Hideki Kamiya has been no stranger to lamenting the cancellation of Action RPG Scalebound, has apologized to fans for this cancellation in the past, but now he seems ready to revive the game if Microsoft would allow him to. The new President and CEO of PlatinumGames Atsushi Inaba have also piled onto this desire, making clear these are no idle thoughts.
In an interview with IGN Japan, Inaba stated:
Often in an interview, you might hear a developer politely saying, ‘Yes, if we had the opportunity we’d love to work on that again’, but we don’t mean it that way. Both Kamiya and I are serious – we really would love to work on Scalebound again. I’d like to discuss it with Microsoft properly.
Building on that, Inaba stated that Devil May Cry and Bayonetta creator Kamiya “has been talking about wanting to work on Scalebound again for a while.” Kamiya himself added to this, appealing directly to the Head of Xbox, by saying “I’d like to appeal to Phil Spencer directly! Let’s do it, Phil!”
Kamiya continued with his plea, saying that “Development had progressed a fairway, and it seems pointless for Microsoft to just hold on to that and not do anything with it,” before switching to English and stating “Phil! Phil! Let’s do it together!”
Last year Kamiya addressed the cancellation of the game, apologizing to both fans and Microsoft, making it clear that there were issues on both sides of the development process. He went on to say:
It was a big challenge for Platinum Games. We were working in an environment we weren’t used to. We were developing on the Unreal engine, we also lacked the necessary know-how to build a game based on online features. The hurdles we had to overcome were very big.
There might be a new challenge standing in the way of Scalebound however, in the form of IO interactives upcoming Project Dragon, with both games sharing similar elements. Furthermore, persistent rumors place IO as a company Microsoft might look to acquire if their partnership on this game goes well, meaning they might be unwilling to greenlight similar projects during this period.
PlatinumGames has also recently announced a shift in game development which might explain their desire to return to Scalebound. Inaba, in a recent interview, stated that the company wanted to create games that “can be enjoyed and loved for a longer period of time,” suggesting the company might lean more heavily into live-service titles like their upcoming Babylon’s Fall. It has been suggested Scalebound was an early attempt for the company at this, not having the know-how at the time, but have since accrued an understanding of those styles of game that they could now bring to it.
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