Mighty No. 9 caused a lot of buzz when announced in summer 2013, with its Kickstarter campaign proving to be one of the most successful to date. What began with a $900,000 goal rapidly stormed past that target to close on $3,845,170; with PayPal contributions added the total reached $4 million.
It was a triumph for Keiji Inafune and his Comcept team, with the various stretch goal reached also confirming platforms such as Wii U and 3DS, and even sneaking past a final Online Battle Race Mode target. Since then we've seen some footage of the game due in April 2015, and it appears to be taking shape.
Comcept is already looking further, having already lined up an animated series project with Digital Frontier, but has caused some surprise by announcing an additional crowdfunding campaign to be run through the game's official website. First off, below is a video introducing the campaign, from Inafune-san.
The structure of this new campaign is slightly peculiar. The animated series is entirely external from the game's funding, including this new campaign, and the 'Support' campaign is also operating separately from conventional pre-orders. Standard pre-orders are available in increments of $23, which is a copy on any platform, and the 'Funding' section is separate, with two tiers. For $50 you get a copy of the game and some digital rewards (Retro Manual, Art Book/Strategy Guide & Soundtrack), while $80 also gets you on the Steam Early Access program. A pre-order alone does not count towards the new funding campaign, while the exclusive Kickstarter rewards will remain unique to those original backers.
No, the exclusive backer rewards like forum access and special in-game content are just that—rewards for our awesome Beckers that supported us in spades during our Kickstarter campaign. Some of the non-exclusive content will be made available for purchase, and we are exploring several options for additional rewards. But one of the most important aspects of this new funding campaign is making sure our backers know that we hold their contribution sacred, and we don’t want this campaign to impact original backer rewards in any way.
...Right now we have three things available for purchase in the store: pre-orders of Mighty No. 9, beta access to the game (Steam, Windows only) and non-exclusive digital rewards, including the digital retro manual, digital art book/strategy guide and digital soundtrack. Pre-orders will function as just that: pre-order sales. All content besides game pre-orders will go towards the stretch goals in the new funding campaign. For example, the Digital Rewards Tier includes a pre-order of Mighty No. 9 and digital rewards. The sales from the digital rewards will go towards the stretch goals.
The company states that it has "a huge list of ideas we’d love to put in the game if funding allows", though the only stretch goal in the new campaign, so far, is Full English Voice at $100,000; at the time of writing the recently launched campaign has raised just over $2700.
The separation of pre-orders and the digital rewards is perhaps a little odd, and the decision to run a second campaign mid-way through development is rather unconventional. Let us know what you think of this in the comments below.
[source mightyno9.com]
Comments 67
I wonder what has happened to those $3.8m, if they need even more money...
@S-Miyahon Well he is still directing other mediocre games at the same time. (I personally think there are only about 4 or 5 games he has ever made that are at the highest standard).
The last thing a game like this needs is full english voice.
@S-Miyahon Well they had near $4 million so I wouldn't blame some for having that though cross their mind, I've yet to see anything that has justified the amount of money Kickstarted so far hopefully Inafune can show something that changes this.
This doesnt seem right. How do they need more money? They got more than 4x than what they originally needed.
It would annoy me if they used additional kickstarter money or pre-order money to make premium DLC.
As much as Capcom have denied Megaman's existence, I can see them publishing the completed game and this becoming a new series of games like the X series.
I'm still waiting and hoping for a Capcom or Nintendo-published Megaman game.
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm mixed on this I understand where the money is going but not quite sure if I am okay with it I might back it up next week or the week after.. Still
Can't say I agree with this especially since there will be a tv series??? Separate money or not it's still money that can be used to help fund the game which is even more odd. I actually hope he doesn't reach this goal as it seems a bit greedy to me. With all the money he made already you would think he would go out and hire more help to already have this game out. This just delays the game even longer to add more stuff. Just bring out the game and if you want to add more update it later just like Mudds does all the time!
^^this
Even though I didn't back the game (I completely forgot about it), with this second kickstarter it smells like Double Fine all over again.
Hmmm, suspicious to say the least.
@unrandomsam I'd donate U$20 for them not to include voices on this game.
Why does Comcept need $100,000 for voice acting? Presumingly they already have recording equipment and voice actors lined up for the TV show, why can't they just get the actors to say a few extra lines in the studio and rent out the studio for a few extra days? There is no way they need anything close to $100,000 for that.
That's nice I guess.
As long as everything they raise money for this time around is also given to the original backers, I can't take issue with it.
The only thing that worries me, is will it be TOO hard like megaman? I bought mega man 3 a while back and I couldn't even get past the first level. That was and still is the only game that will make me frustrated enough to break a controller. Is it just me or is that game hard? Did I buy the freaking toughest megaman game in the world?
What he got in the original Kickstarter should be more than enough to make an amazing 2D platformer. Many indies have made great 2D games with thousands (and some make them just for fun for free), but apparently one of the most veteran developers in the industry needs millions.
$100,000 seems a bit much just for voice acting this means either the whole game is in text or only voiced in Japanese since it says Full "English Voice Acting" Capcom really should be contributing it's obvious they would obviously be the publisher and with them all Concept's goals for Mighty No.9 would be funded.In the website there's a slot under voice acting that's in question marks which in campaigns means more goals . People would get tired of sending money after this, this company needs a publisher
Some people seem confused. In the FAQ, they say none of this money is going to the original game and stretch goals, those are funded already. This is to give people who didn't back a chance to snag some additional rewards and for them to throw in some additional content. Everything they promised will be in there. Also, they are only doing one stretch goal at a time here, they're just testing the waters. If you don't want the bonus preorder content, don't bother, the game is already funded, these are just little bonuses they'll throw in if they get enough extra money.
What? Did they run out of money already?
Inafune, you cray-cray...
I'd love to hear the opinion of someone who has actually worked in developing a major game and knows what costs are associated with it. Because all I see above are the opinions of gamers, and I don't think any of us know how much it costs to make a game. Also, to everyone who keeps asking if he ran out of money, he said in the article that this money is only for additional content not promised in the original Kickstarter.
Looks like he learned a couple money making tips before leaving Capcom.
Why should we fund an animation, for a game we haven't even played? For all we know, Mighty Number 9 could be trash. Since he became independent, he has only made one title that was favored critically. Yet his other 2 titles. Yaiba, and Bugs VS. Tanks were critically panned (and as an owner of Bigs VS. Tanks, I can agree with the reviewers).
If you wanted an animation for your game, that would have made a great stretch goal.
@unrandomsam Right on. Bad cartoony American-accent voice acting ruined the immersion in later Mega Man games for me.
@Drac_Mazoku If it was a matter of requiring the funds to complete the game, I could understand that. But the matter of asking for the funds to add to the game, that doesn't bother me at all. I don't care if the game has voice acting, so I probably won't be adding more money. I don't feel at all obligated to donate more money than I already have and I don't feel like that decision is going to hinder the progress of the game either.
I never back crowd funded projects, I'm fundamentally against it, though I did like shovel knight. Something like this is the reason why.
This is tacky.
@Drac_Mazoku I definitely agree that this will likely cause anger with the MN9 followers, but let's be real, when are people on the Internet not easily angered? I can see the argument both ways. While they definitely could have waited until after the game was finished, does that really make sense to finish the game, release it, then ask for funding to put voice-overs in it? I realize that every decision is also backed by a business case, and naturally they want to sell more units of this game. But I still stand by my statement that I don't feel like not contributing will jeopardize the release of this game, so this additional funding request doesn't upset me at all.
Sorry, but no. 4 Million is absolutely enough, and if Comcept wants to offer more bonuses, there's always the PayPal method. Then they could just add the new stretch goals to the list, and all would be cool.
Opening a second funding round is just unnecessary. The project is funded, and all stretch goals were blasted to bits. The "new content" isn't needed at all. Just make the game people trust you will make, and use the profits from sales for additional content.
This is the first kickstarter i backed and very happy i did…but hearing this even though they separated this new one it's just a bit odd…this was one of the most successful kickstarters last year and though i have no problem with them starting another one i want then to focus on delivering what they promised on the first one before i invest anymore…
Weird but sounds like what Sega is doing with Sonic Boom they made all these plans for the franchise but the game isnt living up to the hype…i just want them to focus on the game and deliver us a great quality game that was worth the wait like Shovel Knight
This worries me a bit.
On one hand, all the original backers are getting whatever stretch goal content is achieved in this second project, so there's no need to back it again in order to get the new content.
On the other hand, this could easily add too many bells and whistles to what is supposed to be a $20 action/platformer. English voice acting seems frivolous for the scope of the project, especially if it can further delay the game and cause dumb licensing issues down the line.
As for wanting to franchise the whole s̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ (one unreleased game) so quickly, Inafune is really reaching with that one. All I'll say is good luck.
Seems kinda fishy to me, but oh well the game should be good
@gsmaciel also i love your avatar
Gee what more do they want to add if it requires them to open a second crowdfunding campaign? Like others said, they already got more than enough money from the first campaign.
@Link506: Have you played many NES games??? Mega Man 3 is pretty average in difficulty for games of that era.
No, not too many. I still hope though this game had an easy for people like me.
I Really want to know what happened to the old build of this game, like the one they showed on kickstarter that made it look like it was goign to be almost hand drawn
That's way too much money for that. This is disrespectful.
If only people could be convinced about how much it costs to make video games. There are always comments about "don't they have enough already?" which is just so odd. The kickstarter had stretch goals and each of those goals made the project far larger. The money from the kickstarter is already allocated. This is an opportunity for adding more features.
The developers are working on this day in and day out and they are not upstart wannabes. They are experienced veterans taking a risk. They are getting paid.
Additionally, the money comes from people who know exactly what they are getting and I have 99% confidence this product will ship and each individual will get what they want. So no one is being ripped off or deceived here either.
@Neferuptitou
I'm guessing you were confused by the concept art. It's used to give people an idea of how it will look without building a bunch of 3D models. It was only a still frame. There was no "build" with drawings that I ever saw and I'm a backer.
I think the biggest reason why people are skeptical, is the big question "Why now?"
The project ended ages ago. If they wanted to raise extra funds for stretch goal, they could have kept open PayPal/other donation options the entire time, maybe occasionally added "tier packages", and new stretch goals, when they came up with them.
But the relaunch of the campaign, after such a period of time, makes people raise an eyebrow. As some are saying, they worry it's just like what happened with Double Fine and the Broken Age. Which from what I hear the end, or rather, mid-result isn't actually a problem, so it does seem to be paying off for them, but it does hurt public image, not only for them, but other crowd funded projects, like this one. And then things will be worse for the next project that decides to do this, so on and so on.
Well, more money means more content. More content and I'm cool with this
After watching the whole video I can't understand what the new funding will be used for... new content of some kind? What kind exactly? I just heard vague notions. The website has almost no information either, apart from full English voice? Is that part of what he means by new content? I have absolutely no idea about what he's asking for money for or what I'll gain from giving it to him besides maybe English voice overs.. Can someone explain what's going on?
@Kyloctopus this isn't to fund the cartoon.
@DiscoGentleman they didn't have to add more features. People on the forums want them to, they're listening to their backers.
@WaveBoy Woah, Woah Woah! You're taking to the guy who 100%ed The Legend of Zelda Twilight princess. I don't go easy on all games, just games like megaman. Although I went hard on Gunman Clive, Im not very good at games with platforming and shooting.
The thing that worries me the most is how crummy the game is still looking.
I hate to say it, because Mega Man is one of my favorite franchises ever, but this just doesn't look good enough, and I'm not sure any additional $ will ever help that.
@WaveBoy I got bored really fast from it.
Sorry, It just didn't interest me. (And I personally think Twilight princess or skyward sword is the best in the franchise. )
What.... happened to the other 3.845 million they had??? For something that was originally asking for 900k and got more than 4 times that and they need more??? WTH?
@Jazzer94 That's what I feel. This game does not appear to have required $4,000,000. Why it could possibly need more is beyond me and I'm led to believe they are doing this simply because they could. Why not get more money if you know your fans are going to?
It is my personal opinion that if a developer wants to commit him/herself or themselves they can buckle down and put something in, not grovel for more money to support a particular expectation of financial gain.
Well, it's not like they are forcing people to pay more. Everyone who backed their project on Kickstarter is getting the game just as promised. If they need or want more money to improve the game, then what do we have to lose? Games are expensive to make and companies are greedy. There's nothing new here.
Personally, I'm really looking forward to this game. It looks very promising from gameplay footage. I'm not complaining if they use this new crowdfunding campaign to make it even better.
@jpelgrom It got used making the actual game and all the features they promised to make with each goal over the original asking price. You should actually look at the kickstarter and what was promised if this is your witty question.
@Jazzer94 Every additional dollar on the kickstarter was given a purpose, from new features to hiring new talent to do the artwork, enhance the soundtrack, etc, the fact that you haven't seen anything just says you haven't looked.
@BigH88 And every dollar was budgeted into additional game features, making the game better by hiring on more people and talents, etc. I see this comment all the time and it's one made in complete ignorance to what happened with the Kickstarter, or how crowd funding works in general.
...Or for that matter, how much developing a game costs.
@outburst Capcom is up for sale, so good luck there. Though maybe Nintendo will pick it up.
@Spoony_Tech The TV Series is entirely funded by another company, who approached them asking for the rights to make the series. It has nothing to do with this fundraising.
@Bulbousaur Comcept isn't making the TV show, another company is. They don't have the equipment and would need to pay the actors to also work on their game, because professional voice actors don't work for free.
@Kaze_Memaryu You literally described exactly what they're doing as a solution to what you're saying they shouldn't do.
@ikki5 You apparently have no idea how much it costs to make a video game. The money from the kick starter was allocated for specific additions and enhancements to the game over what they originally promised for the 700k. That's what we call "stretch goals", a promise to do something with the additional money. You can't just magically add things to a game, something that takes labour hours, people to make it, and the resources to put it together, just because you had money to make something originally. That's not how programming works.
What do you think happens when companies add a new feature to a game, you think it just grows in organically? It has to be worked on, inserted, tested and put out there. Every dime of the money given has been accounted for. The backers are well aware of where the money has gone. Please stop inferring they wasted the money somehow.
@jakysnakydx Doesn't appear that way huh? That's your expert opinion? With what experience do you make that call?
@jpelgrom Everything that they have promised that will be in the game is still in the production pipeline. After hearing a lot of people asking if they could still back the project in one way or another, they decided to open up that option. So far, they don't have plans for anything that will change gameplay on a fundamental level or add a ton of content.
You already have 4 million dollars donated! Just finish the game and if it is well received, I will consider giving you my money. Geez.
@Drac_Mazoku You're missing a point here, and that's what's got this entire thing going the wrong way. You're wrong. You're 100% entirely wrong. The backers actually want this, I'm a backer, I'm among the first people to ever put money into the game and I put in a whole lot. If you were a backer, you'd know that on the backer forums there has been a string of requests for this for over a month now.
You can ask for more money mid production. You can in fact, still produce the original game and everything promised while asking for more to add onto it. And no, you absolutely, 100%, do NOT have to wait until it's done and then add more via DLC. One of the big things the community has been about is wanting a WHOLE COMPLETE PRODUCT, not something that's split up with multiple DLCs in the future. We don't WANT the Capcom model for games anymore, we want the completed Comcept model.
It's not a bad move to do exactly what your backers have asked you to do. Inafune is completely in the right here.
PS: The first stretch goal is being collected in three places, as there has also been a Japanese page made up for this and another Paypal page for this. The backers are asking for them to also allow us to fund this via additional kickstarter funding increases in the Amazon system with smaller bonuses, suck as +5 dollars and get some backgrounds or something. They're considering this.
This particular drive has 100 days to complete,since Voice acting is one of the last things done in any game production. It's not a matter of luck. In fact, since this doesn't effect the game's actual production in the slightest,it's not something anyone should be bothered with. Especially people who pretend to speak for a community they clearly don't understand.
I could honestly give a rats ass about the general perception of people. The general perception of people is often to base all of their assumptions and thoughts off the words of others and not even bother to completely read into a subject before making a decision. This isn't what us Beckers are all about. Our game is coming whether naysayers like it or not. These added features would be a nice bonus, but the only people actually being "dramatically effected" at this point are people who, as far as I can see, aren't even going to play the completed game, people like you, who compare MN9 to a completely unrelated game as if it's supposed to matter.
And a tl;dr for you: Despite what you said, you've claimed to both understand and completely not understand that the game is coming out regardless of this second drive. Here it is plain and simple: The game is coming out. It's gonna be great. You haven't jumped on board, but that's your own prerogative. 70,000+ and an additional 173 (and counting) people disagree with you.
I'm just gonna be in the overwatch and see how this goes. I mean the game is already funded.
@Drac_Mazoku The "video game community" in general has no idea what it wants, is incapable of making a passable judgement on games, and by and large helps create some of the largest and most horrendous issues the industry faces today. The second funding is aimed at people who were holding out and regretted not being able to back, not just blankly to people who didn't take the first shot (and as you've proven, never will).
No offense, but your points here speak of a purposeful ignorance in order to maintain your stance. Your entire point to hesitate is that "we don't even know if the game will be good", guess what? That's exactly what EVERY BACKER from the first run or the last has to deal with. That's what ANY KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN has to deal with. You want to know if it's good or not? It's a Mega Man sucessor made by the guy who made Mega Man. If you like Mega Man, you're going to enjoy what they come up with. If you don't like Mega Man, you're probably not going to enjoy whatever they come up with.
There's no mystery here... but you're trying real, real hard to make out like there's supposed to be.
I can sum your entire argument up for you. You, as an individual, do not invent in these sort of ventures. You don't get why others do. But one thing you definitely aren't: The voice of gamers in general.
PS. The videos up so far are of early alpha stages of the game. They even have text right in the video of all times telling you this doesn't reflect the final product in any way. You can't make a judgement call based on them. They're there purely to show you where they are in terms of development. To show that progress is actually being made on the game. That's it. The point sailed over your head, and you've been trying to use your own conclusions every since.
You're a wait and see person. So wait and see, but stop acting like everyone else is too.
@Seraphna Uh, no. I'm saying they should just finish the game with what they have instead of opening another crowdfund now. And when the game is actually released, they can produce DLC with the profit from sales figures.
@Kaze_Memaryu The five times "complete game", "no DLC" and "not a Capcom release" just sailed right by?
Lot of people in the comments with absolutely now idea of what game development costs when you're employing a sizable group of industry veterans working full time, and developing for a slew of different platforms.
Their budget so far has been measly in every way imaginable, and being honest about needing more money is just about they least sketchy thing they could do.
@Seraphna With the fact that I've been a game developer for several years and an in house financial adviser/planner for years before that.
It has been a personal creed of mine for years to cut the corporate crap and even out the income field which can only come by having modest expectations. A good product will sell and from my knowledge of game development there is more than enough money here to make a 2d side scrolling shooter/adventure title.
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