One of the most highly anticipated exclusive titles for Xbox One and PC was Scalebound, which unceremoniously got canceled in January 2017. Platinum Games director Hideki Kamiya is now apologizing for the game’s development.

In a new interview with the YouTube channel, Cutscenes, Kamiya shed some new light on Scalebound’s cancelation. He had the desire to make a high-end, photorealistic game. That meant Platinum Games had to improve its graphical abilities as the next step in modern game creation.

“I’m sorry to the players who looked forward to it, and moreover I’m sorry to Microsoft who had placed their trust in us as a business partner,” Kamiya said. “I want to apologize both as a creator and as a member of Platinum Games.”

Kamiya said that he loved fantasy worlds with swords, magic, and dragons growing up. He also played classic PC games like Sorcerian and Hydlide, so that’s where he got the idea to center Scalebound around a young man fighting together with a dragon.

“However, it was a big challenge for Platinum Games,” says Kamiya. “We were working in an environment we weren’t used to. We were developing on the Unreal engine, we also lacked the necessary know-how to build a game based on online features. The hurdles we had to overcome were very big.”

He explains that the studio wasn’t experienced enough to get over the many walls, leading to the cancelation of Scalebound. Back in 2019, Kamiya also lamented that Microsoft took the brunt of the criticism, noting that both sides had issues.

Last year, Platinum Games said that the studio would love to finish Scalebound, but Microsoft owns the entire IP. So It’s up to Microsoft to decide if the game ever comes back.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey