He's only done three games since the PS2. I think it's small sample size.
Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]
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They weren't personal issues, they were work related issues.
Working on Scalebound related issues.
Acquiescence
Member
It's true that the game most probably would've flopped badly, but one thing to consider is how this troubled development is going to reflect on Microsoft in the future. It's not a good look for them at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of Japanese devs out there would be incredibly reluctant to ever pair up with MS for a game from here on in. Scalebound's messy production and the falling out between MS and Platinum could be looked upon as a horror story of how working with a big American corporation can go so belly up for a Japanese studio. Scalebound is just another mark against Microsoft in its attempt to build relations with the industry in Japan.
I think it is just not what Sony wants to invest in. These niche Japanese games are good for diversifying your lineup and attracting some core audiences likely to spend money on (many) other games as well, but there is no need to have many of them. Sony already regularly releases/funds/promotes niche titles that I think cater to similar audiences.
Shinobi is as good a source as you're going to get.
Phil Spencer often mentions that being a gamer is bigger than being platform loyalists or wanting exclusives for exclusivity's sake, which I agree with. In this case, no gamer should have wanted for this to happen, even those that might not have cared for the game. Nobody wins here.
I'm particularly bummed out thinking about all the (wo)man hours worth of art, ideas, designs, etc. simply being thrown in the bin. Nobody benefits from that, least of all not Platinum. Such a colossal waste.
I really hope some assets and core ideas can still be salvaged from this, separated and re-skinned from the Scalebound IP of course. Maybe some creature designs or general art assets? Kamiya and his team would deserve that I feel and Microsoft could choose to be lenient there (even if they funded the project) simply out of not wanting to waste this stuff either. It won't happen of course, but it should. (Their press release not mentioning Platinum at all, not even in a "we appreciate the effort put in by Platinum Games and hope to collaborate with them again in the future" way kind of throws PG under the bus though, especially if you consider that it might have been Microsoft's renewed focus on multiplayer / service games that messed up Scalebound's technical development....)
The larger question then, is whether we now have to start fearing about Platinum's future or whether this setback (along with Star Fox Zero and TMNT's lack of success depending on who you ask) will still leave the door ajar for other projects? Will larger publishers still work with them (especially after this cancellation kind of puts them in a bad light...) and if so, which ones are likely? More collaborations with Capcom? Will Itsuno's to be announced game be a new DMC co-developed with Kamiya / Platinum? Or will Kamiya opt to work on a new Dino Crisis for Capcom after all, like he seemed interested in at some point? Or is their drive to create IP that they own now at the forefront once more, especially after the Scalebound debacle?
(I REALLY hope Nier: Automata gets the sales it deserves....Platinum needs a big win finally.)
I'm particularly bummed out thinking about all the (wo)man hours worth of art, ideas, designs, etc. simply being thrown in the bin. Nobody benefits from that, least of all not Platinum. Such a colossal waste.
I really hope some assets and core ideas can still be salvaged from this, separated and re-skinned from the Scalebound IP of course. Maybe some creature designs or general art assets? Kamiya and his team would deserve that I feel and Microsoft could choose to be lenient there (even if they funded the project) simply out of not wanting to waste this stuff either. It won't happen of course, but it should. (Their press release not mentioning Platinum at all, not even in a "we appreciate the effort put in by Platinum Games and hope to collaborate with them again in the future" way kind of throws PG under the bus though, especially if you consider that it might have been Microsoft's renewed focus on multiplayer / service games that messed up Scalebound's technical development....)
The larger question then, is whether we now have to start fearing about Platinum's future or whether this setback (along with Star Fox Zero and TMNT's lack of success depending on who you ask) will still leave the door ajar for other projects? Will larger publishers still work with them (especially after this cancellation kind of puts them in a bad light...) and if so, which ones are likely? More collaborations with Capcom? Will Itsuno's to be announced game be a new DMC co-developed with Kamiya / Platinum? Or will Kamiya opt to work on a new Dino Crisis for Capcom after all, like he seemed interested in at some point? Or is their drive to create IP that they own now at the forefront once more, especially after the Scalebound debacle?
(I REALLY hope Nier: Automata gets the sales it deserves....Platinum needs a big win finally.)
What did people expect from the director of Infinite Undiscovery though?
Gaddamn, no wonder Star Ocean 5 got such a bad reaction.
Truly a shame that Scalebound got cancelled. What does MS even have left to release except Crackdown 3, in terms of big games?
Pretty jarring to see how Sony started the year with a long yearned for sequel, while MS cancelled their new IP.
Hopefully it won't put PG in a dire spot.
Mikami actually tried to leave Sony during the PS2 days. Remember the Capcom 5 for Gamecube?
Resident Evil 4 and The Evil Within did well to be fair.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
SomedayTheFire
Member
lmaooooo my bad. sorry I'm not properly awake yet. I was thinking of Kamiya and trying to figure out what was going on.
reptilescorpio
Member
He has been talking about Scalebound being his dream game for years now, reactions are due to that I expect.
I don't think he will leave, likely have a sabbatical and come back refreshed. He's been grinding away for YEARS now in the industry.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Neither Kamiya or Mikami worked on games under the management of publisher Sony Computer Entertainment though.
And the PS2/GC era was remarkably different, while Nintendo was able to afford the Capcom Five at the start of the gen, Sony was also able to pick up third party exclusives for pennies compared with what they would have cost today or even last gen.
It's funny how Microsoft has a reputation for moneyhatting when it's precisely that which led Sony to gain such a huge lead in the PS2 era - they even "moneyhatted" GTA!!! Picking up dozens of big name third party exclusives was a sustainable business decision back in the era of PS2 dev costs, and Sony had the money to do it, which in turn gave them more momentum, and more leverage to gain more exclusives as the PS2 install base was many times larger than GC or Xbox.
Eurogamer said:
The best you can do this gen with third party exclusives is maybe get a year's head start in exchange for marketing support, like with Tomb Raider, Dead Rising 4 and (as hinted) NieR Automata.
Mikami infamously had that interview where he said he would cut his head off before RE4 would be on the PS2!
It still belongs in that category. I.e. burnout-syndrome.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Haha...I remember that. Actually, now that we mention the Capcom 5 (which obviously fell apart due to GC's install base requiring higher costs to make the exclusives sustainable), wasn't Mikami frustrated with developing on PS2 in the first place?
Edit:
Eurogamer said:
SomedayTheFire
Member
Man, I really want to play Viewtiful Joe now.
Yeah, it's also why Clover was created in the first place, the tension got too large between Mikami and Capcom.
Yeah, it's also why Clover was created in the first place, the tension got too large between Mikami and Capcom.
While its sad whenever a game is cancelled, I can't say that I'm going to miss this one go all that much, the previews and small amount of info we got just didn't capture my attention.
That being said, I can't exactly blame Microsoft for cancelling this title if it was missing deadlines and so on.
So far this generation Microsoft has released 13 new IP's that I can think of, and none of them have done that well critically or sales wise (except Ori and the Blind Forest but even then sales numbers are hard to find); and while some of them may have sucked (Lococycle anyone?) there were some pretty good gems that seemed to be ignored (Sunset Overdrive was pretty great).
It's easy for one to say that this is simply because of Microsoft's lower player base or something, the fact remains that new IP's for Microsoft have been a risky venture this generation and so for the most part they've decided to mostly play it safe with their holy trinity of Halo, Gears and Forza.
It's hard for me to imagine Microsoft just throwing away four years of development costs if the game could have made some of it back, so that says to me that the quality of they saw wasn't worth another 7-8 months of development because they didn't think they could get it back.
Were they right? Who knows, but I don't think Microsoft just cancelled this game to screw the developer or the players over, they did it to save money which they didn't think they could get back.
Not saying Microsoft is entirely blameless here either, its entirely plausible that they asked more from the devs then the devs could handle.
Anyway, hope Platinum land back on their feet, sad to hear that the stress of the job got to some of the higher ups and I hope they recover soon.
That being said, I can't exactly blame Microsoft for cancelling this title if it was missing deadlines and so on.
So far this generation Microsoft has released 13 new IP's that I can think of, and none of them have done that well critically or sales wise (except Ori and the Blind Forest but even then sales numbers are hard to find); and while some of them may have sucked (Lococycle anyone?) there were some pretty good gems that seemed to be ignored (Sunset Overdrive was pretty great).
It's easy for one to say that this is simply because of Microsoft's lower player base or something, the fact remains that new IP's for Microsoft have been a risky venture this generation and so for the most part they've decided to mostly play it safe with their holy trinity of Halo, Gears and Forza.
It's hard for me to imagine Microsoft just throwing away four years of development costs if the game could have made some of it back, so that says to me that the quality of they saw wasn't worth another 7-8 months of development because they didn't think they could get it back.
Were they right? Who knows, but I don't think Microsoft just cancelled this game to screw the developer or the players over, they did it to save money which they didn't think they could get back.
Not saying Microsoft is entirely blameless here either, its entirely plausible that they asked more from the devs then the devs could handle.
Anyway, hope Platinum land back on their feet, sad to hear that the stress of the job got to some of the higher ups and I hope they recover soon.
Kamiya has a fuckton of bad luck or poor choices or both. I feel somewhat bad for him and his team :S
Apparently developing for GC was a joy compared to PS2. How times change...
Apparently developing for GC was a joy compared to PS2. How times change...
Cygames is still paying them to make two games right now! Thank God for mobile money!
Nintendo wasn't really "affording" the Capcom 5, Mikami simply wanted to not develop for PS2. When the reality kicked in, Capcom dragged him back.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Ok, i understand why Neogaf could not do much In Platinum case, my idea was to do some sort of Operation Neogafall (like Operation Rainfall and what they did for Pandora Tower,etc).
I feel that sometimes, gamers could try and use their voice to bring positive thing sin the world of video games, i mean we often hear about the negative side of gamers but i feel that could be different.But i understand it is not an easy task.
I have read about Scalebound comment slike "anyways, no one would have bought this on a Xbox One, all they want is shooters" and i do not know how, but perhaps if we had been able to let Microsoft know people wanted this game, things could have been different. Because to this day, very few games involving riding a dragon are very good.
I feel that sometimes, gamers could try and use their voice to bring positive thing sin the world of video games, i mean we often hear about the negative side of gamers but i feel that could be different.But i understand it is not an easy task.
I have read about Scalebound comment slike "anyways, no one would have bought this on a Xbox One, all they want is shooters" and i do not know how, but perhaps if we had been able to let Microsoft know people wanted this game, things could have been different. Because to this day, very few games involving riding a dragon are very good.
Okay.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Another kicker is this: We're probably (at least!) three years off a Kamiya game. So that'll be seven years off The Wonderful 101 
Miles Quaritch
Member
Well that's fucking depressing. This was legit one of my most anticipated games.
If it wasn't for SoD, I'd dump the X1. I mean what the fuck? They keep cancelling games or taking them directions that are shit.
We could have had Fable 4 by now..But what do we have? Sweet fuck all and with LH shuttered, Fable is a dead IP.
And don't get me started on PGR, Conker, Banjo, Midtown Madness, Perfect Dark, Phantom DUST...
Fucking hell MS.
If it wasn't for SoD, I'd dump the X1. I mean what the fuck? They keep cancelling games or taking them directions that are shit.
We could have had Fable 4 by now..But what do we have? Sweet fuck all and with LH shuttered, Fable is a dead IP.
And don't get me started on PGR, Conker, Banjo, Midtown Madness, Perfect Dark, Phantom DUST...
Fucking hell MS.
You will get nothing from them, not yet at least
Toadthemushroom
Member
Yeah, this is rubbish. If you look at the sales numbers (declines in Halo, Gears, Final Fantasy despite a higher install base) the Xbox One market's probably in a very different place to the 360 and is appealing to different consumers.
It's PS4 that's the new shooter console - it's basically the followup to the Xbox 360. Like the 360 it was the market leader in that segment in the console space (Wii and DS were doing different things), and it had the most variety in terms of games lineup and exclusives. Sony was also able to utilise their lead in install base early on to secure marketing exclusivity for games like Call of Duty and Destiny.
Most of the masses who made 360 a success moved to PS4 (last gen they'd have bought Gears or Halo, this gen they bought Uncharted and The Order), the Xbox loyals bought an Xbox One but there weren't enough of them to secure growth of first party games as Xbox only really started building up a sizeable loyal base since the 360. The remainder of Xbox One buyers would be average consumers looking for a console. I'd say more enthusiasts bought a PS4 than Xbox One, and an equal number of enthusiasts bought a Wii U as Xbox Ones.
MistBreeze
Member
OK guys, considering Kamiya hates Sony can you see him work with Sony in the near future in exclusive or such?
Yeah, I'm considering jumping ship as soon as NieR Automata comes out. I was going to wait for an XB1 port but eh, what's the point of keeping this 3rd party-only console
Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami. Just low profile director of niche games.
In addition to other roles on several other games, he was director of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami. That list of achievements alone makes him one of the most notable game directors from Japan.
lol?
Resident Evil 2
Devil May Cry
Edit: Viewtiful Joe was already at Clover Studios right?
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Why does he hate Sony? If anything, it's their system he needs to be developing for.
GlamFM
Banned
Probably because they are not done with the IP and/or plan to resurrect it in the future.
He doesn't. People keep confusing him with Mikami.
You can blame them if their deadlines were unrealistic/impossible and they refused to provide the support necessary for the game.
Jimmyfenix
Member
That's weird. Eurogamer have asked ms about taking down everything scalebound but no response yet
GlamFM
Banned
Dude, seriously.... Platinum knew about these deadlines - they agreed to them.
They didn´t catch them by surprise.
I know the whole "fuck MS" thing is en vogue right now, but there is no realistic scenario in which Platinum is not also responsible for this in a big way.
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