Hideki Kamiya Mulls Lawsuits Over Online Rumors About Scalebound Funding

Hideki Kamiya – the creative mind behind Resident Evil 2, Ōkami and the first Bayonetta – has found himself in an odd courtroom drama of his own making. After a recent interview with VGC, some Xbox fans began insisting that Kamiya had "stolen" money from Microsoft’s budget for the now‑defunct action‑RPG Scalebound and funneled it into other games, most notably Bayonetta 2.

Scalebound was a collaboration between PlatinumGames and Microsoft Studios that got the axe in 2017 after four years of development. Kamiya was the project’s director at the time, but the exact cost of the game has never been disclosed, nor has either Microsoft or PlatinumGames ever hinted that any funds were misused.

Yet rumors have a funny way of sprouting, especially on X. One user suggested Kamiya "grabbed the Scalebound budget to fund his own studio," while another claimed he simply "stole the cash to make other products again." Kamiya’s reaction was, unsurprisingly, sharp.

In Japanese‑language quote‑tweets he wrote, roughly translated, "Should I sue you for defamation?" and "I’ll sue those spreading this nonsense for libel." The tone was unmistakably legal‑threatening, even if the tweets were peppered with colloquial slang and a few emoticons.

Why do these accusations persist? Some fans seem to have tangled the fates of Scalebound and Bayonetta 2, mistakenly believing the latter was funded by the former’s budget. In reality, Bayonetta 2 was a Nintendo‑published title, and there is no evidence linking its development money to Scalebound’s cut.

PlatinumGames’ president Atsushi Inaba even commented in 2023 that the cancellation was a shared disappointment between Microsoft and the studio, noting that “watching fans get angry at Microsoft wasn’t easy.” That suggests the blame, if any, lies elsewhere – not in a secret pocket‑change scheme.

For Kamiya, the whole episode feels like a distraction. In his own words, he’s actually happy to see the possibility of reviving Scalebound, saying, "If they want to do it, let’s make it happen!" He even mentioned that colleague Koyama is on board, and invited journalists to include footage in future articles.

So, while the threat of a lawsuit looms in the digital ether, the bigger story may be the lingering hope that Scalebound could see a second life – and that the online chatter settles down before the legal system gets involved.