Phil Spencer says there’s ‘currently nothing to say’ about a possible Scalebound revival

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said there’s “currently nothing to say” about PlatinumGames’ publicly stated desire to revive its canned exclusive Scalebound.

Scalebound has arguably become one of the most infamous projects in Xbox history. Announced in 2014 for Xbox One, the game was planned as a character action title by Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya. But following a lengthy period in development, the game was cancelled in 2017.

Platinum and Xbox leadership have been continually asked about the project since, but speculation reached a head in February when Kamiya told IGN Japan that he’d like to open discussions with Microsoft over the possibility of officially reviving the project.

Kamiya said: “We did a lot of work on it, and it’s no use Microsoft keeping the game in its current form, so we’d like to do something about it (laughs). Phil! Let’s do it together!” He later told VGC: “No, it’s not a joke: I’m totally serious about it”.

Now, Xbox boss Spencer has been asked about the potential revival. Asked by Game Watch if a revived Scalebound was possible, Spencer replied, with a smile (translated for VGC by Robert Sephazon): “There’s currently nothing to say about Scalebound.”

Previously when asked about the possibility of a revival for the Platinum title, Spencer gave a more explicit answer.  “For the people out there thinking that maybe there’s something still in the works: there’s not,” he said, when asked about Scalebound in 2020.

Both Xbox and PlatinumGames have previously given explanations of what happened with Scalebound, but Platimum’s Kamiya has recently moved to take sole responsibility for the project’s cancellation.

In a video on the Cutscenes YouTube channel published last November, Kamiya blamed Platinum’s inexperience working with Unreal Engine and online features as core reasons for Scalebound’s cancellation.

Asked why he felt that he’d have better luck working on Scalebound a second time around, Kamiya told VGC earlier this year that he believed Platinum had grown since its development ended.

“Nothing super surprising [has changed], just time. As a company, we’ve gradually grown, gained experience in terms of technology and more people,” he explained.

“At the time when we were making Scalebound, there was a lot that we couldn’t deliver on and that was hard for me. It was hard to fail like that. When the project went away, it wasn’t like the very next day I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to try again’. I needed a rest.

“But time passes, things change, things are different now. I’ve had some time to think and yeah, I’d like to try making Scalebound again. That’s my feeling.”

Discussing Scalebound in 2020, Xbox’s Spencer said that he had no hard feelings for PlatinumGames.

“It’s a tough one because I have a ton of respect for Platinum, [Hideki] Kamiya-san, the team and I feel no ill will,” he said at the time. “We talk to those guys: there’s no animosity between the teams. We tried to go do something and it didn’t work, and I regret that we were so public about what we tried to go do.”