Microsoft has announced that they have cancelled Scalebound, the game Platinum Games was developing for Xbox One and PC.
At Gamescom in 2015, Scalebound director Hideki Kamiya claimed that the game — which was to include features like four-player co-operative play and massive boss fights — was the studio’s biggest to date. Scalebound was scheduled to launch on both Xbox One and PC, and was being published by Microsoft.
According to a report from Eurogamer, last fall several key members of the development team were forced to step away from the project for a month due to “the pressure of the project’s heavy workload.” When they returned, the game was behind schedule and the decision was made not to move forward.
This is obviously a big blow to Platinum Games due to the massive amount of work put into the game. It may be the case that the project was too big for Platinum, or as rumored, that interference caused numerous issues. However, this is also a major concern for Platinum because their other main source of income, Activision’s licensed game division, is no longer an option for them. I hope they can find some work quickly.