It has been just over two years since Microsoft cancelled Scalebound and ended its partnership with Platinum Games. At the time, this was a huge blow for the Xbox One, as the console lacked a variety of big-name exclusives, particularly from third-parties. While many fans have blamed Microsoft for the way things turned out, this week, Platinum Games head, Atsushi Inaba, spoke out in defence of Microsoft.
Speaking in an interview with VCG, Inaba said that “watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over the cancellation wasn't easy for us”. He went on to explain that “the reality is, when any game in development can't get released it's because both sides failed”.
Scalebound was announced back in 2014 and was supposed to be Hideki Kamiya's dream project. Unfortunately, a number of delays kept pushing the game back and eventually, the project was cancelled. Atsushi Inaba says that “there are areas where we could've done better and I'm sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could have done better”. Ultimately, Inaba doesn't want fans to turn on Microsoft over the cancellation, as the company still gave Platinum the chance to make a new game.
From the sounds of it, Platinum Games' accepts shared responsibility in what happened to Scalebound and doesn't hold anything against Microsoft. It is still disappointing that Scalebound was cancelled but perhaps Microsoft and Platinum will team up again one day.
KitGuru Says: Scalebound was one of the few announced games that I bought an Xbox One for. Perhaps one day the project can come to life again, in the meantime, Platinum seems pretty busy working with Nintendo, with Astral Chain and Bayonetta 3 both on the way.