Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

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Look, once upon a time I thought MS was a breath of fresh air for gaming. I grew up a Nintendo fan, but they lost their way, and Sony filled the gap with the Playstation. PSX and PS2 were amazing machines, but the PS3 started a s a major joke and screwup. Enter MS with not only the Original Xbox as an alternative to the PS2, but the 360 which was INCREDIBLE in the early days


But then, MS corporate became more involved in the games division. After the first few years of 360, more and more rehash on the box, and less variety. PS3 came roaring back with a diverse lineup, and the initial release of the XB1 was a complete failure. Nothing had changed from the late years of the 360... and the PS4 simply obliterated it. Now, in year four the PS4 is REALLY hitting its stride, and the XB1 is treading water with a great weight strapped to it and dragging it down.

Japanese publishers don't even bother with the XB1 anymore, which is sad given how EASY it is to port between these machines. But they just don't. I feel sorry for those who bought an XB1 on the promise of a "better" lineup, because from what I can tell unless you like more Halo, Forza, or their "clones", you are SOL


Basically, at this point there is zero chance I would buy the Scorpio. Don't care how pretty the games are. Hopefully, Nintendo makes enough of a comeback that MS will be forced to go back to a more innovative approach, or quit gaming all together.



My guess is that the next big bomb will be Square pulling all future support for the box as well. They already have pulled everything that isn't the latest FF, or possibly KH. No chance at anything like DQ, or anything more niche.
 
Does anybody else feel that we will soon see MS return to forcing AAA development around solely Halo, Gears, Forza, and I guess Tomb Raider timed exclusives? It seems like all other ventures have not paid off. The only one was Inside, which was exclusive for like a month.
 
What were the best-selling games last month? Go ahead and look...

Gamers are voting with their wallets, and they're voting for franchises. The only significant new IP that had any kind of success lately is Overwatch...

Bloodborne? Destiny? Splatoon? The Division has 10 million users.

But even when not, it's good to diversify a line-up.
 
Again. Not true.

They make them. But they don't GROW them. Games get cancelled all the time. Microsoft's problem is that they expect new IPs to sell Halo numbers out of the gate and when they don't, they leave the IP to die.

It's really fucking annoying.

Yea, like Sunset deserves a sequel even though they dont own the IP. Quanum break also would be cool if they made a sequel set in the same universe but give it to another studio.

Like Uncharted 1 didn't set the world on fire, but Sony liked what they saw and could see the game growing just like the crash series, and Jak.
Same goes for Sucker Punch's Infamous series. Glad the game got a sequel I liked them all, even if Second Son was the weakest of the three.

Feels like there's too much of a corporate outlook on the division instead of just letting the developers do what they do and bring worlds to life. If the game doesn't pan out after a year of trials and vertical slices then can it. Sony did this with Stig's game because it wasn't coming along well when they played it out to higher ups. Thank god they didn't announce it, then later years alter cancel it.
 
Because Microsoft is now forming a habit of cancelling games and Platinum up until this point have been able to work with plenty of different companies and maintain a solid relationship with all of them except Microsoft.
Sure, but I don't think they would cancel it without reason. It just seems stupid to immediately knee jerk and say fuck microsoft, save us sony
 
So if next E3 there will be a new Platinum exclusive announced for Xbox One. Nobody would care anymore because they eventually will cancel it.

Scalebound could have been one of the best games ever that would have gotten many love appreciation threads. But no MS just cancels it. No wonder video game industry is generic these days. Scalebound would have survived during the PS3 generation.
 
Does anybody else feel that we will soon see MS return to forcing AAA development around solely Halo, Gears, Forza, and I guess Tomb Raider timed exclusives? It seems like all other ventures have not paid off. The only one was Inside, which was exclusive for like a month.

don't forget Voodoo Vince
 
So it's been confirmed? Holy shit.

I hope Platinum can come back on their feet. Would be a shame to lose such a talented developer.
 
Look, once upon a time I thought MS was a breath of fresh air for gaming. I grew up a Nintendo fan, but they lost their way, and Sony filled the gap with the Playstation. PSX and PS2 were amazing machines, but the PS3 started a s a major joke and screwup. Enter MS with not only the Original Xbox as an alternative to the PS2, but the 360 which was INCREDIBLE in the early days


But then, MS corporate became more involved in the games division. After the first few years of 360, more and more rehash on the box, and less variety. PS3 came roaring back with a diverse lineup, and the initial release of the XB1 was a complete failure. Nothing had changed from the late years of the 360... and the PS4 simply obliterated it. Now, in year four the PS4 is REALLY hitting its stride, and the XB1 is treading water with a great weight strapped to it and dragging it down.

Japanese publishers don't even bother with the XB1 anymore, which is sad given how EASY it is to port between these machines. But they just don't. I feel sorry for those who bought an XB1 on the promise of a "better" lineup, because from what I can tell unless you like more Halo, Forza, or their "clones", you are SOL


Basically, at this point there is zero chance I would buy the Scorpio. Don't care how pretty the games are. Hopefully, Nintendo makes enough of a comeback that MS will be forced to go back to a more innovative approach, or quit gaming all together.



My guess is that the next big bomb will be Square pulling all future support for the box as well. They already have pulled everything that isn't the latest FF, or possibly KH. No chance at anything like DQ, or anything more niche.
Ding ding ding.
 
Again. Not true.

They make them. But they don't GROW them. Games get cancelled all the time. Microsoft's problem is that they expect new IPs to sell Halo numbers out of the gate and when they don't, they leave the IP to die.

It's really fucking annoying.

Yeah, it really is. They need a new strategy.
 
Dang, that's a shame. I was interested in it but that gameplay at E3 didn't look too inspiring though nothing too bad either. Wonder how it looked for them to go this route.
 
They're stagnating. Giving up on the Dragons Dogma IP is a joke. Fair enough the first was a bit of a cult classic, but in a world where Souls sells gangbusters Dragons Dogma 2 can have a nice piece of pie. That MMO was Japan only and Deep Down was just... why? Why start making something so similar to Dragons Dogma under a new name? Scrap that piece of shit that's constantly "still in development guys, honest" and do Dragons Dogma 2, multiplatform.

DD really didn't do that well for how much it cost to make. Even if they scaled back for DD2, expectations and costs would probably still be high. And while open world action RPGs ostensibly sell, the market is kinda crowded as it is. Like Neonep said, why spend that time, money and manpower making a game that isn't guaranteed to sell when they could make something like DMC that more people want and probably won't drain as many resources.

Deep Down was an online dungeon crawler, so in addition to playing differently it would have targeted different markets.
 
As an Xbox gamer since the beginning, this isn't just about Scakebound. I wasn't hugely hyped for the game itself, I was excited that MS was putting some effort into something different. Something not Halo, Gears or Forza. I love all three of those franchises, but I would also like something different. I've supported this company since the beginning, back when they showed they gave a shit about the games space.

I've been disappointed over and over again this past gen. That conker tease which turned out to be Project Spark actually hurt, as a huge fan of the series I was legitimately angry that they played with us Conker fans like that.

Then Phantom Dust happens, I was extremely excited and was in shock when it was announced. Of course it gets cancelled or whatever the hell happened.

Fable 4 or whatever Lionhead was working on before Legends sounded so interesting. Canned.

I won't be seeing sequels to games like SSO or Ryse which I actually enjoys quite a bit either.

What are these guys doing? This is depressing as hell for me. I'm just rambling...

Hope Kamiya is alright.

This is exactly the thing, and why posts like Senjutsu's are frustrating to read.

This thread isn't just about Scalebound. It's about what Microsoft is currently doing in the console space after seeing yet another project get shitcanned.
 
give it to Sony, they don't abandon games that ran into a bit of a trouble

Lol. It must be nice to be so bright eyed.

Santa Monica had to restructure an entire studio because they had to shit can a huge Destiny like project only a few years ago.
 
The fact that Sony just put out TLG after 10 years, and MS just cancelled this says a lot about those two companies' approaches to 1st party games.
 
All those hyped E3s where nothing happened

That one E3 with all those games

Crackdown constantly delayed
Fable Legends canceled
Phantom Dust cancelled
Scalebound cancelled

If none of the above were shown it would have been a awful E3.
 
You know franchises were once new IPs right?

My point is that people aren't buying new IPs, they're buying services. They want a game where their skills can grow, where they can get better and they can build a community around it.

That's something that's going to be more and more successful, and not because publishers are pushing this model, but because gamers are buying into it. They're jumping from one COD to another, from one FIFA to another.

Stand-alone, single-player experiences are such a gamble for publishers that they don't see them as being viable any-more. New IPs are at risk if they don't conform to this logic.

In the past 6 months, only 2 new IPs made it through the top 10 of NPD ; No Man's Sky and Overwatch. Food for thought...
 
It's like you only read the bolded and not the rest and automatically hit Reply. How many other games have PG made that have been on different stages? Off the top of my head, according to your reasoning, all. I've seen Transdormers, Ninja Turtles, W101 all at conferences.

Well I did read it but your post is nonsense.

Hideki Kamiya talks Scalebound - "The biggest game of my career"

Kamiya said:
"I worked for Capcom for a very long time, after that I worked with Sega for Bayonetta, then Nintendo for The Wonderful 101," says Kamiya. "So I've experienced different publishers, they all have their good points and their bad points, they all have different styles. From that perspective I don't think of Microsoft as a ‘western' publisher, but a publisher I'm working with. There is no connotation for the ‘westernness'. But trying to make a game this big, you need someone that really believes in it and is going to support it and Microsoft sat up and did that for us. Both making the bet on the game, but also support where we don't have the technical knowledge or get stuck. They have such a breadth of resources at their disposal that they're able to support us."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/w...ya-talks-scalebound---the-biggest-game-of-my/

Scalebound was getting a ton of marketing such as the series of exclusives that IGN had. It was a AAA game in which Microsoft was banking on and so was Platinum. Just because a game looks bad doesn't mean it's not AAA.

Edit: Here's an article where Ken Lobb SPECIFICALLY says it's AAA.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/platinum-s-xbox-one-exclusive-scalebound-will-shoc/1100-6424598/

"Scalebound is very real and very awesome," he said. "And I think when people really understand what it is we are building, they're gonna be shocked. It is definitely big, AAA."
 
Ouch.

Wonder if this means bad news for people working at Platinum to lose a project as big as this one.

Also curious what Kamiya will be doing next, cause this was the one he was tapped to work on personally.
 
What were the best-selling games last month? Go ahead and look...

Gamers are voting with their wallets, and they're voting for franchises. The only significant new IP that had any kind of success lately is Overwatch...

I feel like this is a chicken-and-egg problem. There was a time when every platform had its share of new IPs that took risks, or even retooling IPs to try something new. As much as I dumped on the failures of Microsoft's reboot of Shadowrun, I would have bought into a sequel had they taken the time to learn from their mistakes and make something better. Instead, they just shitcanned the entire project and FASA Studios along with it. Back in the OG Xbox days, they took chances with franchises like Blinx and Crimson Skies... then once they found out that Halo, Forza, and Project Gotham were their biggest sellers, they focused on them to a fault.

Microsoft isn't alone here, of course. Plenty of big publishers are too risk-averse these days. But in the case of Microsoft, their management can be described best as "burn it all down" because when a new series doesn't have immediate popularity, they just burn it (and their entire development studio, if they own it) to the ground.
 
So if next E3 there will be a new Platinum exclusive announced for Xbox One. Nobody would care anymore because they eventually will cancel it.

Scalebound could have been one of the best games ever that would have gotten many love appreciation threads. But no MS just cancels it. No wonder video game industry is generic these days. Scalebound would have survived during the PS3 generation.

You are right. In fact I bet MS cancelled it because it was TOO good and would have made Halo and Gears look and sell terribly.
 
Annoyed but not surprised. I'm running out of reasons to keep my Xbox One (literally left with Lost Odyessy VC and Rare Replay). I wasn't super hyped for this game after E3 last year but the original concept sounded pretty good and I was hoping it would turn out to be decent.

It really seems like Microsoft's gaming division is just falling apart. Maybe resources are being carried to some huge Scorpio games because right now they just don't have much to offer anymore. I'm really surprised that this got canceled over Crackdown 3 though since we have yet to even really see what the hell Crackdown 3 is even going to be.

It's really not that hard to see what it's going to be, we've seen what they're aiming for in MP and the SP is going back to the 1st games roots, where we take down the criminal gangs.
 
At the end of the day, if Platinum got shutdown. Would anything of value honestly be lost? Their quality is all over the map.

Are you honestly serious?

Most studios could only wish to have release as many great games as they have.

They have a couple of (mostly low budget) games that aren't that great but come on.
 
Does anybody else feel that we will soon see MS return to forcing AAA development around solely Halo, Gears, Forza, and I guess Tomb Raider timed exclusives? It seems like all other ventures have not paid off. The only one was Inside, which was exclusive for like a month.

I don't think the TR deal paid off. The pr was awful and hurt the brand, and the sales were quite disappointing.
I can't imagine neither MS nor Squeenix wanting to try that again.
 
The gameplay demo looked terrible but this game actually looked pretty amazing with the big monsters and dragons with the FFXVesque japanese boyband lead. It's a shame it got cancelled. I wonder if they rejig it and go to Sony saying let's do this instead. Can't imagine how Kamiya and team felt when the game got canned.
 
Was it really that hyped? It looked like a completely forgettable mess of stuff from other platinum titles. It should have been fantastic but everything they showed of it looked really, really rough
 
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.
Scaleboundtown.gif

Nooo, dragon buddy. :(
 
All these people talking about how Scalebound "didn't look like a Platinum game" seem to forget that Clover/Platinum made games other than combo-heavy character-action before they were pigeonholed into that genre forever post-Bayonetta.
 
Well that sucks. Scalebound would have been a nice way to diversify the X1 library a bit even if it didn't set the world afire.
 
Damn, I was looking forward to Scalebound. It did seem kinda suspicious that we hadn't seen anything new since the poor showing at E3 though.
 
The game would have been great, simply because Kamiya has never directed a game that isn't. I don't doubt that the game was behind, since it was obviously an extremely ambituous project. But still, fuck Microsoft for doing this. I'd probably throw my XB1 in the garbage if I didn't need the money, so onto eBay it goes.
 
Fuuuuuck...
I was one of the few actually excited for that game and I don't even have an Xbox One yet. I hope this cancellation won't affect Platinum too much. Despite their questionable licensed games, I love this studio. Here's hoping that Nintendo has them working on a Switch exclusive.
 
Yea, like Sunset deserves a sequel even though they dont own the IP. Quanum break also would be cool if they made a sequel set in the same universe but give it to another studio.

Like Uncharted 1 didn't set the world on fire, but Sony liked what they saw and could see the game growing just like the crash series, and Jak.
Same goes for Sucker Punch's Infamous series. Glad the game got a sequel I liked them all, even if Second Son was the weakest of the three.

Feels like there's too much of a corporate outlook on the division instead of just letting the developers do what they do and bring worlds to life. If the game doesn't pan out after a year of trials and vertical slices then can it. Sony did this with Stig's game because it wasn't coming along well when they played it out to higher ups. Thank god they didn't announce it, then later years alter cancel it.

Yep.

ReCore definitely deserves a sequel
Ryse
Sunset Overdrive
Quantum Break
Ori (I think this is getting one)

All these games have their issues. But it's hard to argue that they don't have the potential to become franchises if given the proper chance.

Mainly because there is nothing like them out there. Outside maybe Quantum Break, all those other games are pretty unique games in today's market. There's no reason that with time and a proper budget, these games couldn't turn into franchises.
 
Most likely going crazy and depressed af. This was positioned as their biggest AAA release yet. I hope he takes care of himself, same for the rest of the team.

Is there a reason to believe that this wasn't Platinum's decision? As far as I can tell Platinum's work load has been intense for the last few years.
 
I firmly believe this is MS's doing. They commissioned it....If they had any sense of what makes a good game they would have never given money to Platinum in the first place. You look at a project to see whether it's going to be a winner or loser and frankly this had loser on it right from the start. Honestly, if your giving millions of dollars to a studio you should be well aware of what the outcome could be. But in typical MS fashion, they wanted a game from Japan made by the fine people of Platinum just to keep up with the competition. Bragging rights so to speak....and who knows what sort of stupid and infantile shit they pushed platinum to do while focus testing it to oblivion.

Sony or Nintendo or any other big publisher would have never green lighted this. Look at the other studios and games MS have shuttered. There is no smoke without fire. This game should have been left alone from the start.
 
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