Hideki Kamiya Mulls Suing Net Trolls Over Scalebound Money Rumors

Hideki Kamiya – the man behind classics like Resident Evil 2, Ōkami and Bayonetta – found himself tangled in a peculiar internet spat this week. After a recent interview with VGC, a handful of Xbox fans started spouting a wild claim: that Kamiya had allegedly taken money earmarked for the now‑defunct action‑RPG Scalebound and funneled it into other projects, even suggesting it helped fund Bayonetta 2.

Scalebound was slated to be a joint effort between PlatinumGames and Microsoft Studios before its abrupt cancellation in 2017. Kamiya oversaw the project for most of its four‑year run, but the exact budget never leaked, and neither Microsoft nor PlatinumGames ever hinted at any financial mis‑deed.

What sparked the rumor? It’s hard to pin down. In the VGC interview, Kamiya was asked whether he’d spoken to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma about reviving the game. He answered, "No, but if they want to do it, let’s make it happen!" He also mentioned a colleague, Koyama, being on board, and cheekily asked for some Scalebound footage to include in the article. A simple, enthusiastic response – but somewhere along the line, a few users twisted it into an accusation of theft.

On X (formerly Twitter), the accusations grew louder. One user wrote that Kamiya was "grabbing the Scalebound budget to develop a game for his own studio," while another suggested he was simply "stealing money to make other products again." The replies from Kamiya were unmistakably sharp. In Japanese, he posted: "こういうデマを撒き散らしてるクソ虫は名誉毀損で訴えるぞ…" – roughly, "Anyone spreading this fake news will be sued for defamation." He followed up with another tweet asking, "Should I sue you for defamation too…?"

These exchanges feel familiar for Kamiya, who has long been known to engage directly – and sometimes brusquely – with fans online. Still, the intensity of the chatter raised eyebrows in the gaming community. Many wondered why a cancelled title from 2017 was resurfacing as a point of contention, especially when PlatinumGames’ president Atsushi Inaba had already said in 2023 that both Microsoft and PlatinumGames shared responsibility for the project's demise.

For now, no legal filings have been made. Kamiya’s tweets read more like a warning than a concrete plan. Yet the episode highlights how quickly speculation can morph into a full‑blown rumor mill, especially when a beloved creator is involved.

Whether or not Kamiya ever decides to take formal action, the broader takeaway is clear: a single off‑hand comment can snowball into accusations that feel far larger than the original statement. And for fans eager to see Scalebound revived, the conversation is likely to keep bubbling, regardless of the legal route.