Hideki Kamiya Considers Legal Action Over Claims He Misappropriated Xbox Funds During Scalebound’s Development, Expresses Interest in Reviving the Game

Hideki Kamiya, the iconic director known for titles like Resident Evil 2, Ōkami, and Bayonetta, is currently contemplating legal action against users on X who have accused him of misappropriating funds from Xbox during the development of PlatinumGames’ scrapped project, Scalebound.

These allegations arose following Kamiya’s recent interview, where he was asked about any discussions with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma regarding the potential revival of Scalebound. Kamiya responded, “Well, no, but now’s my opportunity to once again say that if they want to do it, let’s make it happen! Koyama is on board too. If you could include some footage [of Scalebound] in your article for Asha, that would be useful.”

For some background, Scalebound was an action RPG in development at PlatinumGames, intended for release under Microsoft Studios, but it was ultimately canceled in 2017. Kamiya led the project for four years before leaving PlatinumGames to join a new studio, Clovers, in 2023.

There’s no definitive information on the development costs of Scalebound, and neither Microsoft nor PlatinumGames has suggested that Kamiya misused the funds allocated for the project.

However, some Xbox fans have bizarrely convinced themselves that Kamiya redirected funds from Scalebound to finance Bayonetta 2, a game published by Nintendo, a company that is anything but small in the gaming world.

The origins of this peculiar rumor remain unclear, but Kamiya, known for his active engagement with fans on social media, has responded to these baseless claims in two separate tweets, threatening legal action against those perpetuating the narrative.

In one tweet, responding to a user who claimed he would “[grab] the budget from Scalebound so he can develop a game for his studio,” he stated (translated from Japanese) that he was “gonna sue those shitty bugs spreading this kind of fake news for defamation…”

In another instance, when a user suggested that he would “just steal the money to make other products again,” his response was direct: “Should I sue you for defamation too…?”

This exchange is certainly unusual, but it’s not out of character for Kamiya. What intrigues me more is the genesis of this rumor, especially considering that PlatinumGames’ president and CEO, Atsushi Inaba, mentioned in 2023 that “watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over [Scalebound’s] cancellation wasn’t easy for [PlatinumGames] to watch,” as “both sides” contributed to the project’s demise.