Scalebound, the ensuing wars and what it taught me.

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Scaledbound was gonna be an Arpg developed by the makers of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, Platinum games. Sadly, the game was cancelled by microsoft, igniting a console war of people blaming MS for this act and others defending it.


After observing for a few days I have come to a realization. The people complaining, sounding like they would like to play this game, were people who likely didn't own an X1 and the people defending the action, talking down on the game, were likely not going to care about Scalebound but likely own X1s....so exactly who was the game made for? I think this game was made in the wrong system for the wrong audience, so sadly it makes sense to me they canceled it, though I wish they'd just port it and sell the IP rather than shut it down.

Was it intended as a bridge to open the path for more fans of Japanese games to have a reason to get the system? Was it westernized enough to seek out actual western mainstream success? I doubt it from what I've seen.

What has this taught you if anything?

 

[Tanis]

MS does dick thing to beloved developer.
Congrats, MS, ya just pulled the same shit that Sony did with that weird fucking SH game.

That's...basically all I got.

 

[Fox12]

I assume it was an attempt to make their library more diverse. As it stands, all they have are big meaty shooters. Compare this to Sony, who has games like The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Nier Automata, and The Last Guardian. If people are upset at Microsoft, I believe it's partly because they canceled yet another unusual title. They seem to have cold feet when it comes to making anything that's not a shooter.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

MS does dick thing to beloved developer.
Congrats, MS, ya just pulled the same shit that Sony did with that weird fucking SH game.

That's...basically all I got.

SH? as in Silent Hill.
That was ALL Konami, unless there is a different SH initialed game that I am forgetting about.

Has there been a similar situation from Sony that is this big? The only ones I can think of were that in the early Playstation days certain sprite based games were rejected for being low tech, just for being sprite based.

 

[Hawki]

What has this taught you if anything?

It's taught me that console wars a still a thing, something that I thought we'd moved on from since the days of the primary school playground, and of declarations that "Sega/Nintendo is better!"

It's also reaffirmed how little I care really. As in, my thoughts can be summed up as "well, that's a shame, I'm not really into Platinum, but this can't be a good thing for them, so some sympathies go out to everyone who was looking forward to this and...well, this is the Internet, so of course the mud slinging has started, so my sympathy gets cut short, and zzz..."

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

As much as I love Platinum I never thought Scalebound looked all that great from what little they showed of it.

Not that it matters either way since I don't have an Xbox One and never would have gotten to play the game. Really the only thing I can be mad about is the fact that microsoft wasted Platinum's time, which could have been better spent on other projects, but considering there are other platinum games coming out (Nier Automata is right around the corner) I can't even say that I've really been deprived of any potential platinum games.

So all in all this kind of just gets a small sigh out of me and nothing more.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm disappointed that Scalebound got cancelled even though I don't own an Xbone. Gaming is only worse off for losing out on any Hideki Kamiya game. I didn't pay much attention to it just because I don't own an Xbone, but from the footage I've seen just watching a couple videos covering its cancellation, the game looked pretty cool, dragon fights at that scale have maybe only been done once via Dragon's Dogma. Fights against big creatures in RPGs outside of Dragon's Dogma are so lackluster.

From what I've heard via a couple YouTube videos that seem to have legit sources, it was MS that fucked it up. It seems like Kamiya was totally against the 4-player co-op aspect and other creative differences. Why wouldn't you just let a guy like Kamiya do his thing with free control? He's going to make an awesome game if you let him. Microsoft has a history of this too, Halo 4's original creative director left during development.

 

[Zhukov]

I thought it looked like crap.

Had some fucking hideous visual design going on.

I don't own an Xbone and don't intend to, but I wasn't even aware it was a Xbone exclusive.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

To be honest, I think it's like Silent Hills, people are looking more at the drama behind it, rather than the game itself. Silent Hills was sadly one of the consequences of Kojima being fired and people decided to rag on this auteur vs. corporate debacle that has been going on for some time. Scalebound being cancelled is tied into Microsoft's terrible record with Japanese developers and audience (maily the 4-player co-op already mentioned), compare the development of Nier Automata and Scalebound and there's certainly trouble on SB side that we overlooked, because as you said, only now, people are caring about it.

I am against this mentality of "It's the principle, not the circumstance/actions.", when people clearly show it's the other way around.

And then there are people who are angry about the story of it all: how Scalebound was one of the first ideas of Platinum games, but had troubled development when it finally came off the ground, and now it's taking its toll on the developers and that years of work have gone down the drain. I am more on this side, not angry, just disappointed; but as Overwatch showed, a cancellation doesn't mean the end, it might be a new beggining, but as of now, the developers need support and harassing Phil Spencer isn't gonna do any good.

 

[iwinatlife]

See I am the weird one I own an Xbone and thought that game looked cool so I am sad, but shit happens what can you do?

 

[gorfias]

Some are calling this the end of the console war. And XB1 lost.


I hope not. I have both (and Wii U which is very fun in its own right) and want both to do well. There is so much to recommend the XB1. If I could have only 1, I'd got with it over PS4. But they arguably need to get to it.

Here's hoping the Scorpio is all that but be warned: Sony could simply annouce PS5, BC with all PS4 titles coming out next year.

ITMT: there's always Crackdown 3 to look forward to.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

For a long while the Wii U had more worth playing exclusives than the other two so if you own an X1, owning it sounds about normal. Sucks they had to pull the plug on it, sucks it was region locked. That console was just a bunch of tragedies piled on to eachother.

See I am the weird one I own an Xbone and thought that game looked cool so I am sad, but shit happens what can you do?

Not weird, just in the tiny minority. If we had a few millions more like you then MS would likely not have cancelled the game lol.

 

[Fox12]

Some are calling this the end of the console war. And XB1 lost.


I hope not. I have both (and Wii U which is very fun in its own right) and want both to do well. There is so much to recommend the XB1. If I could have only 1, I'd got with it over PS4. But they arguably need to get to it.

Here's hoping the Scorpio is all that but be warned: Sony could simply annouce PS5, BC with all PS4 titles coming out next year.

ITMT: there's always Crackdown 3 to look forward to.

They said the same thing about Sony. The gaming market is too large to be a complete monopoly. Id be okay with Microsoft failing after what they pulled, but I honestly don't see them going anywhere. They could even have a come back in the future.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Some are calling this the end of the console war. And XB1 lost.


I hope not. I have both (and Wii U which is very fun in its own right) and want both to do well. There is so much to recommend the XB1. If I could have only 1, I'd got with it over PS4. But they arguably need to get to it.

Here's hoping the Scorpio is all that but be warned: Sony could simply annouce PS5, BC with all PS4 titles coming out next year.

ITMT: there's always Crackdown 3 to look forward to.

They said the same thing about Sony. The gaming market is too large to be a complete monopoly. Id be okay with Microsoft failing after what they pulled, but I honestly don't see them going anywhere. They could even have a come back in the future.

And Nintendo. Someone is always on the brink of "losing" the console war and dying off. At this point these massive corporations have so much money and resources tied up in the gaming industry they can't let it die. Microsoft isn't going anywhere just like Sony isn't. As a former xbox and xbox 360 owner who jumped to PC however, they're going to have to make some serious changes to make their console interesting again to me and I'm sure many others. As of now, things look worse and worse. At least for me, the only very good exclusive they have left is the Forza series. I like Gears but it doesn't have the staying power of many others games. In a way Microsoft's struggles with the Xbone have made them more open to the PC again which is... kinda good if you're willing to put up with UWP and such.

 

[CaitSeith]

....so exactly who was the game made for?

It was going to be made for PC gamers. Everyone knows XB1 exclusives end up on PC sooner or later.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

....so exactly who was the game made for?

It was going to be made for PC gamers. Everyone knows XB1 exclusives end up on PC sooner or later.

That is a good point. I guess the marketing of the game as an X1 exclusive makes people forget it would also be on the pc.


But this makes the problem suck even more since now even more people are missing out on it. Sigh.

 

[gorfias]

They said the same thing about Sony. The gaming market is too large to be a complete monopoly. Id be okay with Microsoft failing after what they pulled, but I honestly don't see them going anywhere. They could even have a come back in the future.

Fingers crossed. Yeah, I waited till 2009 to get a PS3 after the debacles. BRING IT! But seriously, XB1 is way behind in console sales, they just lost another exclusive. Argh. But so much is right with the XB1. And even if a PS5 is on the horizon, it is good for consumers.

And Nintendo. Someone is always on the brink of "losing" the console war and dying off. At this point these massive corporations have so much money and resources tied up in the gaming industry they can't let it die. Microsoft isn't going anywhere just like Sony isn't. As a former xbox and xbox 360 owner who jumped to PC however, they're going to have to make some serious changes to make their console interesting again to me and I'm sure many others. As of now, things look worse and worse. At least for me, the only very good exclusive they have left is the Forza series. I like Gears but it doesn't have the staying power of many others games. In a way Microsoft's struggles with the Xbone have made them more open to the PC again which is... kinda good if you're willing to put up with UWP and such.

I just paid $240 for an RX480 w/ 8 Gig of DDR5 !!! So awesome! And during Xmas specials, I was seeing entire consoles selling for about that amount. Consoles still offer so much. For XB1 to lose an exclusive at this point... ouch.

 

[Fox12]

They said the same thing about Sony. The gaming market is too large to be a complete monopoly. Id be okay with Microsoft failing after what they pulled, but I honestly don't see them going anywhere. They could even have a come back in the future.

Fingers crossed. Yeah, I waited till 2009 to get a PS3 after the debacles. BRING IT! But seriously, XB1 is way behind in console sales, they just lost another exclusive. Argh. But so much is right with the XB1. And even if a PS5 is on the horizon, it is good for consumers.

And Nintendo. Someone is always on the brink of "losing" the console war and dying off. At this point these massive corporations have so much money and resources tied up in the gaming industry they can't let it die. Microsoft isn't going anywhere just like Sony isn't. As a former xbox and xbox 360 owner who jumped to PC however, they're going to have to make some serious changes to make their console interesting again to me and I'm sure many others. As of now, things look worse and worse. At least for me, the only very good exclusive they have left is the Forza series. I like Gears but it doesn't have the staying power of many others games. In a way Microsoft's struggles with the Xbone have made them more open to the PC again which is... kinda good if you're willing to put up with UWP and such.

I just paid $240 for an RX480 w/ 8 Gig of DDR5 !!! So awesome! And during Xmas specials, I was seeing entire consoles selling for about that amount. Consoles still offer so much. For XB1 to lose an exclusive at this point... ouch.

Yeah, the more competition, the better for everyone. All 3 console manufacturers were on top at one point, and all three of them became corrupt as hell. Even family friendly Nintendo, though their fans seem to conveniently forget that fact. As long as they're busy fighting each other, we win.

 

[09philj]

It didn't look vintage, but it looked like an alright Monster Hunter knockoff. It might have been a bit of something different for XBONE owners, and it's a shame it's probably gone forever. Platinum is having a bad time at the moment as well. All their 2016 games were shit, Transformers Devastation was good but fairly niche, the Legend of Korra game sucked, and Bayonetta 2 was on a platform that was dead on arrival. Arguably, their last out-and-out hit was Metal Gear Rising back in 2013.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Its sad when any game is cancelled, but I had never heard of this one.