After a three-year debacle involving shady behaviour, broken promises, and $US660,126 ($828,662) that went nowhere, the game company Playdek has decided to call it quits on Unsung Story, passing the rights to a new company that will apparently develop and publish the game.
In an update today, Playdek told Kickstarter backers that the game company Little Orbit (Barbie & Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue, Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends) will now develop and publish Yasumi Matsuno’s supposed spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics.
Here’s the full update:
To All Unsung Story Backers,
Thank you for the support you have shown to make this project happen. Through the trials we have had as a company over the last few years, Playdek has strived to keep the project alive, as we believe in the game and the story that Yasumi Matsuno designed to set it in. To that, we want to let you know that the project is going to continue forward, but our involvement is coming to an end.
Effective immediately publisher/developer Little Orbit has taken over all the rights and assets to Unsung Story from Playdek, and is now the project creator. They believe strongly the game can be an amazing Tactics RPG, and they are excited to carry on and bring Matsuno’s story to life. They will be bringing you project news from this point on to update everyone on their plans for the game.
Again, we want to thank you for your support of this project, and though we are sorry that we were unable to complete it for you, we believe the project is in good hands, with people who have the same passion for the game. Please send all questions concerning the project, backer inquiries and development discussions to support@littleorbit.com. Thank you.
Playdek
It’s been a long ride for Playdek, whose flailing and broken promises have soured many RPG fans on Kickstarter entirely. It remains to be seen what Little Orbit plans to do with Unsung Story. Matsuno’s involvement with the game also remains unclear.
Comments
15 responses to “Three Years After Raising $828,000 On Kickstarter, Unsung Story Developer Playdek Bails”
Was this the one that promised a single player game and pivoted to PvP?
Yes.
People complain about Mighty, but that game has nothing on Unsung.
Also, who would even want the ip at this point? At this point it doesn’t matter if the game has new devs, people are just going to hang shit on them as if they had something to do with the games horrible history.
I think it’s time people stop funding game projects on kickstarter
It does appear to be a shittier version of pre ordering.
Remember kids, say no to pre-order. Not even once.
I have preordered few times. only when i was 99% sure what im getting.
dark souls2, civ6 and tekken7
Yeah I agree with you completely EXCEPT the recent Destiny 2 pre-order thing. I knew what I was in for (having loved Destiny 1) and crucially, I received something of value before release (early access to the beta, which I needed, as I was travelling during the open access time), a requirement for when the developer / publisher receives my money before release.
I preorder games as well but only for the games I know I will sink a lot of hours into. Dark Souls 2 and 3, and Destiny 2 have been my most recent preordered games. Honestly it does seem like you don’t need to preorder games anymore unless its for a collectors edition type deal, which has been the case for those preorders. Nowadays if you want a game on release day you can just walk into a store and get it, or buy it digitally and download.
Kickstarters are the biggest risk, and there are so many cases where a game goes on kickstarter and doesn’t get finished for 3-5 years, and if the dev time goes on that long without a demo then it just up and disappears or gets cancelled
I don’t pre-order games. Destiny 2 is definitely the exception to the rule. I also pre-ordered that so I could pre-load and play as soon as the game is out.
I think that scarcity myth has been a huge driver of pre-ordering games, but the fact of the matter is, if you think you want a game bad enough to pre-order it, simply walk into a JB HI-FI on day 1 and you’ll not struggle to get a copy. Most collector’s editions are filled with meaningless trinkets that ultimately have little value to either the creators or the fans, and will be thrown out after x amount of years gathering dust.
I still haven’t heard convincing arguments for why people pre-order games without a specific reasoning like the one I listed above.
Without Kickstarter we wouldn’t have:
Rimworld
FTL
Wasteland 2
Friday 13th
Prison Architect
The Escapists
Plus so many more.
Yes, Kickstarting is a risk. But in my experience (Successfully backed over 10 projects – About 6 came after their original promised date, 1 is still outstanding) it’s a minor one.
I’ve backed nearly 100 projects, many of which wouldn’t have been made otherwise.
Some outstanding picks have included Grim Dawn, the Shadowruns, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, RimWorld, Darkest Dungeon, War for the Overworld and my current game of the year, Night In The Woods.
Kickstarter almost single handedly triggered a new golden age for PC games and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.
“Little Orbit (Barbie & Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue, Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends)”
With pedigree like that, I think it’s safe to say the game is in good hands.
Well, better hands at least.
It’s in someones hands, which I guess is usually better than not being in any hands at all
You could say that this Story will remain Unsung.