You might think that, given the widespread love for Mega Man Legends (and the loud outcry when Capcom cancelled #3), a spiritual successor wouldn’t have trouble finding funding.
Yet Red Ash, a Kickstarter by Mega Man designer Keiji Inafune that’s just about as close as we’ll ever get to a Mega Man Legends 3, hasn’t made much of a splash. It’s still got 25 days left, sure, but right now it’s sitting around $US335,000, well short of that $US800k goal. Usually, big hyped Kickstarters like this are funded within a day or two.
Maybe it’s because Inafune’s first crowdfunded game, Mighty No. 9 still isn’t out yet, so we don’t know whether he can deliver on his promises. Maybe it’s because the Red Ash Kickstarter pitch didn’t resonate with people. Maybe it’s because they launched it on July 4 weekend. Maybe it’s because Inafune is also currently working on a Mighty No. 9 movie and a Microsoft-published Xbox One game called ReCore, so people are wondering why he needed to launch not just one but two different Kickstarters (for a game and an anime) to raise enough money for Red Ash.
It could also be the whole console thing. When Red Ash first launched, it was PC-only, which made very little sense and turned a lot of fans off. Then, yesterday, the folks behind the game announced a console stretch goal — if they hit $US1 million, they say they will port it to a console. Just one. They won’t decide which one until after the game is backed.
From the most recent Red Ash update (emphasis mine):
This brings up another question we’re sure you’re curious about: which console will it be ported to? Ideally we would love to port the game to all 3 current home consoles: PS4/Xbox One/Wii U. But porting Mighty No.9 taught us exactly how much it costs to port to a single console (which includes not only the port work itself, but also debugging and all other costs that add up). We take our ports seriously, and though there may be some sticker shock at the cost, we are planning wisely with the money from your support!
Another reason that we can’t announce the console now is because we need to negotiate with the console makers. It’s a big assignment for us, but we are confident we’ll have great support due to the team’s prior work with the consoles. We will keep you updated right here with all the latest developments on that.
Most importantly, we want to port RED ASH to the console most wished for by our backers. We will put up a preliminary poll soon, so you can make your voice heard and let our team know where you want RED ASH on consoles first! Then, once the campaign ends, we will send a survey to make your final vote! The survey will only be available to backers, so be sure to tell everyone you can about this big news!
It’s admirable that they’re being honest about the costs of porting, but man, this is a sloppy way to do business. How can Inafune and company ask for people’s money before we even know what platforms the game will be on? If someone doesn’t own all three consoles, why would they ever back Red Ash when there’s a significant chance they might not even be able to play it? Seriously, what are these guys thinking?
I imagine they will hit $US800,000 — Mega Man Legends fans are too passionate to let this go unfunded — but if the team behind Red Ash is disappointed at this lack of momentum, they have only themselves to blame.
Comments
14 responses to “Mega Man Legends Successor’s Kickstarter Is Kinda Sloppy”
It’s a vague, horrible mess.
And it comes off the back of two other Japanese produced kickstarters (Bloodstained & Shenmue).
Also, before Mighty No9 is released?
Lame.
I love Legends, I’m so disappointed this is going to fail 🙁
Their website says September 15th USA, September 18th worldwide.
I don’t understand, I didn’t ask this question…
No you did not, I don’t know what I’m doing….
Ha!
This made my day
Mighty No.9 looks awesome and this project should of waited until it was released, it would have rode the hype wave to it’s funding glory.
Possibly a tricky proposition for an independent company. They likely burnt through their money making Mighty No.9, and won’t be seeing any sales income for a little while. It’s always tough to pay a team of developers between projects.
Do you have any idea how far beyond their requested amount they were funded? No money is definitively not the reason in this situation.
Aside from just the general vagueness of everything, I think a big part of their problem is they’re trying to be as legit as possible. They’re not saying ‘we’ll make it for PS4 at $1m, and XBOX One at $1.5’ because that bit them on the arse with Might No. 9 when it came time to pay for all these ports. They set out to make a small PC game to keep the costs down and avoid reward bloat. Their stretch goals aren’t particularly interesting. It’s just ‘more content’ at each mark. They intentionally avoided consoles even though that’s a big mistake when trying to appeal to the Mega Man Legends crowd and now they’re scrambling to figure something out.
There also seems to be a split in the MML fanbase where a lot of fans are actually against Red Ash because it’s not Mega Man Legends 3.
I’ve backed a fair few Kickstarter projects, but I didn’t back this one because there wasn’t going to be a console release.
I’m still not going to back it, because then I’d be in exactly the same boat when it ends up being ported to a different console.
It’s a safe bet to assume PS4 is the console. It’d take either the PS4 version being impossible, Microsoft or Nintendo funding it for exclusivity, or a bunch of $1 backers being allowed to spam XBOX One/Wii U votes to know the PS4 out of the lead position. They’re going to look terrible if they change their mind again, but I hope they announce they’re going with the PS4 tomorrow and iron out the details later.
Yeah, I’m expecting a huge percentage of votes for PS4. Although the vote could end up all over the place, given that the majority of backers at this stage are likely PC gamers.
If I had a PS4, I might back it if it was close to the stretch goal, but oh well.
I’ve already got three or four games backed, so I’m not going to be wanting for games to play in late 2016/2017. 😉
The way that the ‘vote for what you want to see’ stuff went with Mighty No. 9 left a bit of a sour taste for me, especially when on some issues they were very closely divided. I’d rather they just make a decision. Any time you’re making decisions via popular vote there’s going to be a big chunk of people disappointed by the outcome.