The culprit of Scalebound’s failure on Xbox was its own Kamiya

The Japanese creator admits that the responsibility for the cancelled Xbox exclusive was his and PlatinumGames'.

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More than seven years after the cancellation of Scalebound, Hideki Kamiya has spoken about the failed project in a recent interview. The former director of the game hasn’t shied away from the topic and has made it clear that the responsibility for the failure was his and PlatinumGames, although he also pointed out cultural differences between working with Western and Japanese publishers.

According to his words, foreign publishers tend to demand quick results and a final product in the shortest time possible, something that doesn’t always fit with more experimental or complex developments. On the other hand, he believes that a Japanese publisher would have approached the project with more flexibility, opening a dialogue about how to overcome obstacles during production.

Kamiya acknowledges the mistakes with Scalebound

• However, Kamiya was blunt: “The failure of Scalebound was, ultimately, the responsibility of PlatinumGames, including me as director”. In this way, he assumes part of the blame for a development that never materialized despite the enormous expectations generated among Xbox players.

The Japanese creative added that the experience with Scalebound has served as a learning experience. If he were to work with international publishers again in the future, he would seek to take advantage of the strengths of each approach to achieve a better balance. He also assured that he has not been in contact with Platinum since he founded his new studio, Clovers, although he seemed calm seeing that the company is moving forward.

The cancellation of Scalebound remains one of the major thorns in Xbox’s side from the previous generation, especially since it was one of the most ambitious projects that Microsoft had presented for Xbox One. Now, with Kamiya out of Platinum, the ghost of the Scalebound dragon continues to hover like a “what could have been”.