Scalebound cancelled [Platinum Games and Kamiya have commented]

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2thepoint said:
Terrible news.

Bet Andrew House is on the phone to Kamiya - another Kojima situation where Playstation can benefit from good PR and an exclusive from Platinum.

Hopefully Sony comes in and gives the studio a boost.
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They would certainly gain a lot of good will.

But what I'm not certain is whether Sony has the same level of social link with Kamiya as they have with Kojima. After all, Platinum never worked with them on any exclusive projects.
 
E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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A multiplayer game is probably what MS wanted. But regardless Kamiya wanted Scalebound to be the next big step for Platinum, just like Bayonetta.
 
OrbitalBeard said:
But what if it meant the studio gets to continue existing and creating their brand of unique software?

Not that I think there's a chance in hell Nintendo buys them.
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I can't see them not existing. They're too talented and will undoubtedly be hired to create more games for other publishers.

Their games will also reach a far larger audience by not being stuck on Nintendo hardware. This entire rhetoric of Nintendo should buy them is wishful thinking on the part of Nintendo fans. It has more to do with serving their self interests then Platinum's.
 
Mystic_Wanderer said:
I don't think comparing the employment of a company and the death of a human is really an apt one, but I understand the point you're trying to make.

I just don't have a whole lot of sympathy for when someone signs a bad contract. It just creates a never-ending cycle where others have to do it just to keep afloat. If all independent studios refused to sign with MS due to their apparently abhorrent practices, it would certainly cause a shift in policy. But that's near impossible to do, which I also understand.

PG essentially want to remain independent. What the market has borne out is that really isn't feasible. I'm not sure of their financial situation, but if, as many posters are implying, they had to take this contract or risk folding (which is another point - if they weren't at this point, why take a bad contract?) perhaps being independent isn't the best route for them.
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That wasn't a comparison. It was telling you that if you did something like that, you would probably get punched in the face. No one is punching you in the face here. Just saying.

With regards to staying independent, are you aware of any offers made to Platinum to buy them up? Do you think there is any indication that they remain the way they do because they really, really want to, or because it is simply the road available to them? Who would buy Platinum? And who have they turned down?
 
It is true that for some reason some publishers seem obsessed with the "community and multiplayer feature" and it feels like this concept is forced on games that are not supposed to have this in the first place. It is as if the owner of a restaurant forced people in the kitchen to add sugar to every meal because sugar is good, sure sugar is great but not for everything.
 
E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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Oh gee, I wonder who would have pushed for such a thing.

Huh, just noticed we have millions of these Xbox Live subscriptions to sell. Whats that you say, you're making a single player game? Well...
 
Chaos2Frozen said:
They would certainly gain a lot of good will.

But what I'm not certain is whether Sony has the same level of social link with Kamiya as they have with Kojima. After all, Platinum never worked with them on any exclusive projects.
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True, but I think most people see some of the IPs Kamiya is well known for, such as Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, as being most closely associated with Playstation
 
True Fire said:
I agree that business is business, but if the allegations of Microsoft moving goalposts, not paying employees, and putting Platinum employees through emotional distress are true, then it's unethical. There's evidence of Microsoft having a toxic first party environment and it's relevant to the entire industry.

Of course, no one will be attacking them at the Game Awards because they aren't an "acceptable" target like Konami is.
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Well, it's hardly limited to just Konami and Microsoft Studios. I doubt no one will be attacking Take2/Rockstar at The Game Awards when Red Dead Redemption 2 gets an award either, despite the stories about how staff were treated during the development of RDR and LA Noire last gen.

And they certainly won't be attacking Sony Interactive Entertainment for mismanaging DriveClub and shutting down Zipper Interactive, Studio Liverpool, and BigBig Studios.
 
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E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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I don't know about the game looking bad, it looks fine from the videos I had seen.

The MS bashing may or may not be deserved especially if them mistreating platinum are true but the biggest issue of all this is Microsoft Library of games is looking more one note and it's pretty sad when they keep cancelling games.

I guess we will see what they announce.
 
ShinUltramanJ said:
I can't see them not existing. They're too talented and will undoubtedly be hired to create more games for other publishers.
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Maybe. But half of Platinum's entire studio, including their star creator, is now out of work. Losing a contract the size of Scalebound is a major and legitimate cause of concern for the future of the company. The hope is that a major publisher signs them to a very big project...and fast.
 
vonStirlitz said:
7,300 posts in 24 hours, most of which reflect a very critical view of MS from an important constituency.

MS clearly have some serious reputation issues which they still need to sort out. Not a good start to the year, or a good portent for Scorpio, particularly given the lack of enthusiasm for the rest of their 2017 lineup.
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That'll die down in two days when Nintendo announces the Switch, giving Microsoft plenty of time to readjust any message they want to send.

The people at Microsoft, you know they have a day job, right?
 
pretty unfortunate, like Nirolak had mentioned i wonder where this leaves Platinum as a whole finacially. this game just seemed all over the place in design, art and otherwise and the last e3 demo was the nail in the coffin i guess. i would of copped it on steam . maybe someone will be able to finance the rest of it someday.
 
Reckheim said:
I could make a guess why they 'decided' to do that.
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ElBoxyBrown said:
A multiplayer game is probably what MS wanted. But regardless Kamiya wanted Scalebound to be the next big step for Platinum, just like Bayonetta.
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Pie and Beans said:
Oh gee, I wonder who would have pushed for such a thing.

Huh, just noticed we have millions of these Xbox Live subscriptions to sell. Whats that you say, you're making a single player game? Well...
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Single player games sell very well (especially those with RPG elements). Microsoft doesn't need anymore multiplayer games when they have their big ticket items. I would need proof that MS forced platinum to make a multiplayer game - it goes against all of their strengths.

They contracted Platinum to make a Platinum game. I have a feeling Kamiya might have been too ambitious with the title.

Lothars said:
I don't know about the game looking bad, it looks fine from the videos I had seen.

The MS bashing may or may not be deserved especially if them mistreating platinum are true but the biggest issue of all this is Microsoft Library of games is looking more one note and it's pretty sad when they keep cancelling games.

I guess we will see what they announce.
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I've been playing Kamiya games for a very long time and Scalebound looked very bad compared to his other projects. The game would have been a huge bomb, unfortunately.
 
E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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Because, apparently, MS made it a requirement?

As a side note, if we're into presenting evidence of character about MS' dealings with their 3rd party devs and screwing them, I was recently reading this Brad Mc Quaid interview about what went wrong with Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2014/02/13/the-inside-story-of-how-a-major-mmo-went-wrong

Tldr: MS scooped up publishing rights on Vanguard, about 12 months away from release, there was a change in the game dev relations team in MS, new team told Sigil : How about Releasing right now? If not possible, Gtfo, 4+ years of work in the bin". (Paraphrasing)

Learned something else completely unrelated: Everquest fans were always railing about Sony "messing up" Everquest when they "bought" Verant and folded it back in 989, which became SOE. Both Verant and 989 Studios were fully owned/ funded Sony subsidiaries (just by different Sony companies), which is kinda hilarious in retrospect.
 
This is very disappointing but disappointment is common in video games.

I've stop treating my consoles as investments, been burn way to many times from all the console makers one way or another. Now I just buy the consoles when I see a game I want to play.
 
I'm not even disappointed about this game in particular (although I would've bought it) but more about the state of MS in general. Their exclusive lineup is pathetic. I love me some Halo/Gears/Forza, but fucking hell, I want more. It's not even a joke anymore. Where is the new shit like Sunset Overdrive or Ori? They really shouldn't stop trying out new things.

This E3 is going to be interesting. As many have said already, they might have the most powerful console with Scorpio, but what's the point without good exclusive games? You know, a reason to buy the box instead of a PS4 or Switch.

Really disappointed with MS. I'm sure there is good reason Scalebound is cancelled, but it does not bode well.
 
E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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because spending 10s of millions of dollars on a single player action game in today's market will be like throwing money away.

If Scalebound wasn't going to be a tentpole IP for Microsoft and instead a mid-tier game like The Wonderful 101 I think it might have worked out better.
 
Might of been covered so please forgive me trying to catch up on this.

Would it be possible for Sony to fund the rest of the game or is it wrapped up with Microsoft and they own the IP? Not really sure how this works.

I was honestly excited for this game and would love to see it live somehow.
 
E92 M3 said:
I've been playing Kamiya games for a very long time and Scalebound looked very bad compared to his other projects. The game would have been a huge bomb, unfortunately.
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I don't agree but now we will never know either way and I feel platinum for me is fairly hit and miss but they are really consistent qualitywise.
 
I doubt very much that Platinum just decided to make this massive ambitious game when MS was only expecting a character action game. They pitched this game, and MS approved.
 
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duckroll said:
That wasn't a comparison. It was telling you that if you did something like that, you would probably get punched in the face. No one is punching you in the face here. Just saying.

With regards to staying independent, are you aware of any offers made to Platinum to buy them up? Do you think there is any indication that they remain the way they do because they really, really want to, or because it is simply the road available to them? Who would buy Platinum? And who have they turned down?
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So, you feel as though my position merited personal insults? That's what you're saying there.

And if nobody wants to buy Platinum Games, of which I have no idea if anybody has ever seriously entertained it, that just goes to not creating enough value in their work. For whatever reason PG work tends to be very niche and not reach a broad audience. So either they should adopt a common Hollywood approach, do the mass appeal blockbusters to fund passion projects, or re-evaluate their position in the gaming industry.
 
I just noticed the slight edit on JP's Twitter profile :(

5kwuDK3.png


Hoping Platinum aren't hit too hard by this :/
 
OrbitalBeard said:
Maybe. But half of Platinum's entire studio, including their star creator, is now out of work. Losing a contract the size of Scalebound is a major and legitimate cause of concern for the future of the company. The hope is that a major publisher signs them to a very big project...and fast.
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I'd imagine most of the team could possibly be temporarily put to work on their other projects get them finished quicker while a new big contract is sought
 
Miami Danger said:
Might of been covered so please forgive me trying to catch up on this.

Would it be possible for Sony to fund the rest of the game or is it wrapped up with Microsoft and they own the IP? Not really sure how this works.

I was honestly excited for this game and would love to see it live somehow.
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No, Microsoft owns the IP so even if PG wanted to take it somewhere else they can't all the assets are property of MS.
 
This thread has clearly drummed up a lot of feelings! It's already 147+ pages. That surprises me because the game looked like pants in August.
 
vonStirlitz said:
I'm sure most of them pretend to do their day job while secretly reading and posting on GAF. I sure do in my day job...
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Hahaha, but seriously... I'm sure it sucks for everyone involved right now. Microsoft lost a big title for 2017, and they're probably scrambling to communicate some kind of good news.

We'll surely know more closer to E3.
 
frankie_baby said:
I'd imagine most of the team could possibly be temporarily put to work on their other projects get them finished quicker while a new big contract is sought
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Well sure, I have no doubt they can be given temporary work, but when a corporation like Microsoft stops paying a big chunk of your bills, that's a problem, particularly for a studio like Platinum.
 
Goodgooooomoooga....75 pages? Sheesh...anyone want to catch me up? I know Shinobi commented on it before it was official and Sneakers said MS are to blame as well for this, but anymore insider speculation on what happened or are all these pages just disappointed fans?
 
E92 M3 said:
I've been playing Kamiya games for a very long time and Scalebound looked very bad compared to his other projects. The game would have been a huge bomb, unfortunately.
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It didn't look bad at all. The behind closed doors stuff at Gamescom looked cooler than anything in MS's entire line-up in my opinion.
 
E92 M3 said:
The consistent bashing of MS is funny. The game looked bad, co-op was tacked on and the main character wasn't likable. I have no idea why Platinum decided to make a multiplayer game instead of a good character action/adventure game.
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I dunno about the other stuff in your post, but the bold is entirely MS' fault lol
 
Hypereides said:
You know, I'm all in for dubio pro reo, but all this is just pileing up to the mountain of evidence that Microsoft is a terrible business partner.
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Yeah, that's the thing- if MS and Platinum both had decent reputations about this stuff, I'd be more willing to believe it's Platinum's fault. But MS has been fucking up and fucking over their FP/exclusive projects for years now, while Platinum has always managed to deliver their projects (even if sometimes they can't deliver something particularly *good*, they do manage to deliver.) Kamiya in particular has a flawless reputation thus far with the projects he's directed. In the absence of hard evidence either way it's hard not to assume that MS was the party primarily at fault here.
 
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