Scalebound is Dead – Microsoft 2017 line-up shrinks
Yesterday afternoon Microsoft put the public’s suspicions to rest with regards to Platinum Games’ forthcoming Xbox One title Scalebound. And by ‘to rest’ I mean confirmed. And to clarify that further; Scalebound is dead. Dead as the dodo.
Production on the game has ceased entirely, as the title has been cancelled. Rumours were a plenty that the game was in some sort of limbo – with issues plaguing the game’s development. This is quite a surprise considering how ‘complete’ the title looked at first glance when seen at E3 2016.
Scalebound was going to be a third person action role-playing game from the acclaimed director Hideki Kamiya, of Bayonetta, Resident Evil 2 and Viewtiful Joe fame. The game would have you following and controlling Drew, a handsome blonde-dreamboat with awful dialogue, as he gets up to all sorts of wild hyperbolic adventuring with his pet dragon Thuban.
The game didn’t look particular groundbreaking, but what was nice about its position on Microsoft’s 2017 roster was its status as a new IP. If Scalebound was a success story much like Bayonetta was it showed that new ideas could flourish in the triple-A landscape alongside established names. It would have also firmly cemented Platinum Games as an auteur-esque development house willing to work on new properties and take risks.
Instead Microsoft’s line up of exclusive games shrinks further; the biggest titles being a sequel no-one cares for in Halo Wars 2, a sequel that has already seen delays itself in the form of Crackdown 3 and the rather ambitious Rare title Sea of Thieves. Perhaps as we learn more of the details surrounding Project Scorpio we might hear of more exclusives coming to bolster the Xbox brand. A boy can dream, right?