A few of you may remember Anima: Ark of Sinners from back in the days of Wiiware. While the title may not have exactly delivered the highly polished experience that some may have expected, it was at least a mostly competent sidescroller set in the world of Anima: Beyond Fantasy. A few years back, a separate studio ran a Kickstarter campaign for Anima: Gate of Memories, a 3D successor that was successfully funded with a PC, Mac, and Wii U version promised.
The game still has yet to release on any platform, but a recent Kickstarter update seems to indicate that the Wii U port isn't doing too hot. The game will be available on all other platforms first, though the Wii U version will be a few months behind, if it even makes it out at all. Here's the quote:
Anima Gate of Memories will be released simultaneously in Windows, Xbox One and PS4 and we are working to be able to release a few months later a WiiU version (which, even if we are still not sure, we hope that will be possible).
What do you think? Would you be bummed if this didn't come to Wii U? What did you think of past Anima games? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments (22)
And customers can express their goodwill by waiting a few more months for the price to come down.
Aren't they legally bound to release the game on all promised platforms unless they run into financial issues, which I'm guessing isn't the case here?
Well, I enjoyed the first game on Wii, specifically the unique atmosphere, design, characters, and story. Now that it's not a Castlevania-styled beat'em up anymore, but a 3D RPG I'm even more interested in this. Hope they still get the Wii U version done!
@Epona14 No they are not legally bound at all.
@Epona14 Investing in any Kickstarter is no different to gambling in terms of risk. Any company / person can create a pitch and get investment on a 'gentlemans promise', then change their mind on what they deliver or even if they deliver anything and just pocket the money. Investors have no guarantee or safeguards.
This doesn't surprise me as its one of several Kickstarter projects promising WiiU as a stretch goal, gets that extra bit of funding from the gullible WiiU owners who so desperately want a variety of new 3rd party games and either had no intention to deliver (ie just wanted that extra cash from the stretch goal for the main project) or found out at an early stage WiiU was too hard to do.
Stupid lazy devs wah wah I'll never support them ever in the future wah wah the game looks like crap anyway wah wah
Sounds like project cars all over again but at least they're honest about it and don't promise that it's coming along nicely only to say months/years later that they couldn't get it to work.
What happened to the 3DS version?
Edit opps read the 3D as 3DS out of habit I guess sorry.
@Epona14 Nope. They are not even bound to deliver anything.
I have never even heard of this kickstarter project. If it turns out decently well, I'll pick it up on Xbox One since it is looking like it's a pipe dream release for Wii U.
@Ichiban Who are you parodying? I haven't seen anyone here crying about this so far..
Hold for the NX I would say.
@GMB-001 I noticed a lot of people post awful comments about devs and stuff when articles like this are written. Even if those people were initially interested in the games before the news broke. Sour grapes, and all.
Not surprising. Judging from the screenshots on their site, the game looks too good to be on Wii U, and especially since this is an indie developer, chances are as good as 0%.
Would've just gotten it on PC anyway, so meh.
They really shouldn't have a choice. People paid them for a Wii U version. Even if they aren't legally obligated to fulfill that promise, they should still fulfill it. Their ability to fulfill it is irrelevant, since they already took the money for it. Not releasing the game on Wii U would be like cancelling a pre-order, but not giving a refund.
That said, if the game does come to the Wii U, I'll be interested. While I wasn't a Kickstarter supporter myself, I remember this game looking pretty good.
I'm hoping that this wave of Kickstarters that promised the moon to get pledges, and failed to deliver on target platforms, will keep this from continuing to happen. Then again, the damage may already be done to folks who pledged to campaigns promising a version for X platform and got burned. This stuff risks leaving a path of destruction in its wake for future crowdfunding endeavors.
@MarioPhD There have been several failed projects and people keep giving so this won't happen.
You shouldn't be able to take people's money on the basis of a Wii U port then cast the port into doubt once you've received their money. Kickstarter is so dodgy...
@ikki5 I wouldn't be so sure. I spent some of my free time on this work day trying to find detailed information from Kickstarter about how much money videogames have made, and the fact that it's so hard to come by information tells me that they only want to share information that makes them look good. They oscillate between bunching together gaming hardware, software, board games, and not from year to year, so it's nearly impossible to tell what the actual numbers are. From what I found, there was a massive drop in funding in 2014, and over a quarter of overall totals in 2015 came from Shenmue 3 and Bloodstained alone. Beyond that, of the top 50 gaming projects, 30 are games, and only 11 of those have come out. Bearing in mind that some are freshly funded like Shenmue 3 and Bloodstained, that number is sure to rise, but the drama behind Kickstarters like Red Ash, Mighty Number Nine, Broken Age, and more has the potential to make the casual market of backers unwilling to pledge, meaning there may be a bubble that bursts based on how well these high profile titles deliver. In the same way that hacks and scam artists have been able to sully the name of things like Early Access on Steam, I wouldn't discount the ability for people who feel burned by crowdfunding to swear off of it after something doesn't deliver. These are probably the kinds of people who think backing a Kickstarter is like a preorder, but I'm sure a fair number of those same people are investing in Shenmue 3, Bloodstained, and more. If, say, Bloodstained never comes out on Wii U as it has promised, how many angry backers do you think will come back and fund another project? My hunch is "not many," and when that resentment is told to less tech-savvy friends who hear that Kickstarter is a scam from someone they otherwise trust with tech stuff, there is massive potential for crowdfunding to ruin public good faith. I don't want that to happen, but every Kickstarter that fails to deliver on pledge promises makes me increasingly worried.
It looked bad anyway.
@SKTTR Wow, it's very rare to see comments about these kinds of things with 100% exact thoughts as what I have.
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