Microsoft just confirmed to Windows Central that the Action RPG Scalebound has been cancelled. Rumors had been floating in the past hour on sites like Kotaku and Eurogamer.
After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for "Scalebound." We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including "Halo Wars 2," "Crackdown 3," "State of Decay 2," "Sea of Thieves" and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: https://news.xbox.com/2017/01/05/xbox-closes-milestone-year-in-2016/.
Scalebound was being developed by Japanese studio PlatinumGames. Hideki Kamiya, known for his work on Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil Zero, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, was directing the game's development.
Scalebound, powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 4, was an action RPG, the first one ever developed by PlatinumGames to include a full blown open world. Set in the fantasy world of Draconis, it was meant to feature a human from the modern world, Drew, and his dragon companion Thuban. The story dictated that the two were bonded so if one died, the other would too.
Kamiya said that he had always wanted to create a game where dragons were companions rather than just enemies. PlatinumGames had announced that Thuban was fully customizable, both in terms of aesthetics and attributes.
While Thuban would have been controlled by AI (Artificial Intelligence) by default, last year the developers revealed that players could take control of the dragon directly via Dragon Link mode. However, that was meant to be a risky move, leaving Drew vulnerable to enemy attacks in the meantime.
Scalebound was also scheduled to have multiplayer for up to four players (and their dragons), with the biggest challenges reserved for the cooperative multiplayer mode. The game was originally announced at E3 2014 and suffered multiple delays, the last one into 2017 when the game was supposed to launch on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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