Scalebound’s Cancellation Isn’t All Microsoft’s Fault, Says PlatinumGames

There’s been a general belief that Microsoft’s cancellation of Scalebound, the dragon-based action role-playing game by PlatinumGames, was a mistake. After all it was the most promising game in the portfolio of would be exclusives for the Xbox One. Now more than two years later, the studio has gone on the record to admit partial fault.

In an interview with Video Games Chronicle, PlatinumGames lead producer and development director Atsushi Inaba said that Microsoft shouldn’t take all the blame, and that it’s partially the studio’s fault that Scalebound never crossed the finish line. "I think 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've done better," Inaba said.

"[Nobody] wants a game to be canceled," Inaba added. “At the bare minimum, it's unique for us as a title in so much as we feel that we didn't do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer. There were a lot of painful lessons, but that helped us grow as a studio." So while Microsoft took most of the heat in the press and public, Inaba says Platinum feels responsible too. "Both sides failed," he concedes.

Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya was the lead on Scalebound before it was shut down after years in development. In the wake of the cancellation, Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer said that it was ultimately, “better for Xbox gamers.” A rumor briefly surfaced that the game would be revived as a Nintendo Switch title, but that’s apparently not in the cards.

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