The manager acknowledges having a "great respect" to which he aimed to be one of the great exclusive projects of the current generation on Xbox One.
Scalebound is one of the great faded dreams of the present generation of consoles. It aimed to be a renowned exclusive on Xbox One, but that agreement between Microsoft and PlatinumGames did not come to fruition and, like many other video games, it was canceled. However, the desire to see that project resurrected at an eventual moment in the future, by whoever it is, does not disappear. Phil Spencer has ruled out that they are working on it.
Despite the rumor mill and the desire to make any possibility of seeing the title back a reality, the truth is that Spencer, Microsoft vice president and head of the Xbox division, claims to have no relationship currently with the game that Hideki directed Kamiya at the Japanese company. As he has acknowledged in an interview on the IGN Unlocked podcast, he has "great respect" for Scalebound, but: "We are not working on it," he begins saying about it. "I am not in Platinum today, but I am almost convinced that they are not working on it," he continues.
In 2019 and early 2020, Spencer has made several business trips to Japan to close deals and future productions in the Xbox universe. Hence the interest of the public to know if, among the Yakuza, Kingdom Hearts and other great Japanese successes that have ended up coming to Xbox One, the plan to recover Scalebound could also be included now that PlatinumGames does not stop making announcements. But it's not like that. "For all those people out there who can, they are thinking about whether there is perhaps something in development, there is not," he concludes, acknowledging once again that the cancellation of the title is one of the things that has hurt him most since he has played this role. at Microsoft.
Phil Spencer during the Xbox Series X presentation at The Game Awards 2019
PlatinumGames recognizes it: "We would love to return"
On the other side is PlatinumGames, which on April 1 took advantage of April’s Fool (equivalent to the Day of the Holy Innocents) to deceive users. They promised that the fourth announcement of the Platinum 4 project was going to be revealed that day, but it was not. We only know from that announcement that "it will surprise". Their last mention of Scalebound was in February, when they said "We would love to come back."
Scalebound
After learning about the injection of economic capital by the Chinese giant Tencent Holdings at the beginning of the year, the first announcement of Platinum 4 was The Wonderful 101: Remastered through Kickstarter to launch on PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC; although the game was already done, as they ended up recognizing. The second announcement was Project G.G., which will mark the end of Hideki Kamiya's "hero trilogy" and for which we do not yet have confirmed platforms or an approximate release date. The third announcement has been the new studio based in Tokyo, the second major headquarters that PlatinumGames will work from now on. That team is the one that will be in charge of Project G.G.
To our knowledge, PlatinumGames is currently working on commissions for Square Enix (Babylon’s Fall) and Nintendo (Bayonetta 3). Scalebound is, today, a mere product of desire.
