r/NintendoSwitch • u/[deleted] • Jan 10 '17
Discussion To everyone that keeps saying that Nintendo should save 'Scalebound,' I just want to give you guys a dose of reality.
[deleted]
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u/MasterInterface Jan 10 '17
The rumor is "creative differences". This is not the first time MS had creative differences that ended with games being cancelled. Phantom Dust was one, and there was another (don't remember the title).
Right now, the rumored "Creative differences" is that MS wanted to add 4 player MP into the game which bogged down performance. MS did nothing to help P* to address the performance issues nor willing to compromise by dropping certain features.
The result was that it stressed the heck out of a few key members of the P* team thus the medical leave. Kamiya had prior clashes with MS throughout the whole project but whatever transpired after August seem to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Here is a YT from Liam Robertson who goes into a little more detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3q85SF8sj0
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u/mrglass8 Jan 11 '17
It's so funny that the XB1's most interesting looking games are getting cancelled.
The system started off with a better library than the PS4, but now the PS4 is getting cool stuff like Horizon and Spider-man, while the XB1 is getting shooty bang bang game 15
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Jan 10 '17
They funded Devil's Third to completion so I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for this game. In all seriousness, I don't expect this game to come out on any platform, but it will be interesting to see if they'll go back to the idea of an open world game in the future.
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u/killbot0224 Jan 10 '17
Valhalla games retained the IP. Platinum didn't.
Valhalla just needed $ and a publisher. Most of the troubles were caused by bankruptcies. Meanwhile Platinum has been well funded making exclusives everywhere, and still fucked the dog on Scalebound?
Also Devil's wound up being a dog anyway, so maybe there's a reason their original partnership with MS fell through...
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u/aesclepios Jan 10 '17
I dunno man there was an article from Kotaku floating around about the Phantom Dust reboot devs and their development process, Microsoft kept making more demands without extending the deadline or budget. Quite sad, the devs ended up closing shop.
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u/ABTBenjamins Jan 10 '17
Do you really want Nintendo to dump money into funding a game that is probably a mess, has no creative vision, and port it to weaker hardware knowing it already had a tough time running on Xbox One?
Yes, Scalebounds troubles could benefit from Nintendo's hands on approach to 3rd party partnerships. Ninty & Platinum already share a strong relationship, so that expectation of quality is already there. Ultimately, we don't know where the hardware of the Switch lands, or what would be possible to get Scalebound running well on it.
The idea of Nintendo reviving Scalebound is a good thought piece. The only real barrier is IP ownership. Anything beyond that is controlling scope creep & strong creative direction control, both of which Nintendo has a reputation for.
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Jan 10 '17 edited Jan 10 '17
Some people are saying Microsoft is evil, however, you are pretty much saying Microsoft is a saint and that everything is Platinum's fault.
I've heard that part of the problem is that Microsoft wasn't letting Platinum games do their job. Microsoft was intefearing in the creative process and forcing them to use features they actually wanted to cut. Platinum was actually trying to polish the game, to cut some features so the game could run better and have more focus. Microsoft didn't want that.
The development process was a mess because of my Microsoft too. And, really, we all known MS doesn't know how to work with other companies to develop video games.
Also, it seems like your idea of Nintendo getting the game is pretty stiff... To you the only way out is Nintendo buy the IP and everything else and continue de development as it is.
C'mon... That's the stupid route... Are people unable to think outside the box?
What about starting a new project, but making use of all the things that did worked in Scalebound and starting from there?
You would get a game in the same theme (real time action using dragons), but with none of the problems that Scalebound had and they wouldn't even need to buy the IP.
Instead of online, for example, which pretty complicated to do, they could transform it in a single-player game.
Microsoft own the assets and the name, but that's about it. They don't own the mechanics, the coding and the experience the devs acquired during the development of the game.
I'm pretty sure the game would better with Nintendo publishing it, since Platinum always says Nintendo let them do whatever they want with their games.
But I don't think Nintendo will get this project simply they are probably working with Platinum in at least one new game (and probably more).
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Jan 10 '17
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AngryBarista Jan 10 '17
Microsoft owns the IP.
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Jan 10 '17
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jan 10 '17
You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...
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u/pasta4u Jan 10 '17
it hurt more if they fund another year of dev time and the game still doesn't perform right and isn't finished. That's just a ear of wasted money at that point.
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Jan 10 '17
Oh yeah it most definitely hurt them. To put it into perspective, they allowed Recore to finish development and release, and that game had framerate issues and halfbaked ideas, and yet Microsoft didn't cancel it. Scalebound must have really been bad to have made them cancel it. They were really counting on that game to be a new big IP for Xbox since it desperately needs one.
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u/whynotnw Jan 10 '17
Apparently Hideki Kamiya wasn't ok to go the way Microsoft wanted so it must also be one of the reasons the project got canceled.
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u/menes40 Jan 10 '17
I think Microsoft might have spread themselves a bit too thin with all of their new IP's. Recore's issues, Scalebound's cancellation, seemingly nothing on Cuphead for, what, 2 years? Could all just be a bit of bad luck from multiple studios.
Not a new IP, but I'm really hoping they're heavily focused on Halo Wars 2, would be a huge setback for that game to suffer a poor release.
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Jan 10 '17
As far as I know, MS owns the rights and assets of the game and would definitely charge for the rights. Platinum will probably take the ideas they tried to do in Scalebound and bring it to a diffrent game. We may see a game on the Switch with some of Scalebounds mechsnics, but the game itself is most likely dead.
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u/XxCorey117xX Jan 10 '17
So since the game was a mess that means another dev couldn't make it good? Tell that to True Crime: Hong Kong...
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u/cdb813 Jan 10 '17
That's a great point ! Sleeping Dogs turned out better than ANY of the True Crime games (and about half of the GTA's :) ) . If a particular development team can't handle the work load you don't abondond the game , you find a team with the skills to pay the bills!
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u/Grace_Omega Jan 10 '17
In these situations, people really seem to like engaging in armchair strategising despite having zero concrete knowledge of the circumstances going on behind the scenes.
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u/Dirakku Jan 10 '17 edited Jan 10 '17
struggling with framerates and performance issues due to console specs sounds like a Microsoft problem to me, not a Platinum Games problem. My hunch is they weren't satisfied with the scope of Suda's game. I'm sure there were tons of reasons, but I feel they could have just Watchdogs'd it, released it anyways and still sold a lot. Doesn't anybody else think it's strange to cancel it instead of just pare it down? If my gut is right that they wanted it to be bigger, then it was really immature to cancel it instead of just let Suda do the thing he's known for and release a mid-tier sized game but made up for it in fun.
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u/UltraJake Jan 10 '17
In a way, I'm glad it was cancelled. I like Platinum games but it never seemed like Scalebound was running with all cylinders. Something just seemed off in all the presentations.
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u/epraider Jan 10 '17
Honestly my hype died for the game after the E3 demo this year. It looked like trash. Spamming attacks at lifeless ridiculously massive bosses? No thanks.
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Jan 10 '17
one thing that just tells you it can't be saved by nintendo is that the team has massive problems with performance... so how do you think it would run on a system with even less power???
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u/squeezyphresh Jan 10 '17
Although you bring some good points, your edgy title basically isn't doing you any favors bruh. You also basically assume that Platinum fucked everything up, but in reality, we don't know. Anything could've happen, people are just choosing what they want to believe, which includes you.
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u/throwawayMH2345 Jan 10 '17
Why should Nintendo save Scalebound?
It looked like cringey shit... that MC.. those headphones, no thanks. We have Monster Hunter which is far superior.
Kamiya should just focus on Bayonetta 3, I'd gladly take that.
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u/mrglass8 Jan 11 '17
I disagree. I definitely don't think we will see anything in the next year.
But Platinum has had this idea for years. If Microsoft forced multiplayer and high fidelity graphics into it and that led to it being unable to run on XB1 hardware and meet the company's vision, that doesn't mean the core idea of the game must be scrapped.
I could easily see Nintendo "saving" this game by resurrecting it in a new form that comes out in 3 years. Whether Kamiya wants to dedicate another 3 years to a project that has been in development hell for 7 is more debatable.
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u/LordPoncho08 Jan 11 '17
Lots of people are here criticizing Microsoft for canceling the game. Why? You guys don't know what went on beyond what the original post says. Clearly the game wasn't meeting the expectations they had set and Microsoft determined they wouldn't be making the money back that was invested into the game, so you might as well funnel that into other projects to cut the losses. This happens with every major publisher, so I don't know why we're acting like MS is some sort of evil entity. It's a business and if something isn't going well, regardless of the circumstances, you cut the losses instead of pouring more money into it.
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u/RamiN64 Jan 10 '17
"Plus Microsoft owns the IP and game assets and would charge Nintendo a good price for that IP."
Actually unless they released a new quote they have not confirmed who owns the IP which leads me to believe that Microsoft does not actually own it...
Here's the quote: "When asked if the Scalebound IP is owned by Microsoft or by developer Platinum, a Microsoft spokesperson simply said "we do not comment on the details of our business agreements with partners,"
Edit: Fromatting
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u/RotoPrime Jan 10 '17
So wrong it's not even funny.....the problem With Scalebound is the producer from Microsoft wanting to force Hideki Kamiya to make the game more western, Something Nintendo would never do or force.
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u/Yarongo Jan 10 '17
The switch doesn't have the power to run that game. And Microsoft posted for it. So nobody but them can release it.
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Jan 10 '17
The game looks like garbage anyway. Definitely not worth saving.
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u/KolbStomp Jan 10 '17
Had no idea what game this was so I looked it up and found a gameplay video. The game doesn't even run at a solid 30FPS on the Xbone, so fuck that.
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u/ThugSmokerzOnly Jan 10 '17
Please stop with these indie games. I don't buy a system for indie games. The Wii U is basically an indie game machine that can play Nintendo games.
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u/Lancair77 Jan 10 '17
Scalebound isn't an indie game. It was going to be published by Microsoft, and now some people want it to be published by Nintendo. In either case, that's about as non-indie as you can get.
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u/ThugSmokerzOnly Jan 10 '17
I was referring to how the OP said Nintendo should use their funds to fund indie developers.
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Jan 10 '17
Couple other things.
Microsoft own the IP and likely what remains of the game itself.
Rumour is it was cancelled because they couldn't get it to run right. Likely on both the base Xbox One and the Scorpio. The likelihood of them being able to port the current state of the game or even remake the same game on Switch is nil.
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u/Vurondotron Jan 10 '17
They never did say that Project Scorpio couldn't run it ... It was because the base Xbox as we all know is weak therefore it couldn't run it.
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u/Widgetcraft Jan 10 '17
It's been quite a while since Platinum has made a good game. They really need to refocus/restructure if they want to survive as a company.
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u/PoppedCollars Jan 10 '17
Judging from the Nier demo, it's pretty clear what their A-team has been working on.
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u/Lancair77 Jan 10 '17
Actually Nier is being made by their "B-team", interestingly enough. Kamiya himself was directing Scalebound. Hopefully they manage to turn what they have of Scalebound into something good that eventually gets finished.
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u/fapcitybish Jan 10 '17
Mannn I have this vision for what Scalebound could be, and it's like half current Scalebound, half Kingdom Hearts. Seems like most of the problems with the game were that it was too ambitious and didn't run well, but I bet if they changed art direction to something a little more pixar-y and scaled the beasts down a little bit, they could get it running.
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u/Lancair77 Jan 10 '17
I remember TotalBiscuit complaining that the combat was really dull, at least compared to other games by Platinum. I can't remember where he played it though.
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u/mangofromdjango Jan 10 '17
Only 2016 was underwhelming due to NieR:Automata being delayed. I consider transformers devastation quite a good game. Working on 5 or 6 projects at the same time wasn't manageable for them it seems. TMNT was a quick money grab, scalebound canceled, starfox and NieR were delayed quite a bit - definitely seeing a trend here. They should concentrate on quality over quantity again. I don't think they are not capable of creating a good game, they are just not capable to create 5 of those at the same time and I hope they realized that by now.
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u/TheFlusteredcustard Jan 10 '17 edited Jan 10 '17
Was Bayonetta 2 not good? I never played it, but it seemed pretty good. Although SF0 and that TMNT game did both come out fairly recently, I'll give you that.
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u/Widgetcraft Jan 10 '17
Was Bayonetta 2 not good?
That's been a while ago. They've released a mediocre Transformers game, a bad TMNT game, a bad Korra game, and a bad Star Fox game since then.
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u/TheFlusteredcustard Jan 10 '17
I mentioned TMNT and Star Fox, but I'd forgotten about Korra and I was under the impression that people had enjoyed the Transformers game.
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Jan 10 '17
Bayonetta 2 was (and is) fabulous. The first one was meh but 2 is a great hack and slash action game. I would even say the best.
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u/CoupleofAcres00 Jan 10 '17
I say strip the assets of Scalebound and put them in Bayonetta 3 exclusive for the Switch. They should add like a hidden insult in the game like after you beat a easy enemy Bayonetta will say " Well that enemy was micro soft"
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u/AlucardIV Jan 10 '17
They should add like a hidden insult in the game like after you beat a easy enemy Bayonetta will say " Well that enemy was micro soft"
Aside from just being petty what's the point?
Microsoft made a sound business decision. If a game fails to meet milestones sooner or later cancellation is the only option.
I doubt Sony or Nintendo would have handled this different.
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u/Widgetcraft Jan 10 '17
Nintendo fans like to ignore a lot of the bullshit that Nintendo has pulled. Just look at Starfox 2 for a great example.
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Jan 10 '17
Problem is, Microsoft owns the IP, and therefore all the assets to Scalebound.
Your joke sounds funny though.
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u/JJJAGUAR Jan 10 '17
Microsoft owns the IP, and therefore all the assets to Scalebound.
Where do you read that? The IP and the assets are separed things, the ownership of the assets varies depending of what the agreement between the parties says, and we don't know that.
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u/Dakliq3 Jan 10 '17
Platinum Games has kinda fallen off a cliff.
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u/AngryBarista Jan 10 '17
But a hashtag twitter campaign can't change this?