Action RPG's are fantastic games, they pour in an additional level of action, often full 3D cinematics and cutscenes designed to give your adrenaline a rush, or take you through a beautiful scene realized in full CG.
There's also a lot of originality potential in these games in the form of powers, scenery, fighting mechanics, and more that all begin in the mixing bowl when developers sit down and decide to make a game like this.
Scalebound wanted to be another action RPG on your shelf, and it would have taken you through a story full of dragons and a hero with a scaled arms wielding strength and (I assume) dragon-like abilities and even riding and flying dragons, all while wearing a nice pair of headphones.
That story is now no more.
Scalebound was set to release on XBOX ONE and PC, the first would have welcomed it into it's library for yet another much needed fantasy-set action RPG slated for 2017.
Rumors abound began seeping onto the web and some are collected here at Gematsu, leading up to the eventual monster (a Microsoft statement of cancellation) that opened it's fanged mouth and ate Scalebound's development for good.
There was building interest around the game being developed by Platinum Games, known for Granblue Fantasy, NieR:Automata, Star Fox Zero, Vanquish, METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE, and more.
In Scalebound you would have been able to travel to a distant land, learn cool abilities alongside your partner in the story who is a last living member of an ancient race- dragons. Up until today, it was being directed by Hideki Kamiya before its full-on cancel. Kamiya is most known for Devil May Cry, and Biohazard/Resident Evil.
Its hard but also fun to imagine where a game like Scalebound could have went with it's developers and director bringing in a multitude of talents and background history from the games mentioned above- regardless Microsoft issued this statement:
“After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound. We’re working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and other great experiences.”
This is the result of an unfortunate parting of ways between Microsoft and Platinum Games. What this means for the future of the Metal Gear and NieR franchises on XBOX ONE and PC remains unclear at this time.
Sadly this parting of ways comes as Microsoft's decision to drop Platinum Games after it was reported that Platinum Games staff were forced to take a month off due to extreme stress and pressure from Microsoft issuing a heavy workload back in Fall.
Deadlines became overdue, and problems with game mechanics and it's own engine surfaced one by one. With the project falling apart, Microsoft made the full decision to ditch the project and move on.
Scalebound was announced at E3 2014 and hardly any news has surfaced related to it's development all this time. Microsoft's 2017 lineup left Scalebound out, and as of the announcement of it's cancelling, it's xbox.com page is also offline. For now you can still view it's page at Platinum Games here.
The lines between whether it was Platinum Games' fault for taking that break and/or not being up to snuff, or whether Microsoft was in fact being harsh on the developers is too blurry to really figure out. It also raises some important questions regarding ethics in publisher-developer relationships and could be an interesting topic at the upcoming GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Fransisco which will take place at the Moscone Center on February 27th to March 3rd.
Beyond the game's story adventure of man bonding with dragon, Scalebound was also reported to have a 4-Player Co-op system, and even a comic by Titan Comics in development. It even had a holiday card:
Too bad they took that month off.
Want to keep running around with us? Stay connected!
RA:N Facebook | Kazu's Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | G+ | Flickr | YouTube | LinkedIn | RSS
