Scalebound not dead?

So rumors have recently began to circulate that cancelled XBOX + PC Exclusive Scalebound that was cancelled not that long ago by Microsoft, may not be dead after all. Now Scalebound was originally announced at E3 2014 to be developed by renowned Platinum Games and Published by Microsoft and was to be exclusively released on XBOX One (more that likely Scorpio as well) and PC on the Microsoft Store. The game didn't have an official release date (that I know of) but was speculated to be released Q4 2017 or Q1 2018, so it was just months away from launch before being cancelled in January 2017. Now millions of people were ecstatic about the game and were very excited to get their hands on it and play it, and the cancellation was by no means expected and came completely out of left field. Apparently towards the end of the games development cycle many of the senior developers working on the project had to take a break due to the heavy work lead associated with the project, and it seemed that Microsoft was really pushing Platinum to finish the project, again likely shooting for a Q4 2017 release. Now most if not all of the executives had returned after a short break but by that point the relationship between Microsoft and Platinum had turned sour with the game being way behind schedule, leading to the game's cancellation by Microsoft.

Recently however news has began to circulate that Scalebound might not be dead after all. These rumors seemingly started when Microsoft renewed their trademark for Scalebound, and continued to spread after twitter user @XRays_Insider (link: https://twitter.com/XRays_Insider?lang=en) claimed that Microsoft was "in talks with a friendly developer" about renewing the project. He went on to say that it may not come back, but it is a possibility in the eyes of Microsoft. Now here is where I take issue with this, Microsoft could easily have renewed the Trademark for other purposes than developing the game such as just stopping other devs from picking it up, or even holding onto it just to hold onto it for some reason. The source is also sketchy, he seems to be an Italian gamer that reports on Xbox news, and does not have much of a history with leaks, so I have no idea as to his reliability. Now personally, i'm a PLayStation guy, and I think Scalebound looks great, well looked great, and have been thinking about buying an XBONE for a while now, but haven't made the leap, but I think that this game could've been good for Microsoft as far as the exclusive game goes, and it is obviously a field they're lacking in as of late. I'd love to see the game release, but I just don't see it happening.

I would love for that to be true. Scalebound was actually one of the few games I was really looking forward to playing. And I won't cry either if they leave Platinum behind...not a huge fan of their work anyway...

That being said, not sure if I'd get my hopes up.

It looked pretty close to finished, whether or not that's true is a different story; marketing and executives tend to paint a different picture than production does in my experience.

With that said, if they were close, it'd be cool to see them finish it on their own. A labor of love, so to speak. They have other projects, other irons in the fire as they say; surely they could take resources from those things (extra resources, i.e. profits) and use them over a period of time to finish up a game they know would sell well.

I'm wondering if that's what the recent ports (Bayonetta, Vanquish) to PC are all about; obviously money...but money for Scalebound? One can hope, right? I think it'd be a mistake for Microsoft to abandon Platinum, though; they really need to maintain ties with a Japanese-style games developer, just my $0.02

I hope this turns out true as I would love to Scalebound get finished and released.

I had less than zero interest in this game which was particularly dissappointing because i like the developer. From what i remember, the game just appeared to be some extended cut-scene with occasional button pressing. Add to the fact the characters didnt seem likeable or even interesting. So i'm hoping Platinum scraps this permanently and moves on to something fun and interesting. Maybe they can use some elements and assets from Scalebound but hopefully that is about it.