Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Wasn't this game getting a ton of criticism for trying really hard to be extreme and there was valid criticism that the gameplay didn't look great? I swear there was a demo, I want to say it was a recent E3, where the presenter showed a boss fight from this game and really played up the angle that the boss we were seeing is the largest boss PG has made in a game. And I want to say some multiplayer was shown off in the same presentation and the general view seemed to be the game wasn't looking too great

Final Fantasy XV also had multiple terrible showings, but critically it turned out more than alright. As someone who disliked the E3 demos of FFXV, I still ended up enjoying the final product very much.
 
Surprised that the cancellation sparked a 100+ page thread. I mean, Platinum's output over the last years has been really mixed, partially amazing and partially terrible, and I never thought the videos of Scalebound put it firmly among the former.

Strictly personally, it has a lot less to do with it being a Platinum project and a lot more to do with it being a Kamiya project specifically.
 
Better 4 gamers, guys.

Also, all the twitter followers with the zodiac gif in their twitter name. That's sure is something, isn't it.
 
Just for reference, since there was talk about other Platinum games' sales and their Nintendo partnerships, W101 and Bayonetta 2 respectively shipped 104k and 157k in North America as of March 2015.

Bayonetta 2 did 60k in Japan and another 60k in France by the end of 2014.

So before the various other European countries and Australia that's at least 280k units at least. Counting the later reprint, digital sales, and those other countries, it's probably about 300k at the lowest.

All things considered, for a niche game on the Wii U, that doesn't seem terrible to me.

For comparison, here's Xenoblade Chronicles X:

Japan: 118k by end of 2015
NA: 200k in December 2015
Europe: ~12k (UK), 40k (France) in December 2015

Total: This is about 370, so factoring in the other European countries and digital probably about 400k at the lowest?
 
Final Fantasy XV also had multiple terrible showings, but critically it turned out more than alright. As someone who disliked the E3 demos of FFXV, I still ended up enjoying the final product very much.

Fair enough and I'm not trying to belittle the game. I just thought last time it was shown, it really left a lukewarm impression to the public but maybe I didn't read enough impressions towards the game to get a fair understanding of how it was looking
 
Just for reference, since there was talk about other Platinum games' sales and their Nintendo partnerships, W101 and Bayonetta 2 respectively shipped 104k and 157k in North America as of March 2015.

Bayonetta 2 did 60k in Japan and another 60k in France by the end of 2014.

So before the various other European countries and Australia that's at least 280k units at least. Counting the later reprint, digital sales, and those other countries, it's probably about 300k at the lowest.

All things considered, for a niche game on the Wii U, that doesn't seem terrible to me.

I think the counter point to this though, is why is it a "niche game on the Wii U" in the first place?

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/20100514_hosoku_e_final.pdf#page=5

Bayonetta 1 shipped 1.35 million worldwide on PS3 and 360. Shouldn't that be used as an indicator of the potential appeal of the franchise? How is that niche?
 
If they they bit off more than they could chew what does that matter?

Multiple senior members taking a month off if true is a big flag that something was wrong at PG

Maybe the project gradually got too bit the moment the development kicked in? One limitation faced by PG there was MS allegedly got involved over the change of the vision of the game. Obviously PG can't do anything about it since MS pays the bills.

And senior members taking a month off to take stress off is the first time we've heard it happen at PG as far as I can remember. So it's more about the specific project having some really serious trouble than the management of PG as a whole.
 
I think the counter point to this though, is why is it a "niche game on the Wii U" in the first place?

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/20100514_hosoku_e_final.pdf#page=5

Bayonetta 1 shipped 1.35 million worldwide on PS3 and 360. Shouldn't that be used as an indicator of the potential appeal of the franchise? How is that niche?

Do we know if that is shipped or sold-through. I think I remember hearing that Bayonetta was overshipped and it had some big price drops during its first year. I wonder partly if Wonderful 101 was a similar case.

Wow, seems like Nintendo lost money on Xenoblade X then?

I think it's been said that XenoX's budget wasn't actually as much as people would expect.
 
If they they bit off more than they could chew what does that matter?

Multiple senior members taking a month off if true is a big flag that something was wrong at PG

You work with them and find some compromises, get some onsite support from in-house developers before it gets to this situation and you fucking get the game shipped.

I feel like if this were Sony, they would've had ICE team or SSM show up and try and assist if it meant something to them.

MS just threw their hands in the air and comes out looking like complete assholes.

Look at what Sony and Guerilla Games are doing for Kojima... absolutely none of that was necessary, but they did it. The Last Guardian was on a death bed for a decade... they shipped it. I've heard tale of Sony enlisting SSM when some indie developers needed a hand as well. Why can't MS do the same?
 
Cuphead still not out? Feel like it's been in that talking since the Xbox 1 reveal.

Yeah still not out. They have released multiple videos of their progress though, and did push it back to add platform levels. What I saw worked for me since I was mostly just in it for the boss fights anyway, but supposedly there was a lot of criticism surrounding the platform levels that were shown. So...I'm assuming this delay is mostly in relation to that.
 
How much did that sell?

I think it was 1.5 million ish.

This is number is completely from my memory/ass so someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Just for reference, since there was talk about other Platinum games' sales and their Nintendo partnerships, W101 and Bayonetta 2 respectively shipped 104k and 157k in North America as of March 2015.

Bayonetta 2 did 60k in Japan and another 60k in France by the end of 2014.

So before the various other European countries and Australia that's at least 280k units at least. Counting the later reprint, digital sales, and those other countries, it's probably about 300k at the lowest.

All things considered, for a niche game on the Wii U, that doesn't seem terrible to me.

For comparison, here's Xenoblade Chronicles X:

Japan: 118k by end of 2015
NA: 200k in December 2015
Europe: ~12k (UK), 40k (France) in December 2015

Total: This is about 370, so factoring in the other European countries and digital probably about 400k at the lowest?

Also worth noting that XCX is an open world game with a longer development time. So by estimates Bayonetta 2 would probably have gotten more for the investment.
EDIT: Wait is that number supposed to be W101 and Bayonetta 2 combined?
 
You think for a company with so much money they could've given them more support instead of stressing them out? I always saw the whole Platinum Games and Microsoft collaboration kind of strange to begin with.
 
I feel like if this were Sony, they would've had ICE team or SSM show up and try and assist if it meant something to them.

MS just threw their hands in the air and comes out looking like complete assholes.

Sony just canceled a big game and closed two competent studios this generation. Let's not be phony about the publishing business for one second. It's risky and sometimes decisions are made.
 
You work with them and find some compromises, get some onsite support from in-house developers before it gets to this situation and you fucking get the game shipped.

I feel like if this were Sony, they would've had ICE team or SSM show up and try and assist if it meant something to them.

MS just threw their hands in the air and comes out looking like complete assholes.

Allegedly in the first place.

But it is up to PG to have systems in place to manage their own employees and offer assistance and try to prevent burnouts.

If my company sings a contract and we overextended ourselves which resulted in multiple stress leaves, the onus and penalty would be on us.

Not saying MS is the good guy here, but don't sign off on what cannot be delivered
 
You work with them and find some compromises, get some onsite support from in-house developers before it gets to this situation and you fucking get the game shipped.

I feel like if this were Sony, they would've had ICE team or SSM show up and try and assist if it meant something to them.

MS just threw their hands in the air and comes out looking like complete assholes.

Look at what Sony and Guerilla Games are doing for Kojima... absolutely none of that was necessary, but they did it. The Last Guardian was on a death bed for a decade... they shipped it. I've heard tale of Sony enlisting SSM when some indie developers needed a hand as well. Why can't MS do the same?

Didn't PG say MS was helping them with the technical side though?
 
Sony just canceled a big game and closed two competent studios this generation. Let's not be phony about the publishing business for one second. It's risky and sometimes decisions are made.

Which big game did they just cancel? And two competent studios had multiple opportunity to make games that sell.
 
Do we know if that is shipped or sold-through. I think I remember hearing that Bayonetta was overshipped and it had some big price drops during its first year. I wonder partly if Wonderful 101 was a similar case.

It's shipped. I just said that! But we do know that the sell-through in Japan alone was about 300k - 212k on PS3 and 88k on 360. So I would imagine the sell-through worldwide in probably closer to 1 million, even if it was overshipped elsewhere.

Going from 300k to 60k is a pretty poor showing. I think it's hard to defend. Bayonetta 2 sold less on WiiU than Bayonetta did on the 360 in Japan! :(
 
Sony just canceled a big game and closed two competent studios this generation. Let's not be phony about the publishing business for one second. It's risky and sometimes decisions are made.
Yeah, but the big difference is here is this gen, Sony doesn't cancel any big games that they have announced/revealed to the public. There are a ton of games that are in production and get canceled behind closed doors for every publisher. Also, the studios didn't produce results, so they were closed. Nature of the business. In the case of Evolution, Sony hired some of them after the closure to complete a game that was in mid-production and revealed to the audience already.
 
I don't know what to think of the Xbox brand these days. They keep building themself up, just so they can crash with each of these cancelations.

For real. Looking back and thinking about that Greatest Xbox line up ad MS put out. smh.

Fable Legends already canceled, We're still waiting on the status or re-reveal of Crackdown 3. And I mean, Sea of Thieves has to be safe, right? Shit, It's like MS, wtf you doin?
 
Yeah, but the big difference is here is this gen, Sony doesn't cancel any big games that they have announced/revealed to the public. There are a ton of games that are in production and get canceled behind closed doors for every publisher.


How many millions of dollars do you think MS invested in this? I doubt they wanted to lose the money and take the inevitable PR hit if the game was salvageable
 
How many millions of dollars do you think MS invested in this? I doubt they wanted to lose the money and take the inevitable PR hit if the game was salvageable
I don't give a shit. I'd rather they not have revealed the game at all honestly unless they were 100% committed to releasing it. You're hyping this game up repeatedly over the course of a few years? You better do everything possible to get the game made. I don't care if you have to hire an extra set of developers to come in and help, finish the game you promised people you'd make. If this was a one off thing I'd let it go. But it's not. Not to mention all this talk about the shitty tactic MS pulled about holding pay back and setting ridiculous milestones. Sorry, I'm not going to empathize with your business decision if you pull crap like that.
 
Kinda surprised by this news, but not shocked. Microsoft really are a pain in the ass to deal with in publishing situations like this.


And senior members taking a month off to take stress off is the first time we've heard it happen at PG as far as I can remember. So it's more about the specific project having some really serious trouble than the management of PG as a whole.

You rarely hear about it for obvious reasons, but it happens pretty commonly in any company. Although, I guess it is not often the senior members who end up taking time off even if they should.
 
I don't know what to think of the Xbox brand these days. They keep building themself up, just so they can crash with each of these cancelations.

What if the game was really bad and after all this time there was no guarantee that it was going to get better even if they gave them another year? I'm having a hard time understanding why people are so upset after the reception the presentation got at E3.
 
I've never wanted a backflip more.

"Sorry folks, funded til it's finished. We understand"

So stupid MS.
Why is it stupid to cancel a game they didn't expect to make money back on and had continually shown poorly?

Or did you mean they other Bs? Cause some of that was really lame I agree then.
 
Personal taste aside, not really. Every game he has made has been critcally acclaimed except for W101 which has a high 70 on MC.

Wow what the hell happened here. W101 is amazing. It only got a high 70. Wow reviewers really are sensitive to any control scheme that is different.
 
Ok, real talk.

Is Nier doing well needed for Platinum to not go the way of the Dodo? And how many sales would that be if yes. I mean was the first Nier a good seller?
 
Didn't PG say MS was helping them with the technical side though?

We know they helped to an extent, but If the rumors are accurate, the main issue that was happening here was getting good performance on this title and apparently Platinum Games wanted to reign in the scope to make it doable and MS didn't want to compromise.

If you want to see the game shipped, either compromise or send in the troops to make it happen.

That's just the way I see it. It probably didn't help that they then had to do a PC version and make it Scorpio compatible to top it off which weren't a thing when the game was announced.

Sony just canceled a big game and closed two competent studios this generation. Let's not be phony about the publishing business for one second. It's risky and sometimes decisions are made.

Not phony at all, check the post history as I'm sure I've given grief for that shit as well.

But in this case, I don't see anyone even hinting that this game was grossly over budget or anything like that. It's a different situation and in all honesty MS needs more new IP, when you have slim picken's it's worth the risk.
 
Ok, real talk.

Is Nier doing well needed for Platinum to not go the way of the Dodo? And how many sales would that be if yes. I mean was the first Nier a good seller?

I'm positive Nier is gonna return it's budget. It's still pretty niche though.

It's definitely not gonna support a 100 person dev team for a bit
 
What if the game was really bad and after all this time there was no guarantee that it was going to get better even if they gave them another year? I'm having a hard time understanding why people are so upset after the reception the presentation got at E3.
Ffxv went thru development hell for years had Terrible showing after terrible showing. End game 83 meta turned out alright. Last guardian ran like utter crap on ps3, development Probably halted, switches to ps4, previews were not very positive, still comes out with issues but goty for many many ppl. Ppl keep bringing up the e3 showings like multiple games sometimes games just don't show well, hell Mass effect is getting Luke warm reception. Nd if it was running like shit help em out. They had no problem pushing out that halo MCC tho.
 
Ok, real talk.

Is Nier doing well needed for Platinum to not go the way of the Dodo? And how many sales would that be if yes. I mean was the first Nier a good seller?

I'm worried Nier won't do that well because it has niche game written all over it. I'm supporting it day 1 but it's hard to say how many gamers this will appeal to, only the most hardcore really.
 
Ok, real talk.

Is Nier doing well needed for Platinum to not go the way of the Dodo? And how many sales would that be if yes. I mean was the first Nier a good seller?

Th first Nier to my knwoledge did really poor like 500,000 or less poor. But had a very cult following of people who played it, and it eventually sold i guess decent by the time they stopped printing it.

But it was no swan song or a financially good investment.
 
cat-sad-cat.gif

I mean, Platinum don't own the games they made.
 
Ok, real talk.

Is Nier doing well needed for Platinum to not go the way of the Dodo? And how many sales would that be if yes. I mean was the first Nier a good seller?

It's going to take something much larger than Nier to keep their current staff size, unless that ends up being a shocking success story.

It's doubtful the canceling of Scalebound will outright close down the studio, but it will likely result in substantial staff layoffs
 
Even as a fan of PG, I always saw Scalebound like a bit.. rough? Anyway, it seemed a fairly original new IP, and its sad to cancel a proyect after 4 years of development, I hope PG will be able to land in their feet (I'll do my part buying NieR Automata).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom