Koji Igarashi’s hustle to make a new Castlevania-style game has paid off: his spiritual successor to a series Konami keeps screwing up — because Konami is Konami — has in less than 24 hours made over $US1 million on Kickstarter.
Bloodstained was only asking for $US500,000, so to have doubled that in one day means they’re on track to make a lot of money.
That kind of cash has already unlocked all kinds of stretch goals, from David Hayter voice work to extra characters, but it should be noted that this isn’t the only money Bloodstained is getting.
As Igarashi told Gamasutra “I was able to secure funding for about 90 per cent of the game with the condition that I prove the market still wants an Igavania game. Kickstarter proved to be a great solution, as it would (hopefully) show that people still want an Igavania game while simultaneously providing funds for the core game.”
So if you’re wondering how “only” $US500,000 was going to get a PS4/XB1 game pressed and distributed on physical discs, that’s how (it’s also going to be on PC, but whatever, Steam).
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11 responses to “Castlevania Successor Makes Over $1 Million In A Single Day”
Hey, Lords of Shadow is pretty cool.
I am a huge fan of developers doing this. People do want these games, but they aren’t showing up in the focus tests so the big corps say there is no market. Look at the success of the kickstarters for Star Citizen, and Mighty no. 9 for examples. Now if any of these games deliver on that they are selling I will be a very happy gamer.
now if only we could get a spiritual successor to Blaster Master…
Inafune leaves Capcom because Capcom believes Mega Man games aren’t worth investing in, goes on to make millions on Kickstarter to make a Spiritual Successor to Mega Man.
Igarashi leaves Konami because Konami believes a 2D Castlevania isn’t worth invisting in, goes on to make $1.2mill in 24 hours to fund Spiritual Successor to Castlevania.
Goes to show what those big publishers know huh?
These are not sales data. several million in investor funding on kickstarter is great for an independent team, but pretty bad for a major corporate project.
i understand what you are saying, but it is being used to show that there is a demand for the product, and that alone is great for people who enjoy these games.
Oh! definitely. Not everything is about making millions upon millions of money. Some things are about making a good product, generating a sustainable profit and everyone’s happy at the end…
Quick someone tell that to EA…
EA would just set up a team of PR specialists to figure out a way they can say that is what they are doing, with out actually doing it, and charge more per game for it. you can get the “good product” version for a $10 DLC
Yeah but I always feel like these gestures bring the money more than the games themselves. I mean for starters selling Castlevania, Mega Man, Banjo Kazooie, etc on shelves doesn’t do this well. The people who are really happy about it don’t buy eighteen copies, and it seems to be much easier to sell people on getting the game in the future rather than getting it today. If this just showed up on XBOX Live tomorrow as a planned release I feel like a lot of these people would pass on it because that’s just sort of dull and Witcher 3 is about to come out.
People aren’t as cynical about Kickstarter projects either. I mean plenty think they’re a scam but it’s not like when Konami releases a Castlevania game and everyone is more than happy to shit all over it because Konami suck and we all expect their new games to be flawed. It’s much easier to get nostalgic about Castlevania when it’s just an idea than when a reviewer has a copy and points out that it’s a pretty standard affair that doesn’t really do anything new but doesn’t quite nail the old.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that stuff like Satellite Reign is being made, I just feel like we should acknowledge that this process is way more exciting and thus translates to a much better response than publishers can rely on getting.
Might be the first time I actually back a kickstarter.
I don’t really follow Kickstarter enough to know if this is their idea or not, but I’m liking the idea of backer achievements. It’s an interesting way of getting people involved.
I might be mistaken, but it seems like Steam gets a physical release too.
I love this more independent route. Power to the game makers. I am willing to give money to any game concept that captures my imagination. Good on em.