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It was set to be one of the shining lights of Xbox One’s 2017 calendar, but Scalebound has officially ceased production. Microsoft confirmed the news last night, issuing the following statement:
After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound. We’re working hard to deliver an amazing line-up of games to our fans this year, including Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and other great experiences."
The Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive had been in development for four years, but sources close to the matter told Eurogamer and Kotaku that the relationship between Microsoft and developer PlatinumGames had gone south since Scalebound’s last public appearance at Gamescom 2016.
Allegedly, several members of the development team were forced to take a month off due to the project’s heavy workload last autumn, putting the game’s production severely behind schedule. While they have since returned to the studio, work on the game ground to a halt toward the end of last year.
Microsoft has also begun the process of removing all Scalebound trailers and videos from its official YouTube channel. First spotted by Eurogamer, Twitter posts from the official Scalebound account have also been marked private, and tweets containing videos of the game on Microsoft’s Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb account have been removed.
Footage of the boy-and-his-dragon game can still be found on PlatinumGames’ social media channels (for now), as well as in various montage videos from Microsoft’s E3 press conferences.
Scalebound had been set to feature a male protagonist who travelled across a large open-world with his large, dragon companion. Using special powers he would have been able to control the dragon in battle and issue attack commands, and Kamiya had said the game would have featured the biggest boss battles the studio had ever attempted. A four-player co-op mode had also been planned.
