The Xbox One exclusive that was in development by Platinum Games called Scalebound, has officially been canceled by Microsoft.
The company released a statement to their Windows Central arm, stating that the game is no longer in development…
“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.”
After four years of development they decided to finally pull the plug on the project. Windows Central notes that Microsoft still has some “unannounced” games in the pipeline that they will reveal throughout 2017. For their sake they better have something real special on the horizon because even though Scalebound looked like the deformed, retarded, rejected, unloved cousin of some amalgamation between Drakengard, Jet Set Radio and Devil May Cry, the reality is that it was still an original IP for the Xbox brand, something that they’ve been lacking in greatly during the last half of the Xbox 360’s tenure and all throughout the Xbox One’s run.
This is a huge blow to Platinum Games, no doubt. But I’m not too worried about them given that they seem to be well on track to delivering a sleeper hit in Tako Yaro’s NieR: Automata.
2B alone has been racking up a lot of strong community responses, and the feedback on the gameplay has been nothing but positive. Gamers are thoroughly in love with the robotic samurai and her high-tech weaponry and Gothic sense of style.
Of course, this means that Xbox One owners will be good and well without an extra exclusive for 2017. But if it’s any consolation, Scalebound bored the crap out of me and I couldn’t be the only one who felt that the combat seemed derivative and boring and that the boss fights seemed sluggish and uninspired and that the whole dragon thing didn’t really seem to measure up to what it cold have been. Maybe if the dragons were wrecking havoc in towns and there was a lot of physics-based destruction going on, or if the story was as heartfelt as The Last Guardian it could have turned out okay.
Oh well, looks like another one of the Xbox One exclusives bites the dust.