Microsoft cancels Xbox One exclusive Scalebound

Microsoft Studios have pulled the plug on PlatinumGames’ forthcoming dragon-centric action title Scalebound after two years of development.

The announcement comes shortly after seperate reports from Kotaku and Eurogamer in which sources indicated the game was a rapidly sinking ship and that work had halted on the title at the end of 2016.

Shortly after those stories ran, Microsoft provided the following statement to press:

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.

Microsoft first announced Scalebound at their E3 press conference in 2014 alongside Project SparkPhantom DustCrackdown 3 and Ori and the Blind Forest. It’s interesting to note the titles Scalebound was announced beside because, to date, only one of them — Ori — has seen release. The rest have been cancelled, decommissioned post-launch or are currently MIA.

Scalebounwas a big deal when it was announced. Microsoft trumpeted long and loud about their partnership with Platinum and the developer’s own Hideka Kamiya appeared to hype it further, dropping a trailer showing the player and a huge-ass dragon fighting equally massive creatures.

The Scalebound team went quiet for a while before the game resurfaced at Gamescom 2015, sporting a new four-player co-operative mode and a proposed Q4 2016 launch. It was not playable on the show floor, and was later delayed to 2017.

Scalebound only appeared once more and that was around a month after E3 2016, mentioned as being a part of Microsoft’s new Xbox Play Anywhere program that allowed for a greater degree of compatibility, and occasionally cross-buy functionality, between the Xbox One and Windows 10 platforms.

This concludes what must be the roughest year on record for the once unstoppable PlatinumGames. The developer released three confirmed duds throughout 2016 — Star Fox Zero and it’s bundled tower-defense title Star Fox Guard, and the utterly terrible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, itself pulled from digital stores last week. With Scalebound now also put out to pasture, the only title Platinum has coming in 2017 is Nier: Automata, currently set to drop on March 10 in Australia.

Rest in peace, Scalebound. We barely knew you at all.

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David Smith

David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.