Hideki Kamiya Wants to Revive Scalebound Again

Hideki Kamiya has once again expressed his interest in reviving Scalebound. The game he would have worked on with Microsoft was canceled in 2017.

News of Kamiya’s interest came from social media for his new development studio Clovers. In a 30-second video, we can see Hideki Kamiya watching YouTube videos of Scalebound in the office, reminiscing over the game’s development. A member of the team comments that the protagonist’s smartphone and headphones made the game seem like an isekai game, something that Kamiya notes is a trend right now. In the text of the post, Kamiya is quoted as saying he would “love to make it again someday”. He later followed this up with another post simply saying, “let’s do it, Phil!”, directly addressing Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox.

Scalebound was originally announced at Microsoft’s E3 2014 presentation as a collaboration between Microsoft and Hideki Kamiya’s previous studio, PlatinumGames. Despite positive reaction and some prominent marketing, the game would eventually be canceled in 2017. However, Kamiya has expressed interest in reviving the project before, as he’d previously stated this in an interview with IGN Japan in 2020. Microsoft currently retain the Scalebound IP.

Hideki Kamiya has since left PlatinumGames, but is clearly hoping that his new studio, Clovers, may be an opportunity to revive the project. The studio is named after the former Clover Studio at Capcom where Kamiya worked on Okami and Viewtiful Joe. The name is appropriate, as their first project will be a long-awaited sequel to Okami.

Scalebound was originally in development for the Xbox One and PC, but was canceled in 2017.