Given that Nintendo has made it a habit to revive previously announced titles that entered development hell or limbo for a variety of reasons — they previously did it with Bayonetta 2 and Devil’s Third — it should have come as a surprise to no one when we reported earlier today that Nintendo may be looking at reviving a “dead and buried” game as a Switch exclusive.
However, just what the exclusive may be may surprise you. According to a report by Nintendo Insider, citing “sources”, the “dead and buried” game Nintendo is reviving is none other than Scalebound, the Platinum Games developed action RPG that was exclusively Xbox One bound before Microsoft pulled the plug and cancelled it. It’s unclear in what capacity this new Scalebound, should it exist, will resemble the older one—remember, the Switch is far less capable as hardware than the Xbox One—but it may be that Nintendo and Platinum are working on reviving at least the core conceit of an action RPG surrounding dragons with the game.
The very interesting thing here is that Microsoft no longer owns the Scalebound IP, so that’s not a consideration getting in the way here either. For what it’s worth, former Platinum Games executive JP Kellams registered his skepticism about the report being true on Twitter.
We’ll just have to wait and see whether or not there is any veracity to this rumor. Until then, Switch owners have the excellent-looking Astral Chain, which launches on the console later this year, to look forward to, if nothing else.