Dragone: Platinum's Scalebound cancelled
Oh well!
Scalebound [official site], the action-RPG about fighting monsters and riding dragons from Bayonetta devs Platinum, has been cancelled. Microsoft, Scalebound's publishers, confirmed yesterday that they have cancelled the game but they didn't give a reason. Rumour has it development was mighty troubled and behind schedule, but rumour also has it that I ♡ Gary Jones so don't believe everything you read on toilet walls. Ah, Scalebound did look a bit iffy in demos but I had hoped that was just a quirk of E3 staging. Scalebound's creative director, Hideki Kamiya, has been behind some real bangers so I'd hoped... never mind.
"After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound," MS told Eurogamer in a statement. That's the only relevant thing they have to say, and it explains nothing. It was due to hit Windows 10 as well as Xbone.
Eurogamer also circulate rumours that might be closer to the truth. Collating accounts from several unnamed sources, EG say that several senior members of the dev team "were forced to take a month away from the pressure of the project's heavy workload". They add that the game was behind schedule, that it was suffering troubles related to its engine, and... yep, after that, MS confirmed it's a gonner.
Which is a shame. We don't have nearly enough Platinum games on PC--c'mon, Sega, bring Bayonetta and Vanquish over--and this looked better than a lot of their recent work on licensed properties. Platinum's Hideki Kamiya was creative director on Scalebound, and you might know him from directing such fine games as Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Bayonetta, and The Wonderful 101. Oh well. And yeah, this co-op gameplay demo from E3 2016 ↓ does look more of a grand spectacle than a good game and it is far too verbose, but that's E3 demos for you - they're made to look fancy and be obvious for viewers to follow. At what point am I just lying to myself?
At least Platinum's Nier: Automata is still coming to PC and looks smashing.