Scalebound: A Post Mortem Look

[danmaku]

I'm a big Platinum fan but I won't lie, the game looked bad every time they showed it. I couldn't believe the guy who created Dante, Bayonetta, Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101 designed that lame Dante rip-off. That was the alarm bell, something was wrong with Scalebound. Gameplay didn't look good either. It was like Platinum trying to make a mainstream AAA game and failing. If MS cancelled it, it was probably fucked beyond repair.

 

[Xeontech]

Snip ...nm

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You must have missed the convo. Someone said Kamiya matters not. I responded they know nothing. Nobody here said Kamiya was the only reason the game was good. Just that it was a factor. A large one at that.

They got backlash for selling Sea of Thieves for 60 dollars. State of Decay 2 is a 30 dollar game. Selling Scalebound at 60 dollars would be another backlash.

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what on earth makes you think this? We have no idea how much content Scalebound was going to release with. SoT got backlash cause it had 3 hours of content before you saw everything. The trailers alone had more enemy variety that SoT. I don't think it's far fetched to say Scalebound was beyond the scope of the like of State of Decay. 60$ would have been fine for the game given decent amount of content.

But we don't know anything about that so how is this even an argument against it?

 

[TheBiInBilingual]

This. This was the only game that would've made get an Xbox. I don't care about racing games so no Forza, played through all of Gears of War with a friend at his house, and Cuphead never interested me. Such a shame this got canned.

 

[SuikerBrood]

You must have missed the convo. Someone said Kamiya matters not. I responded they know nothing. Nobody here said Kamiya was the only reason the game was good. Just that it was a factor. A large one at that.

what on earth makes you think this? We have no idea how much content Scalebound was going to release with. SoT got backlash cause it had 3 hours of content before you saw everything. The trailers alone had more enemy variety that SoT. I don't think it's far fetched to say Scalebound was beyond the scope of the like of State of Decay. 60$ would have been fine for the game given decent amount of content.

But we don't know anything about that so how is this even an argument against it?

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I didn't say anything about content. The game just didn't seem to improve much between the moments it was shown. It just didn't work it seems. MS isn't blaming anyone and PG has been very silent about it too.
You can't sell a game with the jank of State of Decay for 60 dollars imo.

 

[Jaypah]

Shame it didn't come together. The game got shitted on every time it was shown, though that may have been console warrior nonsense. Threads discussing the game were decently active but they were all dwarfed by the cancellation thread where it became everyone's saught after game that they almost bought an Xbox for. Shit was a wild ride. Maybe they can use some of their ideas for a future game. Or not, they seem like a creative bunch.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Look at the NeoGAF threads I linked up above - everyone saying it was one of the most disappointing of the show and how bad it looked.

Then it got cancelled and suddenly everyone says it was looking amazing. How quickly the narrative changed just so MS could get shit on.

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Look at the replies numbers to these Scalebound threads on the old place.
Look at the discrepancy between the cancelled threads and the new news threads

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Really can't be said enough. There was a huge discrepancy between what Scalebound sounded like and what it looked like. In theory it could have been this giant Monster Hunter-like RPG, with the combat system from Bayonetta, the attitude of Devil May Cry, plus dragon mounts and all kinds of insane combos where you use your dragon as a weapon pretty much. It never really looked as exciting as it sounded for many (I was really hyped, personally), despite the many years and millions that were thrown at it. It just didn't seem to go well after many years, and Microsoft can't just throw money at nothing until eternity, or force them to crunch for 2 years to then deliver a broken 65 Metacritic game just to have a chance to recoup some costs. Platinum was wearing themselves quick as they were working on tons of projects at the same time, and one of such scale simply wasn't working out for them - and this was in a time when other smaller projects didn't quite nail it either (Korra, Ninja Turtles, etc.).

It's a bummer this game got cancelled, but with the amount of time and budget they had, they should have had much better showings than they did. I'm quite convinced this game was simply a too big of a task for a team used to medium-to-low budget linear action games, and they couldn't deliver a high fidelity open world action RPG like it was Bioware or Ubisoft. Which is understandable, I guess.

 

[Xeontech]

I didn't say anything about content. The game just didn't seem to improve much between the moments it was shown. It just didn't work it seems. MS isn't blaming anyone and PG has been very silent about it too.
You can't sell a game with the jank of State of Decay for 60 dollars imo.

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Have you ever played a platinum game?

 

[SuikerBrood]

Have you ever played a platinum game?

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No.

 

[Deleted member 26104]

Don't really understand the decision to cancel from a business perspective though. The game seemed pretty far along in development. Even if they thought it was going to be a failure, wouldn't it have made more sense to push it out to release and recoup some of the costs? I dunno, I'm probably completely wrong about that, or just missing something.

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That's precisely why the game must have been in a terrible state for it to be cancelled. Spend another 10 million to recoup even 20 million of the (for example) 40 million device costs seems like a no brainer to just find it. Spend another 30 million to only recoup 20 million of the say 60 million and it's a much easier decision in the other direction. Logically thinking, for them to cancel it after 4 years and tens of millions means it was nowhere near finished, and in a terrible state. Just look at the footage they chose to use to try show the game in the best light at E3 - it was absolutely horrible. That's the best footage they could use to sell the game. That says enough.

Some of you don't even realize how important the fact it was Kamiya directed is. Can't take you remotely seriously.

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This is honestly one of the most out of touch things I have ever seen on here. I doubt even 1% of people that watched the trailers have even heard of kamiya, let alone give a shit who he is.

 

[Deleted member 26104]

Have you ever played a platinum game?

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Have you? Ninja turtles and transformers were pretty crap.

 

[Xeontech]

This is honestly one of the most out of touch things I have ever seen on here. I doubt even 1% of people that watched the trailers have even heard of kamiya, let alone give a shit who he is.

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I guess it just matters to those of us that care about video games. lol

 

[Xeontech]

Have you? Ninja turtles and transformers were pretty crap.

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Cause that's what they're known for. Smh

 

[SuikerBrood]

I guess it just matters to those of us that care about video games. lol

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I care about video games. The name rings a bell, but that's about it.

Cause that's what they're known for. Smh

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Look, the concept of Scalebound is great. It just didn't work out as it should. Shit happens, it's video game development.

 

[Deleted member 26104]

I guess it just matters to those of us that care about video games. lol

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Hahahahahaha what a pathetic, elitist response. A bad game is a bad game no matter who directs it. Scalebound looked bad.

Cause that's what they're known for. Smh

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Oh so we just ignore their games that are bad because it doesn't fit our narrative we're trying to push? Lol fantastic.

 

[Hayeya]

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but this is my history with this game:
- Announcement: Holy Shit, Megaton, Kamiya you bastard
- Gameplay presentation 1: WTF is this? Shoppy, framerate in the 10s, ugly as fuck
- Gameplay presentation 2: Did they show the wrong footage or something? the game looks to be in development hell
- Gameplay presentation 3: (2 years later maybe), are they beginning to develop this thing? seems a demo of a demo.
- Game is cancelled: Sad for the Platinum and Kamiya, but it was expected.

 

[Xeontech]

I care about video games. The name rings a bell, but that's about it.

Look, the concept of Scalebound is great. It just didn't work out as it should. Shit happens, it's video game development.

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This is much more reasonable. Maybe you don't know who he is. But you've probably heard of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, viewtiful Joe, wonderful 101, some of the best critically acclaimed action games ever created.

Shit happens is a thing. Yes. That is exactly where we are. But when some of us lament what could have been, it's like a team of sycophants come out of the woodworks to make sure we all know The game was gonna suck no matter what, Kamiya be damned, and it's s good thing that trash was cancelled.

I mean, comparing it to SoT and State of Decay jank?

Bollocks and Bullshit pure and simple.

 

[Remo Williams]

I'm still sad about this cancellation, it did have a lot of potential, and it's been a while since we've gotten a good new dragon riding game. At the same time, it's remarkable how Scalebound managed to turn from "lol terrible frame rate, weak combat, annoying protagonist, four identical dudebros in co-op, poor textures, bad E3 demo" into Kamiya's lost masterpiece practically over night.

 

[Xeontech]

Hahahahahaha what a pathetic, shit response.

Oh so we just ignore their games that are good because it doesn't fit our narrative we're trying to push? Lol fantastic.

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FTFY

Also your trying too hard.

 

[SuikerBrood]

This is much more reasonable. Maybe you don't know who he is. But you've probably heard of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, viewtiful Joe, wonderful 101, some of the best critically acclaimed action games ever created.

Shit happens is a thing. Yes. That is exactly where we are. But when some of us lament what could have been, it's like a team of sycophants come out of the woodworks to make sure we all know The game was gonna suck no matter what, Kamiya be damned, and it's s good thing that trash was cancelled.

I mean, comparing it to SoT and State of Decay jank?

Bollocks and Bullshit pure and simple.

Click to shrink...

This is much more reasonable. Maybe you don't know who he is. But you've probably heard of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, viewtiful Joe, wonderful 101, some of the best critically acclaimed action games ever created.

Shit happens is a thing. Yes. That is exactly where we are. But when some of us lament what could have been, it's like a team of sycophants come out of the woodworks to make sure we all know The game was gonna suck no matter what, Kamiya be damned, and it's s good thing that trash was cancelled.

I mean, comparing it to SoT and State of Decay jank?

Bollocks and Bullshit pure and simple.

Click to shrink...

Wait, wait, wait, hold on.


It looked trash, don't know if it was trash. No one has really played it. Sea of Thieves is in no way a janky game, quite the opposite. I was comparing the backlash of a 60 dollar game with little content to a 60 dollar game with jank. Because that's what it looked like in those demo's. That's why I compared it to State of Decay, because that game has jank and it's MSRP is 30 dollars.

We don't know who's to blame for this, probably both MS and PG. But you are stating it would be the biggest first party game for MS this generation.. meh. I don't see why that would be the case.

 

[Eddie Hills]

This is much more reasonable. Maybe you don't know who he is. But you've probably heard of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, viewtiful Joe, wonderful 101, some of the best critically acclaimed action games ever created.

Shit happens is a thing. Yes. That is exactly where we are. But when some of us lament what could have been, it's like a team of sycophants come out of the woodworks to make sure we all know The game was gonna suck no matter what, Kamiya be damned, and it's s good thing that trash was cancelled.

I mean, comparing it to SoT and State of Decay jank?

Bollocks and Bullshit pure and simple.

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Eh not entirely true, especially 101 which has a 78 aggregate on mc

 

[Eddie Hills]

Have you ever played a platinum game?

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Most people haven't.

Especially since Plantinums expansion plans haven't really gone anywhere and they are a niche company.

 

[Deleted member 26104]

FTFY

Also your trying too hard.

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Who's ignoring the good games? No-one is saying platinum don't make some great games. They also make some stinkers though, but you are trying to pretend they don't exist because that hurts your narrative.

I don't understand how I'm trying too hard? You're the one trying to convince everyone that scalebound would factually have become Microsoft's biggest ever IP lol.

 

[Deleted member 35204]

All these sentiments towards this game seem like revisionists history to me, even when they showed the first piece of artwork this game didn't look that good and with each showing the game never really improved.
Sure the cancellation was a sad news because it's never a good thing seeing a game getting cancelled but it was mainly because Microsoft was/is in an incredible dire situation where they can't manage to release even a potentially interesting game on the XB1 for one reason or another.
To people who comments on how "it still hurts" "i wanted this game so bad" and so on... where were you when this game was still a thing? Because the mainstream opinion at the time was "it doesn't look that good". People seem to care more about Scalebound's cancellation than Scalebound itself.

 

[Xeontech]

Wait, wait, wait, hold on.


It looked trash, don't know if it was trash. No one has really played it. Sea of Thieves is in no way a janky game, quite the opposite. I was comparing the backlash of a 60 dollar game with little content to a 60 dollar game with jank. Because that's what it looked like in those demo's. That's why I compared it to State of Decay, because that game has jank and it's MSRP is 30 dollars.

We don't know who's to blame for this, probably both MS and PG. But you are stating it would be the biggest first party game for MS this generation.. meh. I don't see why that would be the case.

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I wasn't saying SoT was jank, someone earlier argued that SoT was bigger in scope than Scalebound which I disagreed with.

The jank comment was why I asked if you'd played platinum games. Confusing plot, emo characters, niche demographics, sure, but one thing their games are NOT is janky. Their action and gameplay delivers when nothing else does, it's ehat their known for. Someone even brought up Transformers, which had better action gameplay than it had any right to.

I personally think it was likely cancelled because it needed another year or more in the oven and ms said no.

If they continued to support the game, invested a bit more, and gave it the time it needed, I honestly would have expected it to be as good as any of Kamiyas predecessors. And likely a sleeper hit for Xbox after all the lackluster demos.

I mean, it was part DMC, part legend of Dragoon, part Godzilla Monster Mahem, with platinum style action to boot.

 

[Deleted member 18951]

I guess it just matters to those of us that care about video games. lol

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Hahaha, you have to know who Kayima is in order to be able to care about computer games?

It got cancelled because of Platinum, Kayima, Microsoft etc. They all fucked up and that's why the game is in the ether. Why do so many have an issue trying to understand this?

 

[Tregard]

Great OP, Scalebound was such an interesting looking project.

Would it move the needle at all in Microsoft announced Kamiya was rebooting/uncancelling the title, and was being given free reign?

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

This is a well made thread, awesome job OP. I think people were more enamoured with the THOUGHT of this game (Platinum made ARPG) than the reality. Cause the reality is....it looked pretty shit. Just bland. The character looked like an idiot. The animations were wonky. The combat looked boring. There is a reason Microsoft dropped it.

 

[Scorpion Soldier]

Such a weird game to think back to. I remember a few years back at GC where we'd get presentations from Kamiya & co in the business section of the conference and how excited/hyped they sounded about the whole thing.

 

[Garou Beast]

Honestly, I still believed it was a good game. Kamiya's too talented to make an outright bad game. I'm still shifting blame more on Microsoft's end just because they're known to have interfered with other devs in the past. And from what we know about Scalebound and Kamiya, that's exactly what sounds like what ultimately killed the game.

 

[Rex1157]

I'd like to see a lot of this stuff at least recycled into another game. This game was the one that almost made me want an Xbox.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

I guess it just matters to those of us that care about video games. lol

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I've been rocking videogames consistently since the mid 80s, I have no idea who Kayima is, don't really care tbh. The most I care about videogames is how much they will entertain me. That's it. And guess what, this game unfortunately looked like shit and didn't look very entertaining at all. Meh.

 

[synaesthesiaJP]

Great thread. Thanks for the link to Windows Central too. I'd been DM'd some rumors about Scalebound being killed, but I didn't believe it, figured there was no way Microsoft would kill such a big flagship project. I'd recently interviewed Hideki Kamiya and JP Kellams who both seemed really upbeat about the project, so it just seemed really odd that this kinda rumor would be circulating. Later that same day, I got a call from Microsoft, offering us early access to some news on the state of Scalebound. I was pretty stunned.

We had a brief 15 minute Q&A, they wouldn't offer details on why it had been killed. I asked about the gap it was gonna leave in Microsoft's lineup, and they gave a typical PR response pointing to other games in the lineup (many of which have now been delayed). I think it was pretty soon after Scalebound got killed that the central criticism of today's Xbox started focusing on exclusives, and I don't think that's going to go away any time soon.

A few weeks later and after a few conversations with people I know who were involved with the project (no names, sry), the impression I was given was that Platinum missed a few development milestones. There was definitely a sense, at least a rumor, within Microsoft that PG was essentially putting Microsoft's $$$ towards projects like Nier Automata. Whether that's true or not I don't know, I never got PG's side of the story, so take that with a pinch of salt (and that's why I never published that rumor really). I was also told that the main character was a point of contention, considered to be unappealing to mainstream Western audiences. Again, don't know if 100% true.

I think Scalebound would've been really good if things had gone better. I saw the game running at E3 on a console that year and, sure it was a demo, but it seemed really solid, at least conceptually.

I'm happy over all with my Xbox, but that's mainly because of third-party games. I think for those who are concerned about missing out on exclusives will continue to consider the Xbox a tough sell, even with 6TF.

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I'll keep my time in here very short, there is a book or two worth of Scalebound stories I'm saving for when I am old and gray, but I did want to say:

1) I love this thread. Seeing how much people still think about Scalebound makes me incredibly happy.
2) Platinum never used Scalebound money for Nier. I have no connection to them anymore, and no reason to defend them, but that is categorically untrue and that rumor shouldn't be allowed to spread.
3) Jez's post cleared some stuff up for me -- Where the leaks about the cancellation were coming from. Especially the one about a "senior staff" (me) taking a month off work because I burnt out. I actually developed an irregular heart beat as the game was falling apart, had a couple of really bad days holding myself responsible for so many things, and then went to see a doctor and a psychiatrist. Was told it was totally stress related and that I should take a month off, which Platinum was incredibly supportive of. When Scalebound was cancelled, this was leaked as some sort of pretense/justification. It really hurt - my medical privacy had been violated, potentially damaging my career prospects in the process, and the VG enthusiast press was more than happy to print it without question. The leaker was spinning a PR situation. I was living my life. My doctor couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. As an aside, I'm super healthy now, and I've learned how important it is to manage stress in a job (production) where you are essentially the baggage drop for everyone's problems. Everyone should really take care of themselves. Scalebound meant everything to me, until I realized that it was the amazing people and experiences that I'd had making it that actually meant everything.

Funnily enough, I'm wearing a Scalebound tshirt and probably going to dinner with John Omohundro tonight. Everyone from the project is still friends and keeps in touch.

P.S. I wish we would have released video of Dragon Link. Damn that was cool. :)

 

[LeFronge]

Back in 2015-2016, I had the pleasure of working on Scalebound in a small capacity.

Out of all the projects we were receiving builds for, Scalebound was by far the one I enjoyed the most and saw potential in. I even had the pleasure to go out to Gamescom and meet / shake hands with a few of the devs.

Was gutted to see it eventually cancelled - but happy to see its legacy live on a little in communities like this.

Eventually, after a workload shake-up, my Scalebound work was "scaled" back (zing) and I was assigned work on Fable Legends.

 

[Droidian]

I was excited for this when I bought my xbone in 2015.
R.I.P.

 

[AnubisRising]

While i wish it came out clearly something went wrong on both sides. Which is why putting blame on one side and not the other is ridiculous. Now if we ever get the truth and it paints one side as the bad guy then sure all blame on them but until its a both side issue

 

[Zeta Ori]

I'll keep my time in here very short, there is a book or two worth of Scalebound stories I'm saving for when I am old and gray, but I did want to say:

1) I love this thread. Seeing how much people still think about Scalebound makes me incredibly happy.
2) Platinum never used Scalebound money for Nier. I have no connection to them anymore, and no reason to defend them, but that is categorically untrue and that rumor shouldn't be allowed to spread.
3) Jez's post cleared some stuff up for me -- Where the leaks about the cancellation were coming from. Especially the one about a "senior staff" (me) taking a month off work because I burnt out. I actually developed an irregular heart beat as the game was falling apart, had a couple of really bad days holding myself responsible for so many things, and then went to see a doctor and a psychiatrist. Was told it was totally stress related and that I should take a month off, which Platinum was incredibly supportive of. When Scalebound was cancelled, this was leaked as some sort of pretense/justification. It really hurt - my medical privacy had been violated, potentially damaging my career prospects in the process, and the VG enthusiast press was more than happy to print it without question. The leaker was spinning a PR situation. I was living my life. My doctor couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. As an aside, I'm super healthy now, and I've learned how important it is to manage stress in a job (production) where you are essentially the baggage drop for everyone's problems. Everyone should really take care of themselves. Scalebound meant everything to me, until I realized that it was the amazing people and experiences that I'd had making it that actually meant everything.

Funnily enough, I'm wearing a Scalebound tshirt and probably going to dinner with John Omohundro tonight. Everyone from the project is still friends and keeps in touch.

P.S. I wish we would have released video of Dragon Link. Damn that was cool. :)

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It's very unfortunate to hear your legitimate health issues were used in that manner, and I hope the negative consequences of such actions have passed.

Also, thanks for stopping by and sharing your story. While getting to the bottom of the situation wasn't the original purpose of this thread, It's still great to hear from behind the scenes, no matter how the project ended up going.

To me personally, Scalebound represented a lot more than just a Japanese exclusive on Xbox. I've grown up with Xbox through all 3 generations, and Scalebound felt like the return of Original Xbox in a sense, the return of the type of experimentation on the platform that gave us titles like Phantom Dust or Breakdown. These days you just don't get games like that in the AAA space.

Most importantly, I just want to say thanks for all your work on this project. I can't say what the future holds, but I do believe you all were on to something special that shouldn't be forgotten.

Back in 2015-2016, I had the pleasure of working on Scalebound in a small capacity.

Out of all the projects we were receiving builds for, Scalebound was by far the one I enjoyed the most and saw potential in. I even had the pleasure to go out to Gamescom and meet / shake hands with a few of the devs.

Was gutted to see it eventually cancelled - but happy to see its legacy live on a little in communities like this.

Eventually, after a workload shake-up, my Scalebound work was "scaled" back (zing) and I was assigned work on Fable Legends.

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Seems like this thread is bringing quite a few people involved in the project out :)

But like above, just wanted to thank you for the work on the game regardless of what scale your work on the project was.

 

[Deleted member 18951]

I'll keep my time in here very short, there is a book or two worth of Scalebound stories I'm saving for when I am old and gray, but I did want to say:

1) I love this thread. Seeing how much people still think about Scalebound makes me incredibly happy.
2) Platinum never used Scalebound money for Nier. I have no connection to them anymore, and no reason to defend them, but that is categorically untrue and that rumor shouldn't be allowed to spread.
3) Jez's post cleared some stuff up for me -- Where the leaks about the cancellation were coming from. Especially the one about a "senior staff" (me) taking a month off work because I burnt out. I actually developed an irregular heart beat as the game was falling apart, had a couple of really bad days holding myself responsible for so many things, and then went to see a doctor and a psychiatrist. Was told it was totally stress related and that I should take a month off, which Platinum was incredibly supportive of. When Scalebound was cancelled, this was leaked as some sort of pretense/justification. It really hurt - my medical privacy had been violated, potentially damaging my career prospects in the process, and the VG enthusiast press was more than happy to print it without question. The leaker was spinning a PR situation. I was living my life. My doctor couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. As an aside, I'm super healthy now, and I've learned how important it is to manage stress in a job (production) where you are essentially the baggage drop for everyone's problems. Everyone should really take care of themselves. Scalebound meant everything to me, until I realized that it was the amazing people and experiences that I'd had making it that actually meant everything.

Funnily enough, I'm wearing a Scalebound tshirt and probably going to dinner with John Omohundro tonight. Everyone from the project is still friends and keeps in touch.

P.S. I wish we would have released video of Dragon Link. Damn that was cool. :)

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Thanks for chiming in with your input JP, it's very much appreciated. I suppose Scalebound is always going to be a really decisive talking point for so many people as they cared about the game from a fans perspective, never mind the passion and stress that those directly involved in making the game would have felt.

I really would love to know more about the whole development process and the ups and downs that it would have caused, but when you mention your health concerns it shows that all of that isn't really important and for someone in PR to use your situation to spin a certain narrative is pretty despicable. And as someone who works in that area myself it actually angers me that people can be that callous.

At least you're in a better place now and that's all that really matters :)

 

[Woetyler]

:(

 

[Xeontech]

I'll keep my time in here very short, there is a book or two worth of Scalebound stories I'm saving for when I am old and gray, but I did want to say:

1) I love this thread. Seeing how much people still think about Scalebound makes me incredibly happy.
2) Platinum never used Scalebound money for Nier. I have no connection to them anymore, and no reason to defend them, but that is categorically untrue and that rumor shouldn't be allowed to spread.
3) Jez's post cleared some stuff up for me -- Where the leaks about the cancellation were coming from. Especially the one about a "senior staff" (me) taking a month off work because I burnt out. I actually developed an irregular heart beat as the game was falling apart, had a couple of really bad days holding myself responsible for so many things, and then went to see a doctor and a psychiatrist. Was told it was totally stress related and that I should take a month off, which Platinum was incredibly supportive of. When Scalebound was cancelled, this was leaked as some sort of pretense/justification. It really hurt - my medical privacy had been violated, potentially damaging my career prospects in the process, and the VG enthusiast press was more than happy to print it without question. The leaker was spinning a PR situation. I was living my life. My doctor couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. As an aside, I'm super healthy now, and I've learned how important it is to manage stress in a job (production) where you are essentially the baggage drop for everyone's problems. Everyone should really take care of themselves. Scalebound meant everything to me, until I realized that it was the amazing people and experiences that I'd had making it that actually meant everything.

Funnily enough, I'm wearing a Scalebound tshirt and probably going to dinner with John Omohundro tonight. Everyone from the project is still friends and keeps in touch.

P.S. I wish we would have released video of Dragon Link. Damn that was cool. :)

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So good to hear from you JP. Definitely interesting hearing things straight from the source.

Really breaks my heart the way people took those rumors about Nier and the reasons you left and just ran with them based on nothing. A lot of people should be eating crow right now.

This game was to a lot of us the soul reason we were looking forward to 'next gen' despite what a few vocal nay sayers would have us believe. There were a lot of fans crushed when this was cancelled.

Dragon Link sounded incredible. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to see some version of what could have been in the future.

So glad your health returned. All the best.

 

[Xeontech]

That's what I was told by people familiar with the project, at least, don't know if true.

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It looks like you may need to apologize for spreading that rumor Jez.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I've been rocking videogames consistently since the mid 80s, I have no idea who Kayima is, don't really care tbh. The most I care about videogames is how much they will entertain me. That's it. And guess what, this game unfortunately looked like shit and didn't look very entertaining at all. Meh.

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"lOoK, iF YoU DoN'T CaRe aBoUt tHiS SpEcIfIc dIrEcToR FrOm a sTuDiO ThAt's bEeN LiViNg pAyChEcK To pAyChEcK MaKiNg gAmEs iN A GeNrE ThAt's bEeN In dEcLiNe fOr a dEcAdE WhO'S PrEsIdEnT EvEn wEnT On rEcOrD SaYiNg tHaT ThEiR TiTlEs sElL VeRy pOoRlY ThEn yOu jUsT DoN'T CaRe aBoUt vIdYa gAmEz. scAleBOuND wouLd've BEen MicrOSoFT's BiGgESt NEW ip. BIGGER thaN QUanTUM BReAK, bIGGEr THan SEA Of thieVes, ignoRE tHE recepTiOn of eVErY DeMonsTrATIOn of THE GAMe. "

 

[Xeontech]

"troll post "

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We already know your narrative. No need to continue sycophantic defenses.

Some of us just want to discuss potential of this amazing game.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

Eh not entirely true, especially 101 which has a 78 aggregate on mc

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I mean, that is simply because people have shit taste. Jokes aside, the game is pretty hard to get into but once it gets going and the player learns to ropes... W101 is easily a 9/10 game bordering on a perfect 10. The only reason aside from the game being pretty brutal in what it asks of you that it isn't held in higher esteem by the general gaming public is because pretty much no one played it, and those who did probably just did a single playthrough on Easy or Normal. Which is fine, but Kamiya games only really shine once you delve deeper.

I've been rocking videogames consistently since the mid 80s, I have no idea who Kayima is, don't really care tbh. The most I care about videogames is how much they will entertain me. That's it. And guess what, this game unfortunately looked like shit and didn't look very entertaining at all. Meh.

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It's fine that you don't care but his track record as director so far is literally all gold. Check out his resume at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Kamiya#Works

All best in class. The reason people were excited over him leading Scalebound was due to merit, not empty hype.

 

[orangeb1ood503]

Great post. Loved ready more about this game. Makes me sad still we are not getting this game. I wish MS would go back to Platinum and say OK we changed are minds, lets get this done. This game deserves to be made and released to us. It blows my mind this was announced at the same E3 as Crackdown 3 which is still not out. I would really like to know why this got shutdown while CD3 doesn't even have a release date. This is one the black mark on Phil Spencer, IMO, and if CD3 isn't a smash hit I think it will be even more significant that CD3 was saved while Scalebound died.

 

[Crossing Eden]

We already know your narrative. No need to continue sycophantic defenses.

Some of us just want to discuss potential of this amazing game.

Click to shrink...

Still waiting for those receipts that prove that Scalebound would've been bigger than two record breaking IPs that appeal more to casual and hardcore interests than a Platinum Games title.

Surely you'll deliver.

Spoiler

At some point in your life, hopefully sooner rather than later you'll have the self awareness to realize that your personal hype train doesn't represent the general public and that your interests may not align with general consumer public. In this instance, Platinum Games is not a well known studio and their titles despite positive reception don't sell very well especially in comparison to their competition.

 

[Cantaim]

Since this thread was bumped I'm just gonna take time to say thank you so much for putting this together!

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

I mean, that is simply because people have shit taste. Jokes aside, the game is pretty hard to get into but once it gets going and the player learns to ropes... W101 is easily a 9/10 game bordering on a perfect 10. The only reason aside from the game being pretty brutal in what it asks of you that it isn't held in higher esteem by the general gaming public is because pretty much no one played it, and those who did probably just did a single playthrough on Easy or Normal. Which is fine, but Kamiya games only really shine once you delve deeper.



It's fine that you don't care but his track record as director so far is literally all gold. Check out his resume at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Kamiya#Works

All best in class. The reason people were excited over him leading Scalebound was due to merit, not empty hype.

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That's all fine and dandy but my reply was in response to that other guys stupid remark that if you don't even know who Kayima is then you don't "care about videogames". I mean come on, that's just ridiculous.

 

[AnubisRising]

I'll keep my time in here very short, there is a book or two worth of Scalebound stories I'm saving for when I am old and gray, but I did want to say:

1) I love this thread. Seeing how much people still think about Scalebound makes me incredibly happy.
2) Platinum never used Scalebound money for Nier. I have no connection to them anymore, and no reason to defend them, but that is categorically untrue and that rumor shouldn't be allowed to spread.
3) Jez's post cleared some stuff up for me -- Where the leaks about the cancellation were coming from. Especially the one about a "senior staff" (me) taking a month off work because I burnt out. I actually developed an irregular heart beat as the game was falling apart, had a couple of really bad days holding myself responsible for so many things, and then went to see a doctor and a psychiatrist. Was told it was totally stress related and that I should take a month off, which Platinum was incredibly supportive of. When Scalebound was cancelled, this was leaked as some sort of pretense/justification. It really hurt - my medical privacy had been violated, potentially damaging my career prospects in the process, and the VG enthusiast press was more than happy to print it without question. The leaker was spinning a PR situation. I was living my life. My doctor couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. As an aside, I'm super healthy now, and I've learned how important it is to manage stress in a job (production) where you are essentially the baggage drop for everyone's problems. Everyone should really take care of themselves. Scalebound meant everything to me, until I realized that it was the amazing people and experiences that I'd had making it that actually meant everything.

Funnily enough, I'm wearing a Scalebound tshirt and probably going to dinner with John Omohundro tonight. Everyone from the project is still friends and keeps in touch.

P.S. I wish we would have released video of Dragon Link. Damn that was cool. :)

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So what your saying doesnt disprove what jez said he said that there was a rumor within ms that the funds where being used for other things. While it is good to get clarification that is not true it doesnt get rid of the fact that the rumors were going around ms

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

Great post. Loved ready more about this game. Makes me sad still we are not getting this game. I wish MS would go back to Platinum and say OK we changed are minds, lets get this done. This game deserves to be made and released to us. It blows my mind this was announced at the same E3 as Crackdown 3 which is still not out. I would really like to know why this got shutdown while CD3 doesn't even have a release date. This is one the black mark on Phil Spencer, IMO, and if CD3 isn't a smash hit I think it will be even more significant that CD3 was saved while Scalebound died.

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Once again...why is this a black mark on Phil Spencer and Microsoft? Do you think they were all in a meeting and said "guess what guys, we have been relying on a handful of steadily declining IPs, we starting this generation off like shit but we have this Kayami guy who the gamers really like making a BRAND NEW IP for us. Wouldn't it be funny if we just like totally cancelled it and the nerds would lose their minds from now to eternity. CANCEL IT!"

Come on guys, use some logic. There were obviously very serious issues with the game for Microsoft to cancel it. It's called a business decision, and more than likely they made the right one. Stop with the "grr evil Microsoft!" crap and move on. It's just a game. Games get cancelled all the time.

 

[Deleted member 268]

Every time this thread gets bumped I get sad.

I was soooo damn hyped for this title. It was the only thing keeping me invested in Xbox.