Hideki Kamiya on Scalebound: 'Let's Do it, Phil' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2025 / 3,887 Views
Scalebound was announced for the Xbox One over a decade ago at E3 2014 as an Xbox exclusive and was later supposed to also get a PC release. However, it would eventually be cancelled.
Hideki Kamiya, the former PlatinumGames co-founder, is still interested in making Scalebound.
Kamiya is currently working on a sequel to Okami at his new studio Clovers. A new tweet from Clovers featuring an video of Kamiya and it reads "Noticed some excitement around Kamiya’s desk. He was reminiscing about the development of Scalebound while watching YouTube videos. It never made it to release, but even now, he still feels proud of it."
Kamiya would retweet the original tweet from Clovers and stated, "Let's do it, Phil!" Phil being Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
Kamiya back in 2022 also stated he was "serious" about resurrecting Scalebound.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Please Phil...
Make it so
I don't mean to get everyone's hopes up about this, but with the new Xbox strategy - this one has a REALLY good chance of happening. Would Microsoft even give a second thought to funding a AAA Japanese title with the Xbox Series sales in Japan, if it was Xbox-exclusive? Absolutely not. Would they though if this title was a PS5 (probably PS6)/future Xbox/Nintendo Switch 2 cross-platform title? Definitely.
Scalebound would also be available on PC which is decent in Japan.
I just don't know if enough people really care. Before the game was canceled, the main sentiment was how it didn’t look that good, but as soon as it got canned, everyone was like, "OMG how could you do that!" Don't get me wrong, it would be cool if they decide to resume development. With how Xbox is putting their games on everything, it could be worthwhile for them. If Ninja Gaiden 4 does well, maybe MS will consider it.
Can't he just do it himself? Make a game like Scalebound just not call it Scalebound, get any publisher. The time has past, move on and make a game better than it.
Or is this more "We need financial backing."?
1) Hideki has always needed financial assistance when producing games.
2) Even if you didn't call it Scalebound... you put yourself wide open for very expensive lawsuits reusing ideas MS paid for originally. That doesn't mean they would sue but it would certainly be a possibility.
On point one, good to know. On point 2, isn't that like Blizzard suing Grinding Gear because the 2 games are similar? Or Sony sueing SquEnix for how they 'recreated' Tomb Raider.
I get your point but gameplay isn't (or should be) copywritable. They could change nearly everything else about the game design wise.
Please Sir' Phil, may we have some Scalebound?
That was probably the most disappointing cancellation of the last few years for me...
That and the closure of Lionhead and Ensemble Studios were tactically also the wrong moves.
Different team
Of course.. I'm sure they were doing such a good job that Microsoft one day looked at it and said, "You know what? This is too good. The world doesn't deserve this. Let's just cancel it and forget the millions we have already invested in it".
Wouldn't be the first time Microoft has basically flushed money down the toilet.
I guess it is settled then, Microsoft cancelled it because it was going way too well.
Literally my most anticipated Xbox exclusive.... and it got cancelled. Please breathe life back into this microsoft
Might be possible if Microsoft likes to throw money away like they've been doing these past couple of years lol
This would be awesome if true. One game i was excited for. Hope they make it and hope they nail it. They have the tech for it now where as it was abit ambitions for a base XB1.
Scalebound was the single game that ever interested me coming to the Xbox One, funny that if it was to happen now it would be on Playstation too.
A lot of the ideas in that game went to Bayonetta 3. In a way it went full circle. Scalebound started as a Wii game. Then went to Xbox and some of it's ideas went into Bayo 3 aka back on a Nintendo platform lol.
