Scalebound cancellation admission a step towards greater transparency

New IP gets cancelled, sometimes without the public even knowing it happened. But when they are aware of the new game and the development behind it, cancelling a game comes with so much more than just moving on to the next project.

After all, you have to deal with the nascent fan base that may have grown up around the planned game. And that typically involves explaining what in the heck got the game cancelled.

Even though it was cancelled back in 2017, gamers still want some answers about the Xbox-exclusive Scalebound from the devs behind Bayonetta.

Well, the reason behind it isn’t as salacious as we might want, but it is believable. Platinum boss Atsushi Inaba blames both sides for the cancellation of the game.

Inaba: ‘Both sides failed’

He said, “The reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed… I think there are areas where we could’ve done better and I’m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could’ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.”

While that doesn’t pinpoint one exact reason why the game was cancelled, it does pretty much sum up what probably went down. Often things don’t die by a schedule or a plan, and that was likely the case with Scalebound. What makes it somewhat unique is that it was one of the first big new IP titles to be cancelled in the past several years where social media and immediate interaction with fans has gone from something done every once in a while to something done every day.

Gamers are so much more intimately involved with projects and devs than ever before. Back in the day, games would be cancelled without so much as another mention of their existence. Those days are long gone and no serious firm is going to try to make something “disappear.”

A great step forward in transparency

So it is a good thing that Platinum is addressing these concerns, even if it is years after the fact.

Games development is tough and often companies bite off more than they can chew. There’s nothing wrong with that, and letting the public know what’s up is a great step forward in transparency. This also prevents games from drifting off into so kind of legendary status.

A cursory look at the cancelled or “vaporware” games of the past will only reinforce this notion. If a game’s cancellation isn’t explained, it can be edified in ways that distort what the actual game was.

One prime example of this is the cancelled Sega Saturn title Sonic Xtreme. This game was going to move Sonic into the 3D space just in time to compete with Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. It never came out and has since become a game of semi-legend even though the development picture behind it paints a chaotic scene of over-ambition, internal politics at Sega, and simply running out of time and resources.

Pretty much what seems to have happened with Scalebound, in other words.