but anyone who's spent time in the biz knows damn well how that plays out...

 

[Baroquemantic]

I see it's official now.

Goodnight, dragons.

 

[wrowa]

Ah, man, this is such a downer. I always kept believing that this will shape up to be an amazing title. Here's hoping Platinum will be able to get new work soon, though getting a big project cancelled after 4 years isn't exactly going to inspire confidence in their ability in the eyes of other companies.

 

[NZerker12]

To be fair, a lot of what sells the ps4 is the COD, destiny, EA games which are also not exclusives. I dont think this changes much honestly.

It looked "ok" imo. Definitely not a killer app. too bad for those who were anticipating it though,

Yeah but those games appeal to the more casual gamers. Why pay £450 - £500 for a Scorpio if you can get a PS4 for £200? The Scorpio was never supposed to appeal to those people anyway.

It has to be third parties, like I can't think of anything else it could be. Maybe Microsoft doesn't know either what they're doing with Scorpio.

Maybe but those games appear on the PS4 as well so whats the point? You're right it appears Microsoft have no idea what they are doing with the Scorpio hell the X1 as a whole for that matter.

 

[2San]

He won't step down and he shouldn't. There isn't much MS can honestly do. They just don't have the leverage like they did last gen.

I honestly think the console is becoming less important to MS overall.

 

[WordsintheWater]

Was looking forward to this, and if that lineup in that statement is what stays for 2017, that's pretty shitty. At least I have Scorpio to look forward to this year.

 

[Jigorath]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Sounds like what happened with Phantom Dust.

 

[Dinky Dino]

He won't step down and he shouldn't. There isn't much MS can honestly do. They just don't have the leverage like they did last gen.

Honestly I think he's a good guy but I don't think he calls a lot of the shots. It's obvious that with fable and scalebound being shut down, that he's going to lose a lot of credibility even if it wasn't his fault since he's the face of Xbox.

 

[shoreu]

What the fuck! Man screw waiting till E3 we need some good news on games now.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

I think most publisher just want something good but look back to the demo, seems Scalebound is not the case.

It's fishy that we saw a multiplayer demo at E3, something Platinum has never done. It reeks of publisher meddling to me. We may never know but looking at the history of both parties as well as Kamiya's flawless track record, I'm willing to give them the benifit of the doubt.

 

[ohdearohdear]

Re-examining his appearance on-stage, he looked so listless, beaten, lacking his usual energy.

It's chilling to think we were watching his depression unfolding before us

stuff like this is pretty crass

 

[Neff]

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

Phil, if one of your researchers is reading this (which they are) nothing less than pulling Lost Odyssey 2 out of the bag and getting Dragon's Dogma on BC is gonna get me back into the happy place I was in with Xbox until tonight.

 

[BY2K]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

That sounds right on the money to me.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I forgot Phantom Dust was a thing

So did Microsoft

 

[Hexa]

This is a lot for one publisher in two and a half years

When was the last time Sony or Nintendo canceled a game that had been officially announced? I can't remember off the top of my head. Sony has shuttered a bunch, but even with announcing games too early most of the time, I can't think of any cancelled officially revealed games.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Open world/Forced multiplayer are the bane of so many devs,especially JP devs.

Its amazing that FROM SOFT has been able to consistently put out these games.

The only JP dev who has their shit figured out.

Souls games aren't open world so much as several incredibly linear and tightly designed levels that're interconnected with each other, certainly not open world in the sense of what people typically mean. Like having villages with roaming npcs. Hell Souls npcs don't even roam.

 

[Danis Saur]

In other news, if you still have a big love for Gears, Halo, or Forza, and nothing else seems to scratch your itch, the Xbox One is a great console for you.

 

[PensivePen]

Really hope that this won't have a big negative impact on Platinum. It's unfortunate to see their first original game since Wonderful 101 get cancelled. But at the same time it was looking rough when they showed it.

There's also no point in trying to put the blame on anyone without more information about the game's development.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Just gotta hope they bring an avalanche of new games to E3 this year. Otherwise.... yeesh.

 

[tkscz]

Maybe Nintendo can save this? Would be a nice exclusive to have under the Switches belt. I wonder what this means for Platinum teaming up with Microsoft in the future.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Hopefully Jeff grills Phil at E3 2017 about this like he's done before

Jeff has been around the games industry for 20 years. He probably understands that games get cancelled sometimes and there is no reason to "grill" anybody over it.

 

[CollectedDust]

This thread has gotten ugly. I can only speak for myself: I'm sad the game is gone and I'm sad for the people who were impacted by the development process and cancelation

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

There is alot of shit posting regarding this topic and it should be quite clear by now that Don Mattrick was terrible for the Xbox brand in the long run.

And don't forget, Mattrick was also terrible for Zynga.

Spencer was put in a pretty bad position when he took over Xbox, and that's because Mattrick was a shitshow. I'm not gonna say Spencer has done everything right, but he's also at a clear disadvantage right now. If Xbox One had started out of the gate much stronger, there would certainly be more funds available for game development.

 

[Allonym]

It's strange, I was just looking at the most recent press showing of the game and I thought it looked interesting but definitely rough around the edges. Personally, I feel like Kamiya relies too heavily on trying to make his characters "stylish", they're ostensibly "cool" but the gameplay systems that made up Scalebound looked bare. I think with more time and the right people surrounding Kamiya, Scalebound could've been Microsoft's Horizon. Hopefully, Sony picks this up but I can see Nintendo definitely doing it for Switch considering Bayontta for precedent.

 

[Sycoraxic98]

Ooooof. Got a link to that?

https://youtu.be/Pjh1Uo_xaSQ?t=12120

 

[Psychoward]

In other news, if you still have a big love for Gears, Halo, or Forza, and nothing else seems to scratch your itch, the Xbox One is a great console for you.

you can get 2/3 of those on PC now

 

[Big Green Anus]

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.

This is my major worry for Microsoft. I understand that multiplayer focus games sales a lot, but I was not expecting them the significantly decrease their single player games like this. I really preferred Peter Moore and Shane Kim than Don amd Phil.

I might just get a really cheap used Xbox One instead of waiting for Scorpio since I need more than just higher specs and not confident in the games output from Microsoft. I just have this wierd feeling if Scorpio is not successful they might exist out of the console business and focus on mobile and PC with Minecraft and similar games with a much lower budget.

 

[Riposte]

I want to say we heard about multiplayer very early on with Scalebound. I don't agree with that speculation at all.

 

[Jeels]

If you need more than 3 years to develop a game it's more likely the developers fault. It's also pretty clear that Platinum got some creative freedom on this.

Platinum released some mediocre to bad games with Activation not sure if you want to mention them.

That said Nier: Automata looks great.

It doesn't matter if the games were mediocre if they were within budget and scope.

The publisher is usually the one at fault with bad decisions in terms of budget and scope, it's not always the developers.

 

[Monocle]

WTF

 

[Hawk269]

It's interesting. Sooooo many posted Scalebound (myself included) in the "Predict the bombs of 2017".

While I had hopes for it, it didn't show very well. Which is unfortunate because it may have been great to actually play.

That is the thing...so many here on Gaf have been shitting on the game, many named it a game in the bomb thread like you posted. MS cancels the game and then all of sudden it is a "why?, WTF?" type of thing. If the game was not going good and the team was behind schedule, why keep funding something that may just not pan out?

I mean look at how many people here on Gaf were dissing on the game, but now that it is cancelled it all of a sudden "evil MS", "Phil sucks" "Xbox is doomed" type of shit.

For a game so many did not give a shit about, that many thought was shit to begin with, it sure is one of the most popular games now that it is cancelled.

 

[Beer Monkey]

So what is the appeal of Scorpio? 3rd Parties? Whats the point of having power if you got no games to showcase it. This is why Scorpio will do absolutely nothing to Sony and will be nothing more than an overhyped console with no games.

It's going to run my existing games better, including the all-critical 360 BC games, and add UHD BR to my entertainment system. I'm pumped.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I dunno, Alberto, there are some *big* unfounded jumps in there.

 

[Vince DiCola]

Something is wrong with Microsoft at the moment.
Platinum are world leaders in 3rd person character action games and somehow they couldn't get this over the finishing line.
I don't understand what they are thinking these days, why is the 1st and 2nd party output so lacklustre?

What the hell Phil?

 

[Maximilian Kolbe]

That sounds right on the money to me.

Sounds like what happened with Phantom Dust.

There was already a post about what really happen with this tweet and not really have to do with it.

 

[TimeEffect]

If it's true that MS encouraged MP, that really, really sucks hard. I really hope its not the case, because people are going to be pissed.

So either Platinum just had a hard time reaching their vision and MS had to pull out, which is simply unfortunate. Or MS tried to get involved and ruined things, which is going to piss a lot of people off.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

*nothing of value was lost*

*procede to shamelessly port beg*

��

actually, GAF just don't know what the fuck portbegging is anymore

y'all just call everything portbegging, get those cheap shots in


person A: man it'd be real weird if Monster Hunter ended up on Scorpio

person B: omg stop port begging

person B is a touchy lil' feller doncha think?

 

[benzy]

From the Eurogamer article, at this way maybe even restart everything with UE4 will still faster than keep letting PG develop it.
And call it Re:Scalebound since "Re:" is very famous word now lol.

Scalebound was made with UE4 from the start. Curious what went wrong.

 

[ASilentProtagonist]

Did not mean to compare MS e3 2014's lineup to Sony's. Just a general exclusive line up (2017- beyond) so bad pic!

 

[IgotElbows]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Come to think of it.
It was never announced to have co-op during the reveal or even year after? The teaser trailer didn't imply it either for 2014. Which I feel like you would want to show off imply "Play with dragons with your friends!"
(Gotta have a reason to own Gold membership!)

If that did happen, it would make sense sense that this was cancelled because adding all the online work coulda really fucked up their schedule.
But that's if this is true of course.

 

[BouncyFrag]

Bummer. The protag looked annoying as hell but was hopeful for the gameplay.