Hideki Kamiya threatens to sue over claims he stole Xbox money during Scalebound development

Hideki Kamiya is threatening legal action against users on X who claim he diverted Scalebound's development budget to fund other projects — accusations he calls defamation. The controversy flared up after a recent VGC interview in which Kamiya publicly invited Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to revive Scalebound, saying "if they want to do it, let's make it happen."

In two separate quote tweets, Kamiya responded directly to users pushing the theft narrative. When one user claimed he would "grab the budget from Scalebound so he can develop a game for his studio," Kamiya replied he was "gonna sue those shitty bugs spreading this kind of fake news for defamation." A second user who said he would "just steal the money to make other products again" got a blunter response: "Should I sue you for defamation too…?" The specific rumor circulating — that Kamiya funneled Scalebound funds into Bayonetta 2's development — has no factual basis. Bayonetta 2 was published by Nintendo, and neither Microsoft nor PlatinumGames has ever suggested any misuse of funds.

Scalebound was an action RPG in development at PlatinumGames for four years before Microsoft canceled it in 2017. Kamiya directed the project throughout. He left PlatinumGames in 2023 and co-founded a new studio, Clovers. The cancellation has always been a sore subject — PlatinumGames president and CEO Atsushi Inaba said in 2023 that watching fans blame Microsoft entirely "wasn't easy to watch," noting that "both sides" were responsible for the project falling apart.

Kamiya also confirmed in the VGC interview that his Clovers co-founder Koyama is on board for a potential Scalebound revival, should Xbox ever greenlight it. Whether that goes anywhere remains to be seen, but Kamiya is clearly not done fighting for the project — or against anyone who questions how it ended.