The Japanese study makes it clear that it does not depend on them: intellectual property depends on Microsoft. However, its return is not impossible.
PlatinumGames promised a hectic 2020 year and that's how it has been. After receiving a large capital investment from Tencent Holdings, the Japanese study published on Monday a mysterious website called Platinum 4, which is actually the purpose of launching a total of four video games to the market. The first one is already known, The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which is sweeping Kickstarter; the rest is yet to be determined, but is there hope for a possible return of Scalebound?
Without fear of talking about Scalebound: "It's a game that we love and love"
Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya, top executives of the Platinum 4 project and now focused on making The Wonderful 101: Remastered the success that was not once in Wii U (2013), have chatted with Eurogamer on the occasion of this concatenation of announcements. Scalebound is a name that is always put on the table, almost a meme of the networks for what it aspired to be and its fateful outcome, whose cancellation is still present in the minds of the players of the Xbox ecosystem.
This exclusive production of Microsoft, it seems, remains in full possession of Microsoft; in this way, reality makes things clear: however much PlatinumGames pretends Scalebound is one of the four Platinum 4 games, it doesn't depend on them.
When asked if they have talked to Microsoft about an eventual return of Scalebound: “That IP was 100% controlled by Microsoft. Whatever happens with that project, we cannot do anything unless Microsoft gives us the green light. But it is a game that we love and love, if the opportunity comes we would love to return, ”says Inaba.
Last May, Inaba granted another interview where he acknowledged part of the fault of the cancellation of the project: it was not only Microsoft's responsibility. "We don't like to see Microsoft take all the blame from fans' anger because the development of a game is difficult for both parties, a lesson learned for everyone, that's for sure."
From now on, Platinum Games wants to stop relying on third-party publishers and move on to self-publishing. Now they have economic support from Tencent and, above all, the desire to focus on new video games. According to Inaba himself: "From now on we want to focus on new games instead of old ones, so I don't think there are any that we would like to return to."
Meanwhile, Platinum Games continues to work on Bayonetta 3 and Babylon’s Fall; of the latter, we could see new material last December on the occasion of the PS4 State of Play.
