Deep Silver Parent Company Koch Media Trademarks Bloodstained, Will Most Likely Publish The Game

Well, I may finally back this.

Koch Media AG?! As in, Koch "We took almost a full year to localize Catherine" Media?! Aww great...

I may back for Wii U

Once it hits the Wii U stretch goal I will probably back it.

Koch... Theres something about them I don't like. Didn't that label rip off a legendary metal band once?

@Ryno
I thought you're against paying for an unfinished game with a promise to complete it later? Cheers.

Non-indies kick starting a game with a publisher in tow. The worst.

I don't understand why Iga needs 3 million dollars to port to Wii U when Deep Silver is already funding 90 percent of the game. Why are we throwing our money at a guy who shoots his Kickstarter video in a fancy mansion, while sipping on wine, with a publisher already in his pocket? Don't be stupid gamers, fund real Indies that need the money.

@outburst: Oh, are they too going to charge $60 and first send out the game incomplete with DLC spread out over the following months to extend the content of the game?

@ACK in fairness without the kickstarter to prove people want it then the company would not have supported it and yes I know there are other ways to show people support but that would be harder to do.

Like it or not, the game probably wasnt going to happen at all without the kickstarter support. for as much as it sucks, no matter whos involved in the concept, publishers are still looking at a sidescrolling metroidvania game that it seemed a couple months ago there was absolutely no market for at all. Especially at full retail msrp, but likely even as a 20 bucks as a download title.

Kickstarter has basically provednthat even though the market is likely small, there are enough people out there willing to put their money where there mouth is and that counts for an awful lot to publishers when they see such a high price tag attached to a series thats almost famous for its lackluster performance in spite of its critical praise.

@Ryno I don't know about you, but I'm paying 38 $ for a complete game with more content comming later.

He's probably laughing his as of people like you actually founding their whine and cheeze.

I bet he was backed from the start by Koch. I'm really starting to hate all that funding foolishness with all my gut and don't tell me is no different from investment. What will you get for your 3 million investment? The download and a keychain. What will Koch and IGA get for your 3 million investment? All profits and residual earnings for merchandise, licensing, series, etc. It sounds more like a scam than an investment.
I won't back this now or when it's out, if I want REAL Castlevania, there's the VC and so many games out there you can still get, besides, I've already spent thousands on them over the years, I don't need another that doesn't even follow the story, no matter who did it.

@Ryno
No they are going to charge you 28$ NOW for an incomplete eShop game to be played AFTER a year or so which is likely going to be delayed for the Wii U than the other platforms.

@PaperMario64: Are you talking about paying $38.00 for Splatoon? I would pay $38.00 for Splatoon right now.

@outburst: Ok, so this is different situation then the the incomplete $60 game being released tomorrow? I would buy Splatoon if it was a $30-$40 title.

Koch media...ugh. Facepalm

All right, fine! I'm sold. Let's do this.

@OMC79

Kickstarters never were investments. It's donating money to an idea you like. In the case of many games, this including, ideas that wouldn't bear fruit without donations.

I think the gameplay makes a real Iga Castlevania more than the lore, but that's just me.

@cdude Those 3 Million don't mean there is a market for the game, it means that funding has a market. From all of the people who investe... er, pre-purchased something that doesn't exist yet, who knows how many actually want another "Metroidvania"? How many of those gave money because it was trendy? How many fund it because they think is a labor of humanity because they think is like donations? How many did it for money laundering?
@hiptanaka I never said it was an investment. On the contrary, what I meant to say is that no one tell me that is like an investment, maybe I should have used quotation marks every time I used the word.

So are they using the kickstarter money to add even more features? Otherwise it feels like they pretty much got free money. (I'm in the wrong line of work.)

So, this may be a stupid question, but is Koch Media owned by Koch Industries (the American buy-every-election-and-kill-democracy David and Charles Koch)? It may not seem important to a lot of people, but it will actually make a big difference on whether or not I buy any games associated with that publisher.

@Yorumi
I asked a question. That's all. I didn't attack the publisher; I simply asked if the name is a coincidence or a tie to a parent company. If I "attacked" anyone, it was those two individuals, and if you'd like, yes, I can give a whole list of what they've actually done. I vote and buy with my conscience, and I think that David and Charles Koch are unethical in the way their political contributions affect legislation, so I don't want to use my money to support their corporation. I don't see why you're getting so upset.

_No.-Morpheel

@ElkinFencer10 they are not related. Koch Media is a private company out of Germany and was founded in the 90s. You can support the project without having to worry about it.

@sdelfin
Thank you, that's all I wanted to know.

@tabris95 3 million dollars is not to port the Wii U version, that's to do EVERYTHING. 3 million dollars is also nowhere near enough to do everything they've said, which is where the publisher comes in.

Kickstarter is there to give passionate fans a chance to make a game happen that wouldn't otherwise. For most people I speak to, that's enough. I'm happy I helped to make this, Yooka Laylee, Project Cars, Broken Age and others happen. If you feel like a developer is trying to beg for money from you, then the project probably isn't meant for you in the first place.

Games are expensive to make, and due to the amount of time they take, it's basically 3 or more years of spending without ANY income. No developers can afford to do that. Publishers can, but it's a big investment, and for a risky project, like a genre that doesn't sell well anymore, they're just not going to take that risk. If Kickstarter persuades a publisher to take a chance, then I really don't see how anyone can have a problem with it. They'll be spending a lot more than 3 million us backers have, that's for sure.

Looks good. I find it kind of hard to believe publishing the game to a Nintendo console is still kind of up in the Air when he has collected nearly 3,000,000.00 in Donations. What do they have a team of 100 people working on this game? It does look good though.

@Yorumi If you're still talking about Bloodstained, the whole reason they took it to Kickstarter is no publisher wanted to fund the game, unless they could prove there was a market for the game. Iga and Ben Judd explained this in several interviews. They would get 4.5 million dollars from a publisher (now revealed, it seems) if they could make the 500k Kickstarter goal. Any extra money would go to extra features.

@Yorumi I guess they could lying, but I'm not going to assume that. It could also be the publisher just wanting to get a bigger budget by telling them to Kickstart it first, but that would be on the publisher, eh?

@Windy $3 million dollars isn't nearly enough to pay for 100 employees for 2 years. Not even 50. Plus a big chunk of the Kickstarter money goes immediately to fees of different kinds.

The reason Wii U is a stretch goal, I'm guessing, is that they're making the game using Unreal Engine 5, and it doesn't support Wii U, so they will have to create separate technology just for Wii U.

@Yorumi I completely agree about your point that a Kickstarter seems to be a pretty strange method for a publisher to assess a market. It's very possible the publisher just saw a chance to increase the budget "for free". If that is the case, the publisher is to blame, but some people seem to be mad at the Kickstarter team.

@hiptanaka You really want that game and trust those guys. No offense but your enthusiasm and innocence makes me feel a little sorry for you. I hope you never get scammed bad and that the game won't disappoint you. I hope you haven't played many Castlevanias.

@hiptanaka Are you sure about that? I've seen a couple of posters now say that they have to rebuild the assets in a different engine for the game to run on the Wii U. From what I've read Unreal Engine 4 games can run on the Wii U even though Epic doesn't offer support for it...and even Armature said the port would still be in Unreal Engine 4.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/03/epic_games_developers_can_use_unreal_engine_4_for_wii_u_titles

I wish nintendolife made an article about the Wii U and Unreal Engine 4 to clear up any misconceptions because there seems to be a lot of confusion about it.

@Yorumi wrote: @ElkinFencer10 how mature of you.
I'm sort of wondering the same thing about you, the dude just asked a simple question and you attacked him...FACEPALM

@Yorumi And don't forget the one for that Frederator series we suffered a few months back in Nintendo Video.

@Neko_Rukiafan
Well, in fairness, that wasn't the most appropriate reaction and was fueled as much by work-related stress as it was by his less-than-helpful response, and I do apologize for that.

True, but he was being incredibly rude in the first place.

Industry veteran with a well known publisher crowdfunding a product labeled "indie" ?
Publishers "forcing" devs to get people to give them their money due to them being well known to "proof" that there is interest, while they actually just pay for the games development ?

Oh boy, where to start...

Well, stuff like that and "it has always been a maybe" is the reason why i stay far far away from crowdfunding projects.
There is simply no way to trust these projects any longer.
And as soon as money is involved, play time and "good will" is no longer an option for me.
Its either "i give you the money because you dont have it and in exchange, you do exactly what it says on the tin" or bust.
And sadly, its the letter more often then not.

Should it see a WiiU release, im in, no questions about it. But everything else, nope, im not part of this game.

@OMC79

Don't worry. I never back a Kickstarter fully expecting the dev team will succeed. That's the nature of Kickstarter, after all. I back for the potential, and only projects involving people with a track record that proves they finish stuff, such as Iga and Inti Creates. I've backed several games and many have had a good end result. Some have not. At least they were given a shot at it. And yes I've played most Castlevanias, and the story was never the highlight for me.

@Yorumi

I can certainly see the problem you're highlighting with publishers abusing Kickstarter, but I'm honestly just happy we're getting an Iga metroidvania again. I don't know how much truth there is to other Kickstarters getting starved because of the big ones. I've backed both huge ones and smaller ones. The only thing I want is for the team to be known and have a track record that proves something. I'm usually not backing the really small games with completely unknown teams behind them. Kickstarter is full of risk and uncertainty, but even more so when I know nothing about the people and their capabilities.

@Ryno Why not back in now to help it reach Wii U stretch goal?

"May also own the brand as well"
Because clearly that did wonders with Castlevania itself.

@Yorumi For me, the whole "Crowdfunding" idea is just too tainted.
The concept itself is fantastic, especially in a time, where publishers who are literally swimming in cash are too afraid to spend a few bucks to produce a risky project that might turn out to be a sleeper hit.

But there are far far too many black sheeps going around.
Granted, this is just my personal opinion and viewpoint. In no way am i saying that this is the general case or that i despise crowdfunding in general based on all of this.
Its just that i (a generally rather carefull person when it comes to spending money) am not partaking in all of this due to these black sheeps.
A burned child fears the fire.

But im pretty glad that not all people think the way i do, and that it enables quite a lot of newcommer devs who really need crowdfunding to realize their dreams.

@TheRegginator Because they really don't need my money and I don't want to be their bi*ch so they can give me their freaking game. There are so much better options for the Nintendo systems, including the original Castlevanias with one major advantage: they already DO exist.
If these guys were average joes with a really good idea, I would back them for they legitimately would need help. IGA could have easily opened his own company and easily found real investors just because of his name (which happened) and Inafune already had his own company. Is like if Rupert Murdoch started crowdfunding so that the next Super Bowl be broadcasted.

Show me the stretch goal and ill rapidly give you my cash, best news ever

@tabris95 am still wondering why he's requiring unreal 4 for a 2d game

People are wigging out about nothing. It was explained from the get-go, if you arent backing the project then this is none of your concern. Making games costs a lot of money, especially if we're talking about Igarashi and every stretch goal that's been hit.

local 2player, classic mode, retro levels, an alternate 8-bit soundtrack, his biggest castle ever, and hopefully soon a WiiU port. The game will be made in UE4, something with no support on WiiU so in order for them to port it to that console, they're going to have a hard time. They'll be hiring the great Armature Studio for the port. Ports cost money to make.

It's funny how out of the loop gamers are yet they're still so negative despite not knowing anything about the subject.

Why the hell are people in the comments backing the project after it gets to the Wii U goal? Do you want to play this on your Wii U or not?

stop crying folks.
you wanted it on wii u.
looks like its happening.
no surprise.