Great thread. Thanks for the link to Windows Central too. I'd been DM'd some rumors about Scalebound being killed, but I didn't believe it, figured there was no way Microsoft would kill such a big flagship project. I'd recently interviewed Hideki Kamiya and JP Kellams who both seemed really upbeat about the project, so it just seemed really odd that this kinda rumor would be circulating. Later that same day, I got a call from Microsoft, offering us early access to some news on the state of Scalebound. I was pretty stunned.
We had a brief 15 minute Q&A, they wouldn't offer details on why it had been killed. I asked about the gap it was gonna leave in Microsoft's lineup, and they gave a typical PR response pointing to other games in the lineup (many of which have now been delayed). I think it was pretty soon after Scalebound got killed that the central criticism of today's Xbox started focusing on exclusives, and I don't think that's going to go away any time soon.
A few weeks later and after a few conversations with people I know who were involved with the project (no names, sry), the impression I was given was that Platinum missed a few development milestones. There was definitely a sense, at least a rumor, within Microsoft that PG was essentially putting Microsoft's $$$ towards projects like Nier Automata. Whether that's true or not I don't know, I never got PG's side of the story, so take that with a pinch of salt (and that's why I never published that rumor really). I was also told that the main character was a point of contention, considered to be unappealing to mainstream Western audiences. Again, don't know if 100% true.
I think Scalebound would've been really good if things had gone better. I saw the game running at E3 on a console that year and, sure it was a demo, but it seemed really solid, at least conceptually.
I'm happy over all with my Xbox, but that's mainly because of third-party games. I think for those who are concerned about missing out on exclusives will continue to consider the Xbox a tough sell, even with 6TF.