Hideki Kamiya, best known as the director on Devil May Cry and later Bayonetta, has opened up about the cancellation of his game Scalebound which was intended to be an Xbox One exclusive at the time. Announced in 2014 the game saw multiple delays before finally being cancelled in 2017.
In an interview with Cutscenes, Kamiya discussed his career at Platinum Games, the Wii U title The Wonderful 101 which directly proceeded his work on Scalebound, as well as the cancelled Xbox title. He also apologized to Xbox and Microsoft fans for failing to deliver on his vision.
Discussing the game, Kamiya stated:
Scalebound was a project we had teamed up on with Microsoft, they expected good things from us, and we needed to live up to those expectations with the project. it was a big challenge for PlatinumGames. We were working in an environment we weren’t used to. […] The hurdles we had to overcome were very big. We weren’t experienced enough and couldn’t get over that wall, leading to what happened in the end.
Going into more details on the subject, he stated that Platinum was, at the time, unfamiliar with creating games around Online features. Kamiya then proceeded to apologize to Microsoft, saying:
We were developing on the Unreal engine, we also lacked the necessary know-how to build a game based on online features. I’m sorry to the players who looked forward to it, and moreover I’m sorry to Microsoft who had placed their trust in us as a business partner. I want to apologize for both as a creator and as a member of PlatinumGames.
Hopefully, the studio learned from their unfamiliarity when it came to online titles. Currently, Platinum Games is developing the title Babylon’s Fall which also focuses heavily on multiplayer-centered co-op. The game has seen multiple delays as well, so hopefully, it turns out better for the developer.
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