'Scalebound' latest news: Microsoft cancels Xbox exclusive title from Platinum Games

Game publisher Microsoft Studios recently announced that "Scalebound," the highly-anticipated dragon action game developed by Platinum Games, has been canceled.

A Microsoft spokesperson reportedly told Polygon that "After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound."

"We're working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and other great experiences," the spokesperson added.

The announcement confirms a previous report from Kotaku, which speculated that the game's development for Xbox One and PC was "in trouble and may be cancelled."

Directed by Hideki Kamiya, "Scalebound" was an ambitious video game which had been stuck in development hell for a very long time. Microsoft announced its existence around three years ago at the Xbox press conference at E3 2014. Since then, it became one of the most anticipated games expected to arrive in the future.

However, no news about its progress was reported in recent months. Add to this the game's omission from the Xbox Wire post which talked about the future of the Xbox brand, and Microsoft's removal of the official page of the game from the Xbox website, it became clear that the game's future was headed toward inevitable cancellation.

According to Eurogamer, their multiple sources have confirmed that Microsoft and Platinum Games have indeed parted ways on the "Scalebound" project, and they concluded work before 2016 ended. The game was last heard from at the Gamescom 2016 last August. Since then, the working relationship between Microsoft and the Osaka-based game developers has reportedly soured.

Development of the game allegedly took a lot of beating around autumn of last year, when several senior members of the team had to take a month off from the pressures of the project's workload. When they returned, "Scalebound" was already behind schedule. With ongoing issues about the game's engine and several unmet deadlines, it was eventually decided that the project simply could no longer continue.

It is yet to be known whether or not Platinum Games currently has plans to revive "Scalebound" in some other means outside of Microsoft's influence and control.