Was ReCore Not Selling Up to Microsoft’s Expectations the Reason Scalebound Was Canceled?

Highly-anticipated Microsoft Xbox One video game Scalebound was recently announced to be canceled. However, is the reason for its cancellation linked to ReCore, another highly-anticipated game, not delivering up to expectations?

[ninsigma]

Hmmmm maybe it a little to do with it and that they were afraid of putting more money into a game that might do only as well as recore but I would say it's mostly the dev team couldn't develop the game to whatever Microsofts expectations were.

[SaveFerris]

In my opinion, ReCore not selling as well as expected by MS was likely to do with it being a mediocre game, and the majority of the Xbox fanbase being into sports games, racers, and shooters. MS admirably tries to sell other genres to their console fanbase, with varying degrees of success, but not many games meet their targets, and the risk can be costly. Perhaps MS is more risk averse than Sony in this regard, or maybe it is because Sony has better relationships with their second or third party studios, such as Quantic Dream, or Level-5.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I don't know if I could fully believe that it's simply just the installed base.

If recore was on the PlayStation 4 I simply do not see it selling any better I avoided that game and it's on PC...

I feel a bad game is simply just a bad game.

I feel that game was Miss marketed and I believe that Microsoft had ridiculous expectations.

When they first showed this game they had a release window for it despite us not even seeing physical gameplay.

[BizarroUltraman]

A combination of both perhaps...

[mikeslemonade]

I bought Recore and it's more enjoyable than Ratchet. The best current gen platformer and Wiiu doesn't count as current gen.

[Trez1234]

Mike@ it really is about opinion. I personally think it was really bad and one of the worst games from Japan. It looks and plays really cheap and I couldn't believe ms sold it retail and at that price because I've played indie games that look and play much better.

On topic, people need to stop making such a big deal about a cancelled game. Games do get cancelled and that goes for all those companies. I'm sure xbox will have a suprise or two come E3.

[NewMonday]

ReCore not selling is Microsoft's fault in the first place, what destroyed it was big technical problems in an obviously rushed game. basically released in the Alpha stage.

ReCore and Scalebound will be the reason Xbox will forever be a 3rd rate platform.

[guyman]

Mikes lemonade

Recore was definitely not better than ratchet and clank lmao

[Phill-Spencer]

@mikeslemonade

Lol. I know it's your opinion. But opinions can also be wrong. Just like yours.^^

Examples:
imo ice is hotter than fire = BS
Imo the earth is flat = BS
Imo recore is better than ratchet and clank= BS

[Bigpappy]

I would go with the latter. Can't see the connection with Recore. That's a major stretch and reading more into the decision than is warranted. Those game had zero in common. I believe it was just a matter of Phil losing faith in the developer and the direction the game was headed. He just thought it was bad from a business standpoint to invest further in a game that to him was not panning out in a way that he believe was the kind of quality worthy of the investment.

May be Phil made a horrible mistake. If so other publishers can feel free to jump on the game and build on the hype that was already created for the game, by funding and releasing it . Should it do well, we can then fault Phil decision to pull the plug on it.

I have no comment on 'SaveFerris' evaluation of the Xbox fanbase not caring for RPG's. Some comments are better left in the heads of those who imagine them to be true.

[Concertoine]

Yeah the thing is, Scalebound development persisted 3 months after ReCore came out. It's pretty clear by delays that Scalebound was in dev hell due to the addition of a W10 port and co-op to a game that initially had neither.

[Trez1234]

Kamiya and Microsoft had problems even before the first gameplay footage and I'm really suprised that none of these articles mention it. Kamiya was angry with Microsoft and it mentioned it on twitter but was deleted hours later.

You can't say it was platinum s fault for sure and same could be said about Microsoft. All we know is the game is cancelled and to be honest to all parties involved, they ended their partnership with a bit of class.

[Godmars290]

So that begs the question then were MS's expectations reasonable. As well as what did they want in the game that became such as issue.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

ReCore needed more time to 'cook' and should of been delayed by a few months. This would of allowed the game to launch with better performance and more polish . I would bet, if ReCore was delayed, the game would of gotten a metacritic average in the 70s and sold better.

[The 10th Rider]

Yeah, it had a few serious technical issues that brought it down. It still would have suffered from repetitiveness later on, but with bugs and load times fixed I could easily see a 65+. Does anyone know if it's gotten any patches fixing anything? I may pick it up on PC when it's cheap if they fix some of that stuff up.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

The load times of the game were patched and reduced. I played the 30 minute trial of ReCore. I found it fun, but it didn't convince me to purchase the title. One of my friends bought the game and currently enjoys it. I can't bring myself to accept why ReCore was built using the notorious Unity Engine. The Halo engine would of been better for the title, as it handles large environments well, and assets could of been stealthily reused, plus less (or no) licensing fees.

[The 10th Rider]

Yeah, the game looks interesting to me, but the supposed repetitiveness has me wary. Chances are I'll pick it up if it's ever around $5. I've got an SSD as well, so between that and the patches load times shouldn't be a huge issue.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I don't know if it was going to matter

[babadivad]

Meh, I really enjoyed it. It wasn't a "great" game, but it was enjoyable. It does seem like reviewers are being more harsh with MS games this gen. Maybe that's just me though.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Well I do firmly believe, that some titles get free passes, depending on who published and/or developed the title in question.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

A bad game is bad game regardless of publishers, Same for buggy, and unfinished games. That game needed to be delayed, but MS maybe rushed it to have their holiday lineup and look how that turned out

[game4funz]

Very true. We all know opinions have integrated themselves into reviews now more then ever...therefore bias is a huge problem now.
Also content whores.. And this magical need for multiplayer and singleplayer.

Recore was not as bad as it was reviewed. The game is fun. The bugs were few and not that bothersome.. Loading times no different then a game like bloodborne.... There was a lot of complaint for common problems found in current games.

[Lenrulesdaworld]

No, I know why it was cut but I can't say unfortunately. Had nothing to do with any other game but scalebound itself, finances and Development. Though It's a bit deeper than that

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Well since MS owns the assets, we can hope that one day the game could be resurrected and finished.

[tyasia0]

Who says Microsoft owns the assets?

It hasn't been mentioned anywhere who owns them nor could you know what the contractual agreements were regarding the project. I mean you don't even know the basis for it's cancellation so it's impossible for me to believe you know anything about the contract under which development took place.

[aConIsDemocracy]

No. MS ha no confidence in their console. They knew this game was going to lose money. So they scrapped it to save money.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Or maybe the contracted dev, Platinum, didn't focus enough on the project and simply weren't meeting Microsoft's expectations, even after the delays.

[n4rc]

Vulgaris.. that seems the logical answer..

It would have been delayed again if they felt it was close and the reasons were legitimate (ie the win10/co-op assumptions).

[YEP414]

That makes no sense at all!! For one recore did enough for Microsoft to Do an expansion... Second scalebound team just didn't make progress...this article just stupid ..3rd record budget was extremely smalll...its a difference ...team xbox

[game4funz]

There's an expansion???

[Vhampir]

Or maybe it's because of Star Fox Zero, Transformers Devastation, TNMT, or Wonderful 101 sales. Platinum's games are very hit-or-miss. Maybe Platinum put more resources into Nier Automata,which is only on PC and PS4 for now, than they did Scalebound.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

That is exactly what I think.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Neither of those games were developed by Kamiya. Kamiya's the team is the main team at Platinum games, and every game he has directed and designed have been a success.Go figure!

And, Squenix is the one funding Nier Automata and it is being made by another team.

[game4funz]

Right because in the real world teams don't ever fluctuate or change and resources are never shared or moved around.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

That wasn't a problem until MS stepped in. How curious... MGS Revengeance was successful too. Platinum games have always had their hands full

[rainslacker]

Then MS, as the publisher should have put the pressure on them to focus the efforts because they were paying for it.

That's not what happened though. Platinum has multiple teams, and often works on multiple projects. Those projects are always hit or miss, and most of that is based on the budget and time given to them through the production.

[Muzikguy]

I feel it was cancelled because the game was too ambitious and the hardware couldn't handle it. At least not the way they were intending. I could be wrong, but that's my educated guess

[Godmars290]

Probably canceled because originally it was SP, and MS wanted a four player co-op option along with open world.

So yeah, reaching.

[Yohshida]

Scalebound was missing goals for years and got delayed 2 whole years and yet they weren't close to finish it. Pumping 50 Million into something that will take even more money and will likely not make its money back is just alarming. Yet Platinum managed to get out a lot of games during its def time.

Im still not going to defend the decision in cancelling the game, Im pissed. But seeing why it was done, it makes sense.

Now ReCore had a way lower budget, got released already and did farely good for MS to get a Expansion and an HDR patch out. Phil Spencer himself has over 60hours of playtime into the game and really loves it. The game had its problems with load times and some bugs, most of which got fixed. For the 40€ I got a really good game and I want to see what they can do with more money on a second game. Im sure it will have a sequel.

[Razzer]

Uh...and when we're these details about Scalebound's cancellation revealed? Missing goals and Such? Where was this detailed? All I have seen are theories.

[Yohshida]

Just read Kamiyas statement.

[Razzer]

http://gematsu.com/2017/01/...

Never said he was missing goals. We don't know any details about what happened. Just guesses

[ziggurcat]

no, it wasn't. don't be silly.

[Yetter]

Development was not going well, so it was cancelled. It sucks, but it happens

[XXanderXX]

Was bothered by SB cancelation but as long that IP ownerships is maintained by Xbox/MS they can always give it a another try later on.
Recore was fun had a blast with it , heres hoping MS ownership of the Recore IP brings Xbox one a sequel soon .

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Platinum didn't put the same kind of polish in Scalebound that they did with Nier: Automata. You can tell.

[whitesoxfalife1976]

i saw that too

[aConIsDemocracy]

Well it is hard to polish a turd.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

This was supposed to be Kamiya's baby, so you'd think this project would be Platinum's number 1 priority. It doesn't appear it was.

[MasterCornholio]

I can sort of understand where your coming from especially since the PlayStation brand is a lot more appealing to the Japanese than Xbox is. But I don't believe that's the whole story. Everytime I read about Scalebounds cancellation it doesn't appear that what your suggesting is the only reason why they cancelled it. Other factors could be the competency of Kamiyas team and the breakdown that the developer of the project had. Not to mention the team didn't agree with Microsoft's presentation of the game.

[tyasia0]

That's subjective at best, and I would argue untrue. When they showed the E3 trailer it looked great, in fact the only complaints I saw from the Microsoft crowd was they didn't like the character.

It's funny how only after it was canceled does everyone on the Microsoft side of things now say the game sucked and they weren't going to buy it. Yet it was constantly talked about as one of Microsoft big hitting exclusives literally up until the day it was canceled.

[bluefox755]

It's certainly a possibility. Microsoft is in a weird position where everyone is demanding they branch out and add more variety to their catalog. But when they actually do that, they are confronted with the reality that their fans don't really want those kind of games, they wanna play racers and shooters instead, lol.

[Lennoxb63]

"But when they actually do that, they are confronted with the reality that their fans don't really want those kind of games, they wanna play racers and shooters instead, lol."

Racers and shooters? You mean the same games that get the most play time on PS as well? lol

@MasterCorholio
Sure. But you forget that MS is mainly a multiplayer gaming company. So while doing other things is cool, that is their strength. Just like for Sony, single player games are their strength.

[Razzer]

Sure, but there are reasons why so many third party games are exclusive to PS4. Xbox One gamers don't care/want those games.

[MasterCornholio]

That doesn't stop Sony from offering other Genres though. At the beginning of the year we have Yakuza 0, Gravity Rush 2, NiOH and Horizon Zero Dawn.

While shooters are the most popular it's also possible to offer other less popular genres.

[Destiny1080]

xbox gamers only play halo and forza, it was a easy decision to cancel it

[game4funz]

Nope. Not at all.
It was canceled because of dev problems which were mentioned.

The game needed more time. MS cut funding...simple as that. Recore was not a great game. It was decent and had some very fun elements. But it wasn't groundbreaking so it didn't score so well... Scores are definitely a reason a game doesn't sell so well and of course the looks of the game. I'm sure if it looked more mature or gritty or bombastic it would have sold better to casuals... Casuals, after all, make up the bulk of all sales.

[Sevir]

Maybe the reason is the game simply wasn't turning out great and development was lagging... ReCore's commercial and critical performance is completely unrelated... different games and different developer... one development process was completed, the others not.

Silly opinion piece

[Dragonscale]

Recore should've been cancelled over scalebond tbh.

[ONESHOTV2]

well look who made recore i would be cautious if i was MS as well