It’s time to take a pinch of salt as rumours are once again circling the gaming skies that Scalebound is back in development.
This time the hushed words from anonymous insiders that the cancelled Xbox exclusive will return were whispered into the ears XboxEra’s Nick Baker. A message he then passed on during the Rumour Mill section of a recent episode of the XboxEra Podcast.
According to Nick’s sources, Microsoft and Platinum Games are having another crack at Scalebound – the promising collaboration which saw one man and his dragon battle giant monsters and whole armies of soldiers. The main hook was the ability to direct your pet fire-breathing lizard to decimate the enemy from a distance, or hop on board and fly into battle like a Targaryen.
However, Nick then reiterated that the revived project is still in the very early stages of development and is potentially years away from release.
Initially planned to release on the Xbox One, Scalebound was cancelled in 2017. In an interview with VGC in 2019 Platinum Games Studio Head Atsushi Inaba defended Microsoft’s decision to axe the game and said it was a result of 'both sides failing' adding that "no one wants a game to be cancelled.”
It seems that a desire to see a Scalebound revival is not just something fans of the venerated Japanese studio want but also its creators. Speaking with IGN Japan in February last year, Inaba and Scalebound's former director Hideki Kamiya expressed a desire for the game to be resurrected.
Thanks to a translation by IGN, we know the pair are eager to reopen the book on the game, with Inaba saying that Kamiya “has been talking about wanting to work on Scalebound again for a while.” They said that while some developers may say they'd love to work on cancelled projects to be polite, they genuinely want to dive back in.
"Both Kamiya and I are serious – we really would love to work on Scalebound again. I’d like to discuss it with Microsoft properly," said Inaba.
Scalebound would soar on Game Pass
I think it's safe to say that the gaming landscape has changed considerably in the five years since Scalebound was cancelled and that Microsoft as a publisher is in a very different headspace. The main reason for this change in thinking is the success of Xbox Game Pass.
The Netflix-style service has become a great home for some incredible titles that would have had difficulty finding a space in 2017, and certainly not with a major platform holder. The best thing about Game Pass as a service is that high-concept, niche and experimental games find audiences they never would have before.
Unlike the PS5, where any new release is likely to cost you up to $70, thanks to Game Pass those with an Xbox or PC are now free to download a title on launch day simply because they like the look of it or heard it was good.
The poster child of this is Pentiment which is, in my opinion, one of last year's best games. A first-party Xbox exclusive RPG about the misadventures of a scribe in medieval Europe, it's presented in the form of a handmade tome that the main protagonist would have worked on.
Then there’s Scorn; a miserable, disturbing, but beautiful game based on the work of HR Gieger and Zdzisław Beksiński.
If Microsoft is happy to take a punt on such high-concept games to add to its growing list of Xbox Game Pass exclusives, surely a title like Scalebound could be a roaring success on the service. The game courts excitement at its mere mention, the developers are still invested and want to make it, and Microsoft owns the IP to boot. What is Xbox boss Phil Spencer waiting for?
