Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]
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SolidSnakex
Member
Since the PS2 days he formed his own studio and is now a contract developer. His first game was a multiplatform game (Bayonetta), although Platinum only handled the 360 version, his second game was with Nintendo and his third was with MS. So, when you look at that he's only made two games since the PS2 days. One was multiplatform and was an exclusive under contract with Sony. I don't think there's anything to indicate that he'd turn down a chance to work with Sony if they offered or accepted a concept from him.
People just simply confuse him with Mikami. But like I said, Mikami doesn't even have an issue with Sony anymore. That started and ended during the PS2 days.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Perhaps it was a situation like Phantom Dust where Microsoft kept demanding more and more features being implemented while leaving the budget the same.
I can actually think of a lot of realistic scenarios where Platinum is not responsible, since we already have an example of Microsoft doing the exact same thing.
Now you're wrong.
GhostTrick
Banned
Just people drawing quick conclusions. The difference between Bayo 2, MGR or TW101 and Transformers, TMNT and Scalebound is the publisher. Basically, PG is a studio to hire. They work on a order basis. In simple words, Publishers comes to PG with a request, a deadline and a budget. For TMNT, Transformers and Korra, you basically had Activision being like "We have this IP. We want you to make a small game. We gave you this small budget and it needs to be done under a year". So PG assign a limited number of staff and do the job.
Basically, PG's quality will depend on the time allocated, the budget and the freedom allowed.
It's like blaming a chief to make crappy food if you gave him/her two potatoes, one bag of dirt and 5 minutes to prepare a delicious plate when it usually requires 5 hours and a wealthy and diversed amount of ingredients.
In the case is Scalebound, I guess MS didnt gave them enough freedom.
Prithee Be Careful
Industry Professional
Yeah, it's hard to imagine why any Japanese developer would sequester themselves to XB1 - regardless of how you feel about the brand and hardware, the reality is that the market for JP games just isn't there - the figures speak for themselves.
It would have nice to have seen them work hard to redress this, but everything I've heard from inside MS lately indicates they're focusing primarily on the core shooter market they've established and backing it up with more robust MTX and DLC frameworks.
theindieboy
Member
what he said, once something like this is done and announced there is nothing that can be done, depends who owns the IP if another 3rd or 1st party picks it up like Rime but would not count on it sounds like dev has been stopped for a while thats hard to come back from.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
God bless mobile.
Nuno Pinto
Member
That's the dream, hope it happens.
GlamFM
Banned
Yeah, because you are the authority in this thread and happen to know everything. Caught that already.
in the end I don´t know shit and you don´t know shit. If we accept Shinobi as fact (I mostly do) we know that milestones were missed.
Are you telling me that this is entirely MS´s responsibility?
GhostTrick
Banned
It's not en vogue. It's basically in line with previous cancelled projects from MS. It's kinda weird to see it's like the 3rd biggest XB1 game canned when we knew how the two previous one have been handled.
It's the first time for PG to get a game cancelled after being publicly announced. And considering MS's previous handlings, I wouldnt be surprised if they wanted to interfere a lot with Kamiya's visions and tried to ask for different stuff that wasnt planned or had silly deadlines/changes of mind.
You have this legendary game designer working with this skilled team that delivered in most cases against the company known for putting pressures onto two previous studios/projects. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if MS changed the terms or interfered so much that the milestones werent reachable anymore.
Yes.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I don't think Platinum's future is as bleak as some are painting it here. Nier Automata seems to be a fantastic game and has the possibility of doing better than than the original. Gran Blue fantasy seems to be a game with a big scope, would not be surprised if it became Platinum's biggest title yet. Only question that could lead to upset is Platinum after Nier: they need another project to work on.
I just hope Kamiya is okay after this. From what i'm hearing from different places, it was a huge mental drain on the entire team and apparently some info made some people sick with what they heard. I don't know any details on that and i wish i did.
All i know is that its a shame and it should never have gotten to this point in the first place.
All i know is that its a shame and it should never have gotten to this point in the first place.
GhostTrick
Banned
Nier Automata is nearly finished. And its performance or quality dont have a real impact on PG's future except for the odds to get someone to contract them again.
The truth is, Scalebound was the title where a good chunk of their staff was assigned. That's a problem if they dont manage to find something fast.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
The problem I think is whether Microsoft have even paid them for this work right now and whether the guys that were suppose to be working on this have anything to do.
When you're dealing with megacorporations it sometimes really is.
Black Mantis
Member
Could be that they'll leave the Scalebound IP with PG, they did the same with Press Play I believe.
MistBreeze
Member
I don't know but I got that impression cause he go to nintendo to fund most his games knowing that Wii U is a dead console and he does not seem interested in collaboration with sony ever.
Is Platinum Games reknown for missing deadlines or milestones? Have you ever heard of Platinum developing games in an irresponsible way?
Platinum has worked with Sega, Nintendo, Konami, Activision and Square Enix. Never had any problem shipping a game IIRC. Now suddenly they work with Microsoft and it's a shitshow. Whose fault would one think it is? That's without even taking everything that "insiders" said about the fact in consideration.
GlamFM
Banned
And you probably know from your experience dealing with megacorporations.
Give it a rest dude. Seriously.
I know of Star Fox being delayed although it should have probably been cancelled. I know of Transformers and TMNT being hot garbage. I know of W101 being a commercial failure. Not everything they do is great. No idea why doubting Platinum is out of the question.
You're not a mod.
Eolz
Member
Thanks. But the wording is about doing that to avoid burnout, not because he was burned out.
Anyway, hope they'll all be back on track sooner than later.
plasmawave
Banned
Maybe they have a potential buyer for the IP!
Toadthemushroom
Member
To be fair, Scalebound was greenlit before Xbox One had even launched, and back when Xbox 360 was market leader in that market segment. Heck, it even represented half the market when looking at sales of FFXIII/FFXIII-2 in the UK, which explains why Square Enix committed to FFXV and KH3 on Xbox One.
I don't think whether there's an "audience for JP games" means anything at all, really. For a start, I doubt Sony (or Nintendo) would have been interested in Kamiya's dragon game concept otherwise they would have snapped it up anyway. Nintendo got TW101 and Bayonetta 2 from Sega, Sony went to From Software for Bloodborne.
Bloodborne's a good example actually - for a big budget AAA game from a studio Sony didn't own themselves, it absolutely had to be a success rather than lay down a future IP. Since the global market favoured Dark Souls-like games at the time (and still now) it was a smart decision. The install base doesn't have to be interested in "JP games" for Bloodborne to have been a success, and neither did they have to be interested in them for something like Splatoon to have been a success.
InquisitorAles
Member
frankie_baby
Member
Depends entirely on their contract, MS owns the IP but if they cancelled it and possibly haven't paid them for all work then I'd imagine theirs a possibility some of the work may become platinum's properity
It's pretty much confirmed they missed a bunch of milestones, how would that possibly make it entirely MS's fault.
Remove the emotion for a second and general dislike for MS for a second and realize that this was 2 companies making a multi million dollar contract.
Whether MS set the bar too high is not known, but if that is the case PG should have known what they could accomplish (they made a bunch of games already....).
I highly doubt MS threw milliions in and then just cancelled because the game was late as that happens frequently with many other studios, something must have been wrong with the game and they determined it was not fixable and not worth any more investment
Reineldinho
Member
You loo pretty confident in your last two answers and yet haven't say why or if that is a hint or something backed on some information you have and we don't.
anyway, I'm sure that whenever a project is that advanced (4 year in development is what I've read in this thread), this are really not going well when the customer decides to cancel rather than make a delay.
MS might or might not have pushed Platinum with crazy deadlines, but Platinum agreed on them, and again, by experience (as I work on IT, but not on videogames) the project must be really behind schedule to cancel after 4 years and all the money already invested.
Really sad story, as I liked Scalebound as concept, I like Platinum and I was ready to play Kamiya next game on my Xbox. I hope we know more in the future
Bits N Pieces
Member
Has Platinum ever attempted to make a game on this scale before?
Bayonetta 2
The Legend of Korra
Transformers: Devastation
Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Guard
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Above is what they have released since 2014. Now for an independent game developer to crank out that many games in such a short space of time and still have this huge AAA game being developed in the background looks like no other Dev that I can think of?
I am not portioning blame one way or the other because in circumstances like this it is never simply black or white, however much some people wish that to be true.
Platinum dropped the ball, Microsoft dropped the ball. To lay the blame solely at one of the two only shows your confirmation bias.
Bayonetta 2
The Legend of Korra
Transformers: Devastation
Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Guard
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Above is what they have released since 2014. Now for an independent game developer to crank out that many games in such a short space of time and still have this huge AAA game being developed in the background looks like no other Dev that I can think of?
I am not portioning blame one way or the other because in circumstances like this it is never simply black or white, however much some people wish that to be true.
Platinum dropped the ball, Microsoft dropped the ball. To lay the blame solely at one of the two only shows your confirmation bias.
I'm not the one ordering other posters around, am I? What a perfectly irrelevant observation.
InquisitorAles
Member
Team Filler
Member
Seems plausible, I could definitely see that not going down too well with Kamiya and MS reacting with cancellation. Kind of like this but not at all funny:
Miles Quaritch
Member
Transformers and TMNT would suggest there's an element of haphazardness to their development of late.
But then Nier seems decent so who knows.
At least it's not a True Fantasy/Level 5 situation again.
If you cannot see the difference between those examples then you are remarkably obtuse.
This sucks.
But when they introduced 4 player coop with 4 AI dragons, I was like why? Nobody asked for that.
I doubt the game would have sold well, but MS should have stuck with it.
My guess is Platinum reduced it to their b or c team, and MS saw the writing on the wall.
But when they introduced 4 player coop with 4 AI dragons, I was like why? Nobody asked for that.
I doubt the game would have sold well, but MS should have stuck with it.
My guess is Platinum reduced it to their b or c team, and MS saw the writing on the wall.
InquisitorAles
Member
And they've allowed Flaming Fowl Studios to work on a Fable spin-off (Fable Fortune).
Mr. Smiley
Member
What do you mean?
One would almost think that I had told you to... give it a rest.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Yeah its called NieR
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