Nearly a decade on, legendary director Hideki Kamiya says he’s “100% serious” about reviving Xbox’s canned Scalebound

Hideki Kamiya was being super serious about resurrecting Scalebound, the PlatinumGames dragon-filled romp that was cancelled by Xbox nearly a decade ago.

The famed director has been at the helm of almost too many beloved games – Bayonetta, Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Okami – so it’s pretty easy to look back and wonder what could’ve been with his canned Xbox project. But it seems that thought pops up in Kamiya’s head now and then, too.

When asked if he’s spoken to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma about reviving the game, in an interview with VGC, Kamiya said no, but he’s more than willing to rekindle the professional relationship. “Now’s my opportunity to once again say that if they want to do it, let’s make it happen!” He also mentioned that a number of PlatinumGames alumni now work at his new development studio Clovers, which is currently making Okami 2, another long-awaited comeback.

“Of course, it’s very unfortunate that the project was unable to see the light of day ultimately, and that is something that even now I still very strongly desire to be able to see through if it’s all possible, and I’m being 100% serious when I say that,” Kamiya continued.

He then explained that Clovers “might not be in a position to do that right this second.” The still fresh-faced studio is likely all aboard the Okami 2 train with publisher Capcom at the moment, but Kamiya’s remaining optimistic. “I strongly believe that if you want something strongly enough, you eventually find a way to make it happen. That’s the case with Okami right now, where even after all these years, the opportunity once again presented itself, and I hope that will be the case with Scalebound in the future as well.”

The much-hyped game was originally announced as an Xbox One exclusive all the way back in 2014 and spent about four years in development before Microsoft pulled the plug in 2017. A few years later, PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba said both parties were to blame for the project’s demise.

What we did see of Scalebound before its abrupt death looked very promising, though. Your headphone-wearing, sword-slashing protag was almost always accompanied by a huge dragon who would cause chaos, chomp your enemies up and splash fire all across the battlefield.