Phil Spencer Says Microsoft ‘Not Working’ on PlatinumGames Scalebound Revival

Even though it has been three years since PlatinumGames’ Scalebound was canceled in January 2017, people talk about it and question if there could be a Scalebound revival of sorts. In an IGN interview with Microsoft Executive Vice-President of Gaming Phil Spencer again dashed any hopes regarding it. To be specific, he said, “But yeah, for the people out there who are kind of thinking that maybe there’s something still in the works, there’s not.”

Here’s Xbox Head Spencer’s response to any possible Scalebound revival.

Yeah, it’s a tough one, because I have a ton of respect for Platinum, Kamiya-san and the team. And I feel no ill will, and we talk to those guys. There’s no animosity between the teams. We tried to go do something and it didn’t work.

I regret that we were as public about what we tried to go do. I mean, you and I talked about this before. I did some learning around Fable Legends. I did some learning around Scalebound, about being public about things before I know that we got a real believable plan and something that I felt in my hands and we’d know was gonna be there. We just didn’t get there with Scalebound and with the team, and I say that across both teams.

So, I think what you hear–at least when you hear the teams, us talk about it, is that we loved some of the ideas that we were trying to go do. Obviously, we wanted to ship a great game to our customers. Every time we start a game, that’s our end goal. So of course we’re gonna be a little upset that we weren’t able to deliver on our goals with that title.

We’re not working on it. I’m not at Platinum today, but I’m almost positive they’re not working on it. It’s something we all moved past and it’s not a moment that I see as a high point for me in my role, having to cancel a game that we had talked about for years. But yeah, for the people out there who are kind of thinking that maybe there’s something still in the works, there’s not.

You can hear Spencer go over this at around the 39:40 mark in the IGN Unlocked interview below.

Scalebound would have been an Xbox One-exclusive action-RPG developed by PlatinumGames, with Hideki Kamiya directing and writing it and Atsushi Inaba acting as its producer. It would have followed Drew, a young man bonded to a dragon named Thuban. It was announced at E3 2014, but a troubled development cycle led to its cancelation in 2017.