Upon Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax and Activision-Blizzard, it’s become apparent that every big publisher has a venerable treasure trove of IPs that are just laying around. Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios have the benefit of owning a lot more of them following its various acquisitions.
Following the Activision-Blizzard deal, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has cited his desire to work on franchises from his childhood. Inevitably that leads to the question: What other titles could be brought back for the Xbox Series X/S generation? Let’s take a look at 15 of them here.
Scalebound
Set in a fantasy world with dragons, it saw protagonist Drew having a massive dragon named Thuban by his side. Along with functioning independently, one could also give commands to Thuban while fighting. It was also possible to directly control the dragon and enter Berserker mode for increased power. Announced in 2014 as an Xbox One exclusive, the hack and slash combat combined with battles on a massive scale looked promising, especially with up to four players in co-op.
Originally slated for release in late 2016, Scalebound would be delayed to the next year and subsequently cancelled in January 2017. Studio head Atsushi Inaba felt that “both sides failed” when it came to the cancellation and that it “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer.” PlatinumGames has expressed interest in returning to the project – especially since Microsoft still owns the IP. It may not happen any time soon but never say never.
