Platinum Games has provided a statement on its official blog today discussing Microsoft’s cancellation of Scalebound, which was confirmed by the latter in a press release earlier this week. President and CEO of the Japanese studio Kenichi Sato says in the frank open letter: “We’re sorry to say that on January 9, 2017, Microsoft Studios announced the cancellation of Scalebound. We are very disappointed things ended up this way, especially since we know many of our fans were looking forward to this game as much as we were.”
As was the case with Microsoft’s own statement, Sato doesn’t go into any details as to why the ambitious RPG was canned, although if earlier reports by Eurogamer are to be believed, it looks very much like development fell behind schedule, leaving Microsoft no choice but to put the project to rest. It’s not exactly clear how far along in development Scalebound was, but considering it was originally scheduled to release at some point this year, we can only assume a great deal of work has gone to waste as a result. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said via Twitter yesterday that the decision was a difficult one, but would be “Better for Xbox gamers” in the long run.
“Going forward, we will strive to continue delivering high-quality games to you, starting with NieR:Automata in March, and including products like GRANBLUE FANTASY Project Re:Link and LOST ORDER in the future,” continues Sato, in an effort to reassure fans of Platinum that there’s still much to get excited about in the near future.
Sadly, however, it doesn’t look Platinum plans to continue development on the cancelled project under a new publisher. Although that could be due to Microsoft owning the rights to the IP. What’s done is done, but boy, what a bad way to kick off 2017 for all of those involved.