Xbox’s Canceled Scalebound Could Come Back If Players Ask For It

PlatinumGames is still eager to explore the world of Scalebound, a canceled action RPG that was once a big Xbox One exclusive. First unveiled at E3 2014, the game remained in development for years before its eventual cancellation in 2017. The game features a hip protagonist rocking Beats-esque headphones in a modern setting, but he’s joined by a giant dragon as his companion. The fantasy setting and photo-realistic graphics were said to be a way to invite a wider audience to the studio’s catalog.

These changes were a huge break in tradition for PlatinumGames, a studio known for stylish character action rather than a focus on loot and exploration. Xbox fans were eager for a big exclusive out of Japan, and many still list it as one of the biggest missed opportunities for the console of the current generation. The entire Xbox One’s lifespan has been lacking in solid new experiences for players to latch onto. There were other canceled projects like Phantom Dust and lackluster internal efforts like ReCore. Despite the best intentions, Xbox is still the brand known for Halo, Gears, and Forza, and projects like Scalebound would have helped change the perception.

In a new interview with GameExplain, Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba of PlatinumGames cover several topics, but they focus in on wanting to try again with Microsoft on Scalebound. The Xbox owners have the rights to the IP, so even though the universe was one of the first ideas the studio came up with upon their formation, they’d need to work with Microsoft to see it come to fruition. Inaba says in the interview that many fans still come to the company interested in the title and that there were lots of unique possibilities in the IP that may go to waste. However, it’s out of their hands at the moment.

To fans who are interested in seeing the game reemerged, Inaba says that the best thing would be to send a letter to Phil Spencer and the Xbox team. PlatinumGames has gone on record as saying that they’re as much at fault about Scalebound‘s failure as Microsoft, but with more games under their belt and a renewed focus, it’s possible that the Xbox Series X could see a version of the game that finally lives up to the initial trailers that wowed fans all those years ago. Hideki Kamiya had the final say on the matter, asking Phil to “do it again together.”

Could a revival of a canceled game like Scalebound actually work? It’s much rarer in games than it is in other forms of media. While a show like Family Guy can see new seasons after an amazing run of reruns, game development and the onward march of time make returning to a game that never got made an ordeal. Gearbox learned that when they tried to salvage something from the development of Duke Nukem Forever, and Valve shifted to a completely different type of game in Half-Life: Alyx rather than try to complete one of their several Half-Life 3 prototypes. Still, if anyone could pull it out, it might be the makers of Bayonetta, so it’s probably still worth a shot. Although the last thing Xbox needs is more exclusives that aren’t critical hits at the moment.

Source: GameXplain

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