Maybe, but that didn't stop Microsoft from helping mediocre games like Ryse, Quantum Break, Dead Rising 4 and Recore. How bad could it have possibly been that the better decision was to never get ANY return from it instead of just releasing it and getting some money back with middling reviews? The only objectively bad game Platinum has made is the Ninja Turtles one which was a rushed, corporate-controlled licensed game that wasn't even directed by Kamiya.
Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]
- Thread starter SteveO409
- Start date
- Status
Maybe, but that didn't stop Microsoft from helping mediocre games like Ryse, Quantum Break, Dead Rising 4 and Recore. How bad could it have possibly been that the better decision was to never get ANY return from it instead of just releasing it and getting some money back with middling reviews? The only objectively bad game Platinum has made is the Ninja Turtles one which was a rushed, corporate-controlled licensed game that wasn't even directed by Kamiya.
Look, not making any specific accusations here, but you should stop arguing this point. Milestone manipulation is a tried and true method of purposely killing a project in the software industry, and MS has absolutely been involved in that practice.
RocknRola
Member
Hmm. Seems kinda shady. Though, I suppose we could only be sure if we knew whatever clauses the contract between PG and MS had.
-MD-
Member
2017
Acquiescence
Member
Reads like pure drivel written by a PR drone.
Having said that, I'm not sure the game ever had a good public showing, so after so many years of unfruitful development I can see how the game would eventually get the axe. But geez, he could word it in such a way that doesn't make him sound like a complete automaton.
grosvenor_92
Member
Ouch Platinum is having a rough go of it lately. Hopefully they find a way to bounce back
gaming_noob
Member
Lmao.
giancarlo123x
Banned
Rime was never cancelled. (Publicly at least)
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
This isn't going to be washed over by MS easily.
UnemployedVillain
Member
How? Because of a single game??
They won't, they're about to enter Nintendo 2016 territory if they keep this up (and that's not a compliment).
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
If Sony and Nintendo can afford to take on risky projects, then so can Microsoft.
I don't think so, because Rime is a much smaller scale and less of a financial risk, whereas this game would be risky to fund at this point.
Salty Rice
Member
Well at least Mattrick wasnt trying to be your weird uncle trying to be cool.
The only thing i hear from him all the time is "I love games".
Cant wait how many get delayed or canceled.
Ricky Ricardo
Member
It is not hard to understand at all. Like I said, you have distorted important categorical information into a soup that paints an incorrect picture. Again, the basis of your argument still stands if you post
This way, you're comparing new announcements to new announcements and still demonstrating (accurately) how dire Microsoft's announcement-to-release ratio is, while showing how Sony actually managed to deliver on it's E3 2014 announcements.
All I'm saying is, the way you originally parsed your data would not pass in any Business Statistics class I've taken.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Sony and Nintendo also cancel games.
Not sure how long the Coalition will be around if Gears 4 didn't sell well. Maybe they have bigger, varied plans for Gears but the writing was on the wall before Gears 4 for me. Let's see how patient Microsoft are with them.
CrimsonEclipse
Member
Maybe, again I don't wanna point fingers but it's gonna take more than their 6TF to capture people to buy it. Sure it will help, idk man.
Pretty sure he meant their 2017 lineup.
Dash_Riprock
Member
With what exactly?
VincentMatts
Member
Depends how much more money you need to put in before it releases. But yeah, i don't understand the decision either. It must have been a shit game. Thats the only explanation
hydrophilic attack
Member
This is not any other industry. Their competition will eventually put out their games, even if it's a struggle. While in many other industries, you cancel a project if it doesn't meet milestones, gaming is different because of all the passion among fans. When Sony struggles for ten years with The Last Guardian, even though they have no chance of making their money back, giving up at the first sign of a problem, like Microsoft seems to be doing, makes you look bad in comparison. They look like fucking quitters.
It hasnt been a good generation for Microsoft in regards to games tbh.
Their 2 biggest IPs, Halo and Gears of War, severely underperformed compared to their predecessors.
Halo MCC was a disaster. Halo 5 didnt even reach 1 million in its debut month at NPD (which is a huge decline compared to 3+ million debuts past entries had).
Gears of War 4 seems like a flop (relatively to past entries of course), it has done pretty bad in Europe and US. Microsoft didnt even shared numbers yet.
Then we have their new IPs: the biggest ones were definitely Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive. Both underperformed. I would say Quantum Break situation is even worse, because that one was actually market and people had high hopes for it. In the end it floped commercially and critically.
Then we have all these cancelations. Project Spark, Scalebound, Fable Legends, Phantom Dust...
The only good thing out of this gen for them was the Forza series, especially the Horizon brand, which is doing very well (deservedly so).
I feel like Scorpio really needs to be a sucess for Microsoft, and the company itself is really counting on that. But it is hard to imagine how they will do that without attractive software. Halo and Gears are losing force and brand power each new year and new IPs from them either are getting canned or underperforms. They are in a very delicate situation.
Next year Sony is going all out with exclusives and partnerships and Nintendo is releasing a brand new console. If they dont work on their problems and nail Scorpio's reveal, I can see Xbox One agonizing a third place from now on.
Their 2 biggest IPs, Halo and Gears of War, severely underperformed compared to their predecessors.
Halo MCC was a disaster. Halo 5 didnt even reach 1 million in its debut month at NPD (which is a huge decline compared to 3+ million debuts past entries had).
Gears of War 4 seems like a flop (relatively to past entries of course), it has done pretty bad in Europe and US. Microsoft didnt even shared numbers yet.
Then we have their new IPs: the biggest ones were definitely Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive. Both underperformed. I would say Quantum Break situation is even worse, because that one was actually market and people had high hopes for it. In the end it floped commercially and critically.
Then we have all these cancelations. Project Spark, Scalebound, Fable Legends, Phantom Dust...
The only good thing out of this gen for them was the Forza series, especially the Horizon brand, which is doing very well (deservedly so).
I feel like Scorpio really needs to be a sucess for Microsoft, and the company itself is really counting on that. But it is hard to imagine how they will do that without attractive software. Halo and Gears are losing force and brand power each new year and new IPs from them either are getting canned or underperforms. They are in a very delicate situation.
Next year Sony is going all out with exclusives and partnerships and Nintendo is releasing a brand new console. If they dont work on their problems and nail Scorpio's reveal, I can see Xbox One agonizing a third place from now on.
AyaisMUsikWhore
Member
Maybe it'll have a resurrection like nioh....And make a comeback in the later future, right?
Reagan's BR
Banned
Really expensive game that won't recoup development costs > stopping the outflow of cash before they lose any more
If the game was going to cost X million more to finish and the game wasn't going to make X million in revenue then it was the right decision for MS.
The console needs to be a profitable endeavor in order to continue to expand which is, in turn, better for the "gamers"
It could have been a cool game but it obviously did not make financial sense to continue.
Rising_Hei
Member
I wonder how will those people saying that Platinum is overrated deal with Nier:Automata's future greatness.
Sounds like MS. This combined with the comments/tweets about Microsoft's "direction" make it clear. Hopefully PG can bounce staff to new projects quickly and/or maybe get Nintendo to jump on board a Bayo3 sooner rather than later. I'm sure there is a fair amount of contractors in the staff that will be the first to go though, luckily they at least have a few projects in the pipe, and not in the kind of situation Obsidian was when MS screwed them.
If that's the future of gaming I'm out. Single-player adventures are my deal.
shanafan
Member
Releasing a bad game than canceling it is better than nothing, right?
Could have done without Star Fox tbh.
Astral Dog
Member
They will have another Platinum game on the Switch. Easy.
And no not Star Fox One
SomedayTheFire
Member
Dragonbound. A pseudo massively multiplayer dragon combat FPS... *ahem*
Yep. To be honest I think the Xbox brand deserves much more "DOOMED!" memes thrown at it than Nintendo's consoles. If it keeps going the way it's going I just can't see the Xbox lasting another gen; it all depends on Scorpio I guess but is the 4K (but you have to move ecosystem if you're on PS4) market really that lucrative? Competition is always great so I hope they bounce back though.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
they've released several middling to mediocre low budget games since Bayonetta 3, and that "single game" was a huge new ip that spent untold amount of money and manpower on for the past 4 years.
And the president of the company left unannounced and not one word from anybody in the company over why. Half of the company is properly without work.
So yeah, I imagine they aren't throwing a fuckin fiesta over at Platinum Games right now.
SpinningBirdKick
Banned
Writing for Xbone was on the wall the minute that they announced Win10 was going to be the new focus for games.
Microsoft will try and coast to the end of this generation with little to no first party output just like they did in the second half of the 360's life.
They're running the business down not trying to turn it around. This should be obvious.
This is ridiculously stupid. It's like saying it would have been good if Microsoft published Two Worlds. Sure, shit game, but it diversified, right?
It would ultimately diminish confidence in MS's ability to deliver quality games, regardless of taste. I don't like JRPGs, but if MS put out Scalebound and it ended up being bad? What's the ripple effect on games they might fund in the future?
-MD-
Member
Reintroduce Hololens and Young Conker.
Lots of flops.
video games
"I want to live in a mansion and this place costs £1 per day, but the contract says they can change it to however much they want and I can't do anything about it. Since they're the only mansion I can afford right now I guess I'll do it"
Regardless of reasoning, it's stupid to sign such a contract. If nobody wants to sign up for a game of that scale then move onto another game, like they're gonna have to do now anyways.
Waldo Lydecker
Member
Third generation curse strikes again.
Ryse was a launch game and a technical showpiece.
Dead Rising 4 probably didn't cost much.
Recore also probably didn't cost much and also launched unfinished implying something happened that forced them to get it out the door rather than delay it.
Scalebound was delayed already, had multiple terrible showing at conferences and probably cost more than Record/Dead Rising.
I have no idea about Quantum Break. I love Remedy and am really enjoying that game but man things like the awful tv series stuff in it feels like such an absurd waste of money, I have no idea why MS funded that.
A game that was being developed by very likely at least half the company and which was being funded by MS. That money's gone and boom, no money to pay folks who then have to be let go leading to jobs being cut. Not a situation any company particuarly wants I'm sure unless they have a lot of money stashed away (which will run out eventually)
AndrewDean84xX
Banned
Business is shady. Someone is always trying to take advantage of someone else. Never going to change.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Star Fox is not a Kamiya game. Hell is not really a PG game either...
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
Yeah games get cancelled all the time but isn't it a bit concerning that some of the most high profile cancellations as of late came from Microsoft. I don't even think that Sony or Nintendo has cancelled a publicly announced game since the beginning of this gen.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
It's a pretty big project- funded by Microsoft and helmed by Kamiya himself. Having a shitty TMNT game is nothing compared to losing a big project like this.
7DollarHagane
Banned
It didn't look good. Probably best that platinum not spend a ton fixing something that was broken to begin with.
I've lost all faith in MS now to deliver a non-Halo,Gears,Forza megaton that'll actually come out.
And 17 games = 2017 games.
I think a Halo 3 Anniversary announcement is a given this E3, probably releasing holiday 2017 as well.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
No one can answer this without assuming a ton of stuff. For instance, it could have had a specific marketing budget dictated in the contract. That meant Microsoft would have had to spend even more development time to release a potentially mediocre game and be forced to spend a shit load more money to promote it all to see no return. Getting some money back doesn't mean they would be in the black at all for this project. If they could step away from it and not lose more, then wouldn't that be the better business decision?
- Status