Why Microsoft's dragon-slaying is a good thing

And so, with one brutal swing of the axe, Microsoft has slain the dragon that was Scalebound. But is that really such a bad thing for gamers?

[naruga]

now is a good thing huh ? killing the game with probably the biggest potential to bring new players and a character to a console which is only known for COd. Halo ,Gears..meh .....how many of these damage control articles we will see

also for those who say that i was never interested for the game look my damn comment history back at every E3 here some http://n4g.com/news/1919160...
also http://n4g.com/news/1919215... i lked even the downvoted demo of this E3 ..gtfoff

[RpgSama]

I guess you could see it as a good thing because now people have even less of a reason to own or buy an Xbox One than yesterday, so in that sense, they made it a little bit more clear to people that Playstation, PC or Switch is where they should be focusing.

[PlayableGamez-]

Why is everybody banking on the Switch. Did you not forget the Wii U?

[gamer7804]

@PlaybleGamez well the switch just became 60$ cheaper for some those that were excited for scalebound.

[PlayableGamez-]

What does the Switch have to do with Scalebound?

[darthv72]

The game progressed to what was last shown in the amount of time MS has allotted them to work on it. Basically it didn't progress as far as it should. So from a business perspective, yes it was good to cancel it. You have to know when to cut the losses and move on.

From a consumer perspective it sucks any time an announced game ends up on the cutting room floor. Star Wars 1313, Starcraft Ghost, The Getaway... All had potential to be something great but missteps in their development cycle lead to their demise.

Is there potential for scalebound to rise again? Perhaps... but it really depends on if another developer is willing to start over because you can bet the assets created still belong to PG while the IP was bought by MS.

Oh, and naruga, please stop pretending you care. your examples pale in comparison to the number of other comments against xb1 and its games / fans. Your attempts at genuine concern come off as smarmy.

[OT79]

@PlayableGamez, @gamer7804
Exactly! I was on the fence for a Xbox one for Scalebound,then I will getting Gears 4,but now, Switch looks more compelling to me,with much more exclusives I wanna play. Really, with this cancelation Microsoft kill the game and my will to buy their system.

[johndoe11211]

@darthv72

Ok, maybe you're taking your dislike for the guy a little too far. His past comments clearly shows he was interested in the game. Not because someone may be a diehard sony supporter means they may not be able to appreciate something on a rival console once in a blue moon. I have shown very little love for microsoft this gen yet I have made a few comments in the past 3 years praising them on those rare occasions I think they did something right. I've also bashed sony on a number of occasions. Heck, I saw moldybread defend sony for something the other day and I don't think anyone thought they would have seen that anytime this millennium. Does that mean moldy wasn't being genuine? Ease up a little.

[rainslacker]

Never thought removing an option was a good thing....but you make a solid point about sometimes it's easier to make a decision with less choices.

[ShottyatLaw]

It had to be pretty bad in order for them to axe it, don't you think? If this was an issue of mock reviews indicating it was below average, or needing another delay to get it done it would be one thing. But MS knows this hurts them, at least in the short run, so why did they do it?

For a game originally set for 2016 and now less than a year out, it should be in an alpha stage at least. These guys are right, we've only seen those vertical slices once a year.

I'm sorry you were excited for it. I imagine both MS and P* wanted to deliver you a good game that had high sales. It boils down to your business views, really. Do you throw money at a title until it meets a standard knowing that realistic sales figures won't see you getting a return on the investment, or do you cut it loose?

That's tough. MS will rightfully take the brunt of the negative press on this one, which is how it should be. Lord knows they're used to it. But as the one who writes the checks, it's a lot easier for them to move forward then someone like P* who needs to receive those checks in order to succeed.

If MS'S policies helped cause this situation, then they just learned an expensive lesson. I think that should be considered a good thing. If the game was so rough that it would have disappointed fans and damaged P* moving forward, I consider it a good thing that it was axed.

In a perfect world, we would have gotten a superb game that made each company a boat load of $. Sometimes sh** happens.

[Godmars290]

Thing is since something like Crackdown was more ambitious, multiplayer with destructive environments, was announced before Scalebound and hasn't been seen short of an initial concept trailer, how is it not having as many if not more issues than the game MS just canceled?

[Kokyu]

It was either bad or the xbone couldnt run it at a good rez, frame and still include what the dev wanted to include.

[ShottyatLaw]

@Godsmar

I dont know. What is considered "ambitious" likely varies to some degree between any team. That question only brings up other unknowns about SBs development:

What are the contract terms? What are the milestones? How much has been invested? How long until completion? What are the sales projections? What are the DLC/long term engagement plans? Where are the problems occurring? What additional resources are needed? Can it be completed in a way that makes fiscal sense for the publisher?

All we know is that things didn't work out and it sucks for everyone. I stand by what I said, though. MS just made a very expensive decision. If they are even partially responsible for this game's failings, then the money squandered should help them see the errors of their way. Same goes for P*, but hopefully they rebound without too many repercussions to their team.

[rainslacker]

No one seems to think that maybe the game wasn't bad, but P* was having trouble completing it. Sometimes, there are significant delays in development, and maybe MS didn't want to spend more time and resources waiting for P* to finish it.

Game might have been perfectly fine. From what I saw, it didn't look terrible. There was nothing that couldn't be optimized, and the game play seemed to be pretty far along.

[Bismarn]

Post as many links as you wish naruga. The simple truth is this:

The guy had Beats by Dre headphones on. Anything negative done to Platinum is a positive. It's not good for Microsoft, or Xbox, or gamers. It's good for the universe.

[Angeljuice]

The simple truth is Microsoft are terrible to work with.
Forever shifting goalposts, changing key game features and demanding more and more content than was ever in the original contract without paying a penny extra.

[Angeljuice]

Maybe they should cancel all their exclusives, if cancelling one is good for gamers imagine how great it would be to kill them all off.

[Bismarn]

Cancelling>hype. If it were up to me I'd had cancelled Last Guardian years ago just to save all the drama and spam on the N4G boards for years.

[rainslacker]

The people that claim cancellations are a good thing now are the same ones that will chastise for a game being delayed.

It's not always bad to cancel a game that just won't be good, but to say it's a good thing for gamers without understanding the circumstances behind the cancellation is just trying to defend a company from repute. Until facts are known, it's a bad thing, because people were expecting the game, some more than others, and in this case, it was used as a way to market the system itself.

Every article and every fan boy trying to say it's a good thing because the game obviously sucked, is clueless about the circumstances surrounding the cancellation, and if it actually was a good thing for them or bad. instead, they should be demanding answers, particularly since they are some of the same people who were quickly holding up SB as a showcase of MS variety and number of exclusives on the system.

I love to show flawed fan boy logic, and I'm going to lay it out right now.

When some fan boys spend months or years acting like this game is a shining example of MS ability to have variety and cater to other markets and deliver good games, then they now go and say that it's a good thing because the game looked like crap, you have to wonder why they kept bringing it up all the time in the past.

It's hypocrisy at it's finest.

Me, I was on the fence with the game. Turned off by the banter of the characters, but the game play showed promise. It was like SSoD. I wasn't gushing over the game, but wasn't outright dismissing it, but on some days, I wasn't into it enough to really count it as a good reason to own an Xbox. Now that it's cancelled, I'm kind of pissed that I still wanted to try it, and now can't even have the chance to decide if it's good or not.

[Nyxus]

This should be a warning for any independent game studio, don't work with Microsoft unless you really have to.

[YinYangGaming]

No, this should serve as a warning for any studios that fail to deliver on expectations and deadlines. Microsoft is first and foremost a business and just like with Fable Legends, Scalebound was years delayed and had failed to meet deadlines.

[Nyxus]

Just read this article about how Microsoft treated the Phantom Dust devs: http://kotaku.com/how-a-sma...

Combine that with this: http://i.imgur.com/j6LFpLX....

Consider the fact that Platinum Games has successfully collaborated with Nintendo, Sony, Konami, and you have to wonder, is it really Platinum who's at fault here?

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

TLG missed tons of deadlines and finally saw the light of the day. Sony did not cancel it and stuck with it. Why couldn't Microsoft stick to this?

I believe they had a clash with P* in development. Why would P* take a month break over stress? They probably were pushed to much by MS and didn't give Kamiya space to do what he wanted. A dev wouldn't just give up on game like that

[RpgSama]

@Nyxus

"After some heavy-duty conversations in the spring of 2014, the two companies walked away with a deal: Darkside would get a $5 million budget to build a multiplayer-only reboot of Phantom Dust"

SAY WHAT?!! A multiplayer-only game? competitive online sport? how out of touch was microsoft that they thought that's what people wanted out of a Phantom Dust reboot? didn't know it was going to be multiplayer-only, wow, this was news to me.

" and then all of a sudden there’s that two-minute CG trailer. And we were like, ‘That’s amazing.’ But at the same time, they didn’t use any of our assets, they didn’t use any of our card packs, nothing. Basically what they showed had nothing to do with the game whatsoever. We had no idea that was even happening… It was like, ‘Holy crap, now fans are expecting characters to look like that, and that’s not what we’re making.’”

They showed smoke and mirrors, they outsorced a CG trailer that had nothing to do with the actual game the developers were making.

[Aura7541]

However, Platinum Games has a reputation of being able to finish games on a constrained budget. They're really good at using its resources efficiently.

When it comes to Microsoft, they have a history of burning bridges:

- Cancellation of True Fantasy Live Online (Level-5). The cancellation happened 13 years ago, but Level-5 still refuses to make games for the Xbox platform.
- Bungie splitting up from Microsoft for the purpose of creative independence.
- Cancellation of Stormlands (Obsidian) which almost sunk the studio. The developer went on to revive it via Kickstarter as Pillars of Eternity.
- XB1 version of Final Fantasy Type-0 (Square Enix) selling below the minimum print order.
- Poor handling of the timed exclusivity deal of Rise of the Tomb Raider (Square Enix) that led to Square disclosing the PS4 and PC versions prior to the XB1 version's release.
- Cancellation of the Phantom Dust Remake (Darkside Games) as a result of poor communication and Microsoft's feature creep.
- Commercial underperformance of Quantum Break (Remedy). The developer's next game will be multiplat.
- Commerical underperformance of Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac). There are no plans for a sequel and the developer is busy with Spiderman.

We will never know what went down behind the scenes until someone publishes an exposé like what Kotaku did with the Phantom Dust Remake. However, it is not unreasonable that people are suspicious of Microsoft doing shady things because of the company's past history.

[Silly gameAr]

@Nyxus

No wonder people tried to keep that article buried, and I wonder what that Adam Bolton guy heard that made his stomach turn? None of the reasons it was cancelled may come to light, but we'll get articles trying to convince us that cancelling a game is a good thing for everyone using some flimsy logic, and that whatever happened is probably, mostly Platinum Games fault.

[candystop]

Hum....after reading this and remembering the message put out by the original Phantom Dustin developer, I think it's all true. Such a sad time for Xbox gamers who simply have no idea about these works and will never get what we want. I find myself in defense mode a lot but this puts things into perspective. Honestly I was hoping Phil was going to turn things around for Xbox but it seems there is another agenda by hire ups and maybe even Phil himself. It would be great to have somebody like Ed fries back at MGS that had a vision for gamers but would take happen. Hopefully this E3 MS will surprise but I dont think it's going to be the show we were expecting as always.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if MS laid off Phil or cancelled another AAA title before E3 or after.

[YinYangGaming]

Platinum were seriously spreading themselves thin. When you have 200 people working on multiple projects, given that 200+ people normally work on ONE AAA game it's not hard to see that MS might've thought they were throwing their money away with Platinum. Rumours also suggest that the most senior staff on Scalebound took an extended break from development, I don't think MS is entirely to blame here.

[ElementX]

I always thought Scalebound looked a little rough. Platinum games are hit or miss and I think this would've been a miss. I always had the feeling Scalebound would be mediocre at best while everybody seems to think it would've been awesome. I think this game had too much hype

[SaveFerris]

The hype was from the usual Xbox cheerleaders (especially here), who see any game on Xbox One up there with the second coming of Jebus. The game had meh written all over it, but MS obviously needed it to show everyone they can bring out more than just Halo, Gears, and Forza, and they needed something to appeal to Asian gamers, Beats headphone wearers, dragon lovers, and dubstep fans.

[whitesoxfalife1976]

no...... we didnt hype it up as the second coming. For sake of this being something entirely different for our xbox audience why not try to give it some support since we are label as a three genre maker only. But unfortunately according to reports on why the project fail is because for whatever reason the platinum was laying in bed taking its money but showing results.

If im paying you to have things done and you don't do it you really expect me to pay you ahhh noo you're fired period point blank and thas what MS did with platinum and lionhead studios....

We not talkn about a few dollars street value wise we talkn tens of millions here. I want my investment to profit not bullshit me around..... Sometimes i wish everybody wud for five minutes takes the shades off and really look at the bigger picture instead being the Micheal Patchers of the world.......But hey im just another xbox gamer with some sense dont mind me....

[PlayableGamez-]

Hideki Kamiya is Platinum's most talent dev so it more than likely would have been a great game.

[sk8ofmnd]

"What does the Switch have to do with Scalebound?"

Lol so very true... Havent you gotten used to nintendo and ms fanboys hyping every new system to hell and high water? I know i am. I combat the delusional fanboys with every bullshit nintendo article. Like the one from today claiming nintendo could just swoop in and make scalebound magically work on the switch.

[nitus10]

From the trailers and gameplay Scalebound came across as a Dude Bro coop RPG with cringeworthy voice acting. That said the actual gameplay and graphics did look solid enough.

I think what we have here is a difference of opinion between the Japanese way of doing business compared to the Microsoft way of doing business. Unfortunately for Microsoft, this cancellation is now going to make many Japanese companies wary of doing business with Microsoft.

[Relientk77]

Canceling the biggest game you have for that year isn't a good thing...

[Ron_Danger]

It was only the biggest launch for fanboys until they canceled it. Then suddenly it became glitches mess of a product that no one was interested in in the first place.

It's like all the MS fanboys are the characters from the movie Mean Girls. They all love MS and their games until MS cancels a game. Then that game gets shunned as if it were never a thing. Remember publishers: if you work with MS, don't wear sweatpants on Tuesdays.

They did the same thing with Fable and now they're doing it to Scalebound.

[ThatOneRiggaNob]

Funny you say that about MS fanboys but I remember the game being a glitched mess to all Sony fanboys but now it's the biggest game MS has for the year lol. You see how it works both ways? Fanboys flip flop so much it's honestly sad. The people that are calling the game a trashy mess because it got cut are just as bad as the ones who are pretending to care about the game now just to shove mud in MS face.

Personally I'm sad that the game is not coming because I was actually looking forward to it since the first time they showed it off but I won't sit here and place the blame on MS or Platinum without knowing the full situation.

@LP-Eleven I never once said it wasn't on a hype list for it tho? What I said was the same fanboys from both camps basically swapped their agendas for this one game... The Xbox fanboys who were swearing it was the greatest game ever made or also now the ones saying that it was a glitched mess or whatever and MS was right to cut it. I also basically said that the Sony fanboys that were also saying it was a glitchy mess from the first time we had gameplay and were saying it was utter trash or now saying that it's one of the biggest games that were coming to Xbox and now it's been cut so MS made a huge mistake. THE FANBOYS FLIP FLOPPED ONCE AGAIN. I was speaking about both sides and how they constantly switch sides and change goal posts. So I don't see how your comment even relates to what I said and in the end it does still works both ways lol. The same people who trying their hardest to condemn MS for this with their fake caring are just as bad as the ones that are pretending they weren't bigging the game up just the other day before it was cut.

[LP-Eleven]

@ThatOneRiggaNob:

No, it doesn't work both ways. Unless you've been living under a rock, Scalebound was a source of hype for a good bit. To some it looked like a mess, but do not try to deny its presence on Xbox fans' hype list(s). It was on plenty.

[Neonridr]

It's definitely never a good thing to cease production on a title, especially a new IP. But sometimes companies have to cut their losses. Perhaps MS wasn't happy with the way the product was shaping up. Perhaps Platinum was unhappy with the direction the game was being steered. People automatically assume it's because MS was terrible and mean and drove people crazy (which is a little extreme), but sometimes things just don't work out. Games get cancelled, studios get closed, this is a business after all.

[TankCrossing]

If Platinum were delivering a dud then Microsoft were damned if they do and damned if they don't. We're seeing the uproar of cancelling a game right now, but if they persisted with it and published a sub-standard game their reputation would still be tarnished with the people that matter (consumers).

There is a lesson to be learned about showing games 2 years too early, and a bigger lesson to be learned by whoever was in charge of these investment decisions about 2-4 years ago. They've had a string of failures (This, Fable Legends, Phantom Dust, Project Spark, and of course Kinect and the initial direction of the Xbox One), and the team manning the axe probably aren't the ones at fault...

[Chaos_Order]

So basically it's a good thing because it might not have been a very good game? And you use No Man's Sky as an example? Scalebound wasn't directed by Peter Moleyneux 2.0, it was directed by Hideki Fecking Kamiya.

[Liqu1d]

Less games is never good.

[gamer7804]

yes a relationship with a dev that has proven potential, a Japanese style fantasy game (genre which is sorely lacking on xbox), 3 years of development and marketing, potential job losses. No, even if it would have been a mediocre game, its not a good thing, any way you slice it.

[Godmars290]

MS wanted the game to have certain elements to push their corporate mandate, the devs couldn't implement them, so MS canned the project. If such is true of all games they want on their systems, how is such good for games since such apparently servery limits game development?

And how isn't this another example of MS hindering themselves like they did with indie devs?

[Fishy Fingers]

How long have you been a Project lead at Platinum?

[Godmars290]

For longer than you've lacked ability to present a proper counterpoint.

[Fishy Fingers]

Sorry, I think my point was pretty clear but I better spell it out to avoid your confusion. Outside of MS and Platinum no one actual knows the reason behind the cancellation yet. So one can only assumed you must have first hand knowledge by working for one or the other.

[starchild]

@ Godmars290

He doesn't need a counterpoint because your comment is just empty conjecture. That's the only point he needed to make.

[iwin86]

LOL.
Damage control so early in the year.

[bangoskank]

Why click bait articles should be banned...

[starchild]

All sites want clicks, but that doesn't mean all articles are "click bait". It seems, though, that some of you want to refer to any article you disagree with as "click bait", although that isn't an accurate use of the term.

Whether I disagree with this article or not, I don't see anything click baity about the title or description.

[bangoskank]

Clearly more gameres than not were disappointed upon hearing the news of Scalebound's cancellation. An article that goes against popular opinion is usually written solely as bait for more clicks. See how that works?

[Exvalos]

Really tired of all the damage Control, this sucks that game looked great and this is coming from a Sony guy

[CrimsonWing69]

The hell it is a good thing this got cancelled... oh wait--oh my, did... did you just go full reta*d? You never go full reta*d!

[AcidTumbleweed]

I don't want to sound like a jerk but when I saw the giant spider boss fight in the cave I literally thought of "Giant Enemy Crab". All he did was dodge attacks and throw projectiles at it until it died. After seeing God of War, I needed to see a LOT more with the combat. That being said, the game looked beautiful and combat could have easily been adjusted/re-designed to make the game better, dragon customization looked cool. Only thing I would have cut were the dubstep headphones. A shame to see a project this far in dev get canned :(

[joab777]

Uh...no! While it may be good that they didn't lie to us and hype a shitty game for years before release, it's VERY bad that Platinum games was unable to finish their dream game under MS's watch!

[Fearmonkey]

MS is shooting their own foot. Phil, you really need to bring back Mechassualt, Crimson Skies, and a new Bloodwake.

[feraldrgn]

It isn't.
You can't spin it.

[Razzer]

Uh.....if MS is going to show off a game for 2 and a half years then folks should expect delivery. People invested money into buying a console because of games like Scalebound. Making excuses for MS is just stupid and self-defeating.

[Darkfist_Flames]

Damage control already?