yeah, that sound about right. Probably started when Nier wrapped up.
Though we know it was pitched before the Scalebound producer left.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
RUMOR: Nintendo has plans to revive a 'Dead and Buried' game (Update: Possibly Scalebound?)
- Thread starter iswasdoes
- Start date
- Status
Though we know it was pitched before the Scalebound producer left.
I'd personally never say it, it sounds so disrespectful for the people behind these games: imagine you work so hard on a game as your debut as game director, you decide to wait until the very end to announce it, and people start to claim you just recycled stuffs from previous projects made by other people. (i don't think Taura was even involved in Scalebound development)
Beyond that the general concept is also very different, Scalebound was open world RPG, Astral Chain is action like Bayonetta.
Scalebound wasn't even a game and its reputation isn't the best. If Nintendo and Platinum want to revive the project it doesn't make any sense to use "Scalebound" brand. Nintendo and Platinum can revive the project under a different name.
You only fight to own a IP if that IP means business. Scalebound doesn't.
You only fight to own a IP if that IP means business. Scalebound doesn't.
1) The rumor is that Platinum tried to get back the Scalebound IP, not Nintendo. If MS didn't want it then why not give it to Platinum? It was Kamiya's passion project.
2) The mere suggestion that Scalebound might be resurrected on Switch took Era offline for a brief period yesterday and caused the name Scalebound to trend on twitter at like 10-15k tweets. The name has a lot of power in garnering attention, regardless of whether or not the game/name has a pedigree.
Did I miss something in this thread that implies that your second point happened?
Weren't the "Nintendo is making Scalebound" rumors circulating last summer? That doesn't really match this timeline.
Unless there's new information that I missed, it seems like the two most likely theories are that Nintendo/Platinum never tried to obtain the IP and instead just pivoted to Astral Chain, reusing what they legally/feasibly could from Scalebound (which was probably limited to conceptual/mechanical stuff) or that Nintendo and Platinum did indeed buy Scalebound from Microsoft and they are making it parallel to Astral Chain (with some ideas from Scalebound inspiring AC).
In the former scenario, Imran is either talking about a totally different game and Nintendo Insider's sources are confused or everyone (including Imran's sources) are confused/misinformed/victims of corporate disinformation, similar to what may have occurred with Starlink and Star Fox Grand Prix. In the latter, the sources are right and some of the speculation in this thread about Scalebound becoming AC is intuitive but incorrect.
I highly doubt that Scalebound became Astral Chain in some way. The time between developments doesn't match at all, otherwise it must have been an incredibly fast development and at the same time Platinum somehow must have felt that Scalebound was going to be cancelled.
I think anybody that thinks Astral Chain is some form of greatly altered Scalebound is off the mark.
Just like how Wonderful 101 is Platinum's Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Astral Chain is their Tokusatsu Hero/Kamen Rider. It really wouldn't be surprising to see the human characters getting power armours of their own down the line.
Not saying there aren't ideas from Scalebound, but that's a different topic.
Just like how Wonderful 101 is Platinum's Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Astral Chain is their Tokusatsu Hero/Kamen Rider. It really wouldn't be surprising to see the human characters getting power armours of their own down the line.
Not saying there aren't ideas from Scalebound, but that's a different topic.
Taking concepts from past games and previous projects happens all the time in game development. There's nothing disrespectful about it.
Clearly the games are very different but the base concept of having an A.I. partner could have been the jumping point and they turned it into something completely different.
I am curious if anything would come from this.
Originally, I was thinking PG would just take what they learned and apply it to a new game - Drakengard 4 would be a good one.
Instead of a bad musou with dragon mechanics, as an action rpg with a more structured approach.
But I guess that's not happening.
Perhaps they should've used some ideas for other games, probably were (for Granblue and AC), but that's not the full SB concept.
I still think this rumor has a few holes in it. I dont' think MS and Nintendo are that friendly to fork over a game with 4 years of development. If development clash led to the game being in a rough state, can PG even fix it?
Really do think, the best case would be that - if PG is confident enough in the concept - that they pitch it to Nintendo/whoever as a from the ground up project using what they learned but not what they had.
Originally, I was thinking PG would just take what they learned and apply it to a new game - Drakengard 4 would be a good one.
Instead of a bad musou with dragon mechanics, as an action rpg with a more structured approach.
But I guess that's not happening.
Perhaps they should've used some ideas for other games, probably were (for Granblue and AC), but that's not the full SB concept.
I still think this rumor has a few holes in it. I dont' think MS and Nintendo are that friendly to fork over a game with 4 years of development. If development clash led to the game being in a rough state, can PG even fix it?
Really do think, the best case would be that - if PG is confident enough in the concept - that they pitch it to Nintendo/whoever as a from the ground up project using what they learned but not what they had.
What I say is If Kamiya want to revive the "Scalebound" project, he doesn't need the name. That being said, I would like to see a new iteration in the Scalebound concept. If it's real, my bet is, in fact, a Scalebound type of game under different name.
In the other hand, trends on Twitter doesn't mean anything but "a lot of discussion".
Taura would have been busy with Nier at that point. I really don't think it's that unbelievable Astral Chain will have had two and a half years of development by the time it comes out.
That may well be the case actually. The rumors don't talk about reusing existing work only reviving a dead and cancelled game. The thinking around reusing existing work was an assumption made in the discussions but that was never confirmed
why would anyone confirm or deny this? this isn't based on any supposed leaked information, no pictures, no real substantive report or even hinting by any of the developers.
Imran Khan from GameInformer was the first person to comment on the existence of this revival (he never named the game), and all speculation spawned from there. At the time, Imran stated that he would do a write-up when he had more sources to confirm his info. The only way we're getting a definitive answer is if the game is Scalebound, and Imran is comfortable reporting on it.
I always got the impression that Scalebound's direction and tone in the media that was released was being heavily influenced by MS. If the rumored project is Scalebound I would bet that it has little relation to what we've seen of it so far. It would probably a change on the level of going from the original FE vs SMT teaser that we got to the final TMS reveal.
But what if the dead and buried game is TMS?
But what if the dead and buried game is TMS?
It would be a little disrespectful if it turns out Astral Chain was all new.
Platinum Games worked on completely different games at the same time in the past too: think about The Wonderful 101, Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta 2 and The Legend of Korra in 2013-14.
The base concept of having A.I. partner is something Platinum used even before Scalebound, and in this case it's actually more similar to Blade Wolf in Metal Gear Rising
MML3 makes the most sense in that list.
But they won't fund that without funding remakes of MML1&2.
So I'm calling it now: MML1&2R will be announced for Switch. MML3's prologue will be included in that release ! Then, we'll get MML3 one year later :D
But they won't fund that without funding remakes of MML1&2.
So I'm calling it now: MML1&2R will be announced for Switch. MML3's prologue will be included in that release ! Then, we'll get MML3 one year later :D
But apparently the name is one thing we know they can use, since the trademark expired. Trademarks protect names and logos, and since MS's trademark has gone abandoned anyone can now use that name.
And yeah, a lot of discussions = a lot of attention which is precisely what you want if you're publicizing a game.
There are multiple rumors being discussed. First the rumor in the OP is about reviving a dead, cancelled game. Second, there is the rumor that Scalebound is coming to the Switch and the related rumor that Scalebound was being revived as of last summer.
Those two rumors might be related, but they also might not be. So if Scalebound was repurposed into AC (I don't think it was) then the first rumor clearly wasn't talking about Scalebound.
Ah true, it does seem pretty dead and buried though unfortunately.
TMS characters were featured in smash.
Don't think they buried anything, but they're probably not interested in a sequel
?
Maybe not right now but after a bit of time from the abandonment (which happened in 2017) anyone should be able to use the Scalebound name. Unless MS or someone else applies for a new trademark on it.
I would love Eternal Darkness 2, but probably is Scalebound, Platinum is almost a Nintendo first party.
VG24/7 is saying they've also heard something about Scalebound: https://www.vg247.com/2019/02/19/scalebound-nintendo-switch/
Look, if this shit is actually real, then I'm sad that it has leaked.
Imagine the shock of seeing Scalebound pop up at Nintendo's E3 Direct without any prior expectation.
Yeah I kinda agree with this. That would've been nuts. Oh well.
I would really love Silent Hill. Hell or anything from Konami like Suikoden or Vandal Hearts even. Damn you Konami. :(
How does this make sense? Isnt scalebound owned by Microsoft? They renewed the trademark just last year again didnt they? Unless this is the "spiritual successor " to a game that never came out.
Agreed. I'd have loved to see the faces of the EZA guys during that direct
The trademark has been abandoned as of December 2017: https://trademarks.justia.com/864/58/scalebound-86458061.html
Platinum can work and evolve the concept of the game and name it Dragon Bond or something.
See the past discussion, trademark and ip are different things, and Microsoft is owning the ip.
Unless he's only passionate about the name it makes no sense though. Could he not take the core ideas and change the name of the game? Seems a lot simpler right? Sure maybe he wanted to use the assets they already made but even then the game would still have to be heavily retooled to work on Switch. Seems like there's a lot of unnecessary hurdles here.
While I'm sure this kind of an outlandish announcement would still elicit some great reactions, it's just not the same with people having months to entertain the idea of it being something that could concievably happen.
Well the cancelled one is the original concept.
Yes, I partook in those past discussions. Trademark is not different from IP, it is a type of IP. IP encompasses trademarks, patents and copyrights. MS seems to no longer own the trademark, which is the type of IP protection which covers the name and the logo of a product. The copyright protects the code, assets and concepts, and MS still likely owns the copyright, unless they sold it to Platinum which apparently Platinum wanted to have happen.
But the trademark being abandoned indicates that they no longer have legal protection of the Scalebound name or logo.
Yeah I have no idea why they'd buy it back, but that's one of the rumors anyway.
- Status