You may recall the cancellation of Scalebound, and Xbox Boss, Phil Spencer, apologizing to the fans. Scalebound was being developed by Platinum Games under the umbrella of Microsoft Game Studios. Not much was explained at the time other than the decision was made “after careful deliberation.” but now Xbox Boss, Phil Spencer has changed that in an interview with the Japanese Game site GameWatch.
Spencer mentioned that he shares the fans’ disappointment over the cancellation, and that he has great respect for everyone at Platinum Games. During the long period that Platinum Games and Microsoft worked together on Scalebound, they learned a lot from one another. Spencer says Platinum Games is a unique game studio and that he hopes to work with Hideki Kamiya again.
As for what went wrong and lead to the cancellation of Scalebound, Spencer thinks part of the problem was that the game was announced too soon. This put a lot of extra pressure on Platinum Games, which “strives to create huge games that have no equal among existing titles in things like size, scale of multiplayer and more.” The early announcement influenced the development cycle, raised hurdles. In the end, both Platinum Games and Microsoft became doubtful about whether the game could offer what fans wanted.
In the same interview, Spencer also said he believes that Japanese developers need to be more open to the world, like Hajime Tabata’s Final Fantasy XV team. He also wants to say “Come back home” to those developers who have quit creating for consoles in order to bring their games to mobile platforms. Has said he has noticed that the amount of developers coming back to consoles does seem to be on the rise. Spencer also thinks that Japanese gamers are becoming more interested in console gaming again, thanks in part to the success of the Nintendo Switch.
