Platinum wasn't happy to see Microsoft take all the blame for cancelling Scalebound, says Inaba
Scalebound, one of Microsoft's once promising Xbox One exclusives, was cancelled over two years ago.
Though attitudes about Microsoft have certainly changed since, fans never stopped blaming the platform holder for canning one its unique games. It didn't help that, at the time, rumours about the toll the news took on director Hideki Kamiya were rampant.
Kamiya has since clarified that these have no basis in reality. Now, years after the fact, developer Platinum Games decided to weigh in. Speaking to VGC, studio head Atsushi Inaba explained that both companies were ultimately responsible.
"Watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over the cancellation wasn’t easy for us to watch," said Inaba. "Because the reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed.
"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."
Inaba added that part of making video games is that you sometimes have to make the hard decision to cancel, though he's hopeful the four years spent on Scalebound taught Platinum some valuable lessons.
The action RPG was supposed to be the next big game from the Bayonetta director. Envisioned as both an exciting action game and a compelling co-op pastime, the game never made a compelling case for itself.
As for the rumours about Nintendo having now resurrected Scalebound as a Switch exclusive, Inaba said they aren't true.