PlatinumGames is appealing to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer to help bring back the canceled action role-playing game Scalebound.
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In a recent interview with IGN Japan, Platinum president Atsushi Inaba noted that he had been speaking with Scalebound creator Hideki Kamiya, and that Kamiya “has been talking about wanting to work on Scalebound again for a while.” Inaba then took a moment to directly call on Spencer to help out, saying “I’d like to appeal to Phil Spencer directly! Let’s do it, Phil!”
While Inaba’s comments may seem lighthearted, it seems the president of Platinum is not joking at all.
“Often in an interview you might hear a developer politely saying, ‘Yes, if we had the opportunity we’d love to work on that again’, but we don’t mean it that way,” Inaba said, before going so far as to indirectly call out Microsoft for holding onto the game and not doing anything with it. “Both Kamiya and I are serious – we really would love to work on Scalebound again. I’d like to discuss it with Microsoft properly. Development had progressed a fair way, and it seems pointless for Microsoft to just hold on to that and not do anything with it.”
Inaba ended the talk by switching to English, and exclaiming “Phil! Phil! Let’s do it together!”
Scalebound‘s history is a bumpy one, with the game initially beginning development back in 2013, before being officially announced as an Xbox exclusive during its E3 2014 showcase. After that, the title appeared at various showcases in 2015, but was consistently delayed, before being officially canceled by the company in early 2017.
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While no direct reason for the cancellation was given, Inaba did note in 2019 that the game “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer,” and regretted that Microsoft took so much criticism from fans for the reason behind its failure. Kamiya even talked candidly about the game last year and apologized to players and Microsoft for failing to finish the game. It’s unclear if production Scalebound will ever pick up again, but it does seem like the men behind it do want to give it at least one more go.
