Many people had high expectations for Scalebound considering Hideki Kamiya’s track record. He was the pioneer of some of the most influential action games, being the director of games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry. He is also one of the most outspoken directors in the gaming industry, not afraid to open up his opinions to fans about the gaming industry, including the struggles that he and his team faced when working with Scalebound.
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Kamiya was interviewed by YouTube Channel Cutscenes, in a series of documentary style videos that detailed his career. The latest video covers some of the more recent games he directed, such as The Wonderful 101, and of course, Scalebound. He mentioned that Microsoft did have high expectations for the studio, especially since they were releasing it for the latest Xbox console at the time. To meet these desires, Kamiya wanted to make a high-end photorealistic game.
The other big push he wanted to make was for the world to match the graphics, citing other fantasy games that helped form Scalebound and its dragon-based gameplay. There, however, were a number of problems that he and the team at PlatinumGames ran into during development. He noted there were so many elements that they weren’t used to and lacked knowledge on how to develop for. Things of note included the Unreal Engine, along with building the game based on an online environment.
In a very somber note, Kamiya acknowledged that PlatinumGames just wasn’t experienced enough, leading to Scalebound’s cancellation. He apologized not only to the players that were looking forward to the game, but Microsoft as well, saying that he felt like he broke the company’s trust as a business partner. While Scalebound currently doesn’t have much of a chance of comeback, it’s still an important, yet sad part of Kamiya’s career despite the troubles it went through.
Scalebound was in development for Xbox One.
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