The cancellation of Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames’ action-RPG Scalebound was one of the biggest news stories of 2017. Microsoft, the game’s publisher, took a lot of the heat about the cancellation. But Platinum boss Atsushi Inaba says Platinum is to blame as well.
“Both sides failed,” he told Video Game Chronicle. Inaba added that Scalebound the game “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer.”
Inaba went on to say that it “wasn’t easy” to watch fans yell at Microsoft over Scalebound’s cancellation. “The reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed,” he said. “I think there are areas where we could’ve done better and I’m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could’ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.”
The studio head said Platinum learned “a lot of painful lessons” from Scalebound’s cancellation, and these lessons have helped the studio grow. Neither Microsoft nor Platinum have said why Scalebound was canceled, but Inaba acknowledged that the game might have been announced too early in development.
Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya was leading development on Scalebound, which had reportedly been in development for years before it was shut down. In the wake of Scalebound’s cancellation, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said the cancellation is ultimately “better for Xbox gamers.”
There was a rumor that Scalebound might be revived as a Nintendo Switch game, but that’s not in the cards, according to Video Game Chronicle. J.P. Kellams, who was a producer on Scalebound, said he knows “exactly why” Scalebound was canceled but details haven’t emerged as of yet.
Platinum is currently working on multiple projects, one of which is a game idea that “has never been done before.” For whatever it’s worth, Platinum says 2019 is an “incredibly important” year for the studio.