Hideki Kamiya Still Wants to Make Scalebound

Scalebound buzz swells once more as industry legend Hideki Kamiya playfully encourages Xbox’s Phil Spencer to revive the canned fantasy RPG. An unreleased relic of the early Xbox One generation, Scalebound was announced in 2014 by PlatinumGames as an Xbox console exclusive, headed by action game veteran Hideki Kamiya, who was known prior for franchises like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, as well as Okami. Unfortunately, production of Scalebound was shut down in 2017, reportedly due to development struggles. Ever since, some Xbox gamers have been quietly hoping for a revival of Scalebound with Kamiya back in the director’s chair.

The past few years of Hideki Kamiya’s career have been rather eventful to say the least. After 17 years at PlatinumGames, which he helped found in 2006, Kamiya left the studio in 2023 following disagreements with co-founder Itsushi Inaba. Shortly thereafter, Kamiya joined Clovers, a new studio largely made up of ex-PlatinumGames members. At the 2024 Game Awards, it was revealed that Clovers is partnering with Capcom to create a sequel to Okami with Kamiya leading the project as director. The reveal was one of the most talked-about of the night, next to another big Capcom revival in Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

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Just a few months after revealing the Okami sequel at The Game Awards, Clovers released a short clip on Twitter showing Hideki Kamiya at his desk surrounded by Clovers developers watching some of the old Scalebound trailers. According to the post, Kamiya was reminiscing about the canceled dragon RPG, adding a quote from the director, saying “I’d love to make it again someday.” Kamiya himself quoted the tweet on Twitter, saying “Let’s do it, Phil,” referring of course to Head of Xbox Phil Spencer.

Hideki Kamiya is Interested in Reviving Scalebound

While it’s clear that Kamiya is open to giving Scalebound another shot, the question would be whether Xbox is still interested in doing so. Unlike back in the early Xbox One generation, Xbox has built up a sizable portfolio of first-party studios and, as such, has an immense number of big new games planned to release this year and beyond; it’s no longer desperate for new first-party games. On top of this, Xbox already has several large fantasy RPGs in the works. It just released Obsidian’s Avowed last month, Playground Games’ Fable reboot is coming next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6 will be the next big RPG from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios. Additionally, Xbox is partnering with Hitman developer IO Interactive on a fantasy game known as Project Dragon. There doesn’t seem to be much more room right now for yet another big fantasy game in Xbox’s game lineup.

While all this Scalebound buzz is pure speculation, for now, fans of Hideki Kamiya’s work do have the Okami sequel to look forward to. Since it doesn’t have a release date, the sequel to Okami is likely several years away. As for the potential Scalebound revival, if Xbox does eventually agree to give the dragon-riding action RPG another go, it would likely come many years after the Okami sequel is released, as Clovers is a brand-new studio and is still rather small.

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