Hideki Kamiya Apologizes to Gamers and Microsoft for Scalebound

scalepond It was one of the notable cancellations of the previous generation. The RPG developed by PlatinumGames was revealed at E3 2014 at Microsoft’s press conference and was boxed in 2017. Some Platinum members talked about it, but director Hideki Kamiya has apologized to fans and Microsoft for the ill-fated game.

Kamiya spoke about the game in a new interview on the Cutscenes YouTube channel. He started talking (around the 6:17 mark) about how he wanted to make a realistic game in a high fantasy world, but how those ambitions were too far from the Platinum’s wheelhouse.

“It was a huge challenge for PlatinumGames,” he admitted. We were working in an environment we weren’t used to. We were developing on Unreal Engine and we also lacked the knowledge to build a game based on online features. The obstacles we had to overcome were too great. We weren’t inexperienced enough and couldn’t get past that wall, which led to what eventually happened. I’m sorry for the players who looked forward to it, and moreover, I’m sorry to Microsoft who put their trust in us as a business partner. I want to apologize as a creator and member of PlatinumGames.”

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Platinum had just worked with Japanese publishers at that point and had only collaborated with non-Japanese publishers like Activision with The legend of Korra And Transformers: Havoc issued in 2014 and 2015 respectively. It was Kamiya to explain Differences in working with a Western publisher, saying that working with Microsoft was more about “next-generation game development” rather than the “as long as it works in the end” approach of Japanese publishers.

With the mentality going, it’s easy to see how he felt the team was overwhelmed by making an online game that was much bigger than their other projects. PlatinumGames had some highly acclaimed games like conquer defeatedAnd Metal Gear Rising: Revenge, And Bayonetta At that point, but even that proved too much for the talented team.

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Xbox and Platinum employees have also spoken out about the game’s failures in the past. Studio head Atsushi Inaba said Chronicle video games In May 2019 “both sides failed”. Xbox President Phil Spencer said IGN In April 2020 it was “tough” and that he had “no ill will” towards platinum. He also said that Xbox was not reviving the title at the time.

scalepond He didn’t cover the entire interview as he talked about it either Wonder 101As a licensed game, how it relates to some of his childhood stories, and how he salvaged the idea once the deal with the mysterious IP holder was completed. Although he didn’t mention it directly here, the IP holder was Nintendo as is It was originally supposed to contain Nintendo characters.