Mighty No. 9 - Spiritual Sucessor to Mega Man by Keiji Inafune himself

Here's a post◊ from the forums about the delay.

Basically, they were busy working on Red Ash, didn't get enough responses from the backers, and something about Inafune announcing it himself.

The Protomen enhanced my life.

The problem with that, though, is that the errors and miscommunication was all Comcept. The rumors were true; Comcept was the one who bald-faced lied about them when they addressed them. Even silence would have been better than that.

I've been way patient about this whole process, but this incident is finally starting to get to me.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Honestly, I feel like that makes it worse.

That seemed amateurish.

So they're delaying the game because they spent too much time working on a failed Kickstarter project. Bravo Inafune. After I get the MN 9 version I get for being a backer I'm never going to give you money again.

I honestly can't believe it. How do you arrive at the conclusion that it's a good idea to lie about a delay to PAYING CUSTOMERS? This is a debt that will be paid in blood for sure.

I know the time spent to porting other consoles take a hell of a long time, and I get that.

I know a bugged-enough-to-be-broken game is never good but lying?

One question though: Why did they delay it because on Online mode? They could just remove it. They still got the multiplayer/co-op mode.

edited 5th Aug '15 1:32:00 PM by Raddishes

Hate to be that guy, but they lied up until the red ash kickstarters ended.

Yeah.

Not enough surveys were sent in?

Pardon my alarmism, but isn't that similar to the rationale for MML 3's cancellation (lack of audience participation), leading us to our current situation? I don't expect MN 9 to get canned outright, but I'm still worried.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Once released, the game will have been delayed for a year. Ouch.

The Protomen enhanced my life.

I think Inafune is too smart to do that. The stuff he's pulled is bad enough but flat out cancelling a Kickstarter project that got $4 million in funding and a ton of publicity would ensure that no one ever takes him seriously again.

To be honest, how Comcept's been handling this whole Kickstarter business always felt like this to me...

Always? I think they were fine for the first year or so. Sometime in the past year everything went to hell for some reason.

edited 5th Aug '15 2:35:09 PM by Kostya

Yeah, that was the wrong word to use. Recent events clouded my perception I guess...

Delays are pretty much standard fare in the videogame industry.

• Trails in the Sky SC: delayed
• Mighty No. 9: delayed
• This Starry Midnight We Make: delayed (by just a week, but still)
• Legend of Iya: delayed
• One Way Heroics Plus: delayed
• Ryuutama: not even a videogame, but still delayed
• the entire litany of "Valve Time"

This happens to pretty much any creative work.

Some things don't get delayed. That's how we get the really plain menu screen and various other semi-unfinished features in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Or worse, E.T. for Atari.

By themselves, delays are not inherently bad things. They just mean that kinks need more time to get worked out.

It's just a question of whether the delay, along with other circumstances, makes for sufficient reason to query or question the way in which the production (or other process) is being carried out, and/or the dedication or will of the developer, and/or the ability of the developer to continue working on the project, and/or something else along those lines.

In this case, I can see a case for possible mismanagement, but I don't see the developers or project leads abandoning MN 9.

On the basis that it hasn't actually yet happened and become reality, there's always a chance that they could just take us backers' money and run, yes. But barring Inafking suddenly going insane and deciding throw all his hard-earned fans into a pit of forgotten videogame aspirations, I don't see that as a likely occurrence.

As for Red Ash, I still don't understand why Inafking didn't decide to at least wait until MN 9 is over and done with — at which point he would actually be able to point to a major accomplishment independent of Capcom, and he'd also not be dogged with questions like these. Not to mention the double-Kickstarter thing was even more of a stretch of fan dedication.

Well there was the controversy over Dina, but as a person who wasn't there to observe it first-hand I can't actually say whether it was mostly genuine or mostly forced by culture-warrior types (since the controversy eventually ballooned into something that seems, in retrospect, a bit akin to a predecessor of a more recent and larger controversy named starting with the letter G, one which has also played out largely as a culture war and has involved some similar issues).

edited 6th Aug '15 7:35:01 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

I'm more concerned the backers will demand refunds after being lied to than Inafune pulling out, kickstarter progects have a legal requirement to give backers their rewards or some equivalent.

Well, I backed MN 9 and not Red Ash and I'm content to watch this play out for now.

Of course, I'm just one of many.

Glenn, I think you've summed it up magnificently.

About the only thing I can add is regarding the Dina issue. In my view, she wasn't the strongest candidate I could point to for her position... that said, I don't think she was as awful a choice as many fans presented. She just wasn't in the top 5, which admittedly does look a bit fishy. All the same, though, there was a bunch of culture-warrior baggage that got thrown at her, and much of the controversy was invented by the people who reacted to the decision, not by the decision itself.

It's definitely true that delays are practically a given for the video game industry. I remember the days when Nintendo would announce a Zelda game, and the sensible gamer would always tack on at least 12 months to figure out the likely release date.

Also, peptobislawl, who ever hated being "that guy"? Since we're all cracking on Comcept for a lack of honesty here, let's be up front. Enough people are comfortable saying that Comcept lied up until the Red Ash Kickstarter ended that you didn't have to say anything if you didn't want to feel uncomfortable by joining the chorus.

Myself, I'm pretty cool with being "that guy" - Comcept lied to us until they weren't asking for any more money. That's a crap maneuver, and MN9 would really have to blow me away before I'd ever consider giving to them again.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

I'd like to throw in about Dina too, having been in the forums, forum goers essentially made up their minds about her before she even did anything. Yes, there were posts deleted and some people got banned, but that was after the lot of them decided to preemptively attack her.

My issue with the delay though is that the development was apparently put on the back burner to start the Kickstarter for their next game, a game which they later admitted they already had the funds for anyway.

Yeah everything I heard about the Dina thing gave me the impression that it was just a bunch of "how dare she be into woman's issues" and "not a reeeeaaaaallll nerd" horseshit.

edited 6th Aug '15 6:49:00 AM by Moth13

If I were to rate the Dina incident on a scale, with 0 being "You stupid fucktards, this is the dumbest shitfit ever" and 10 being "Guys, I can't HEAR YOU, chant for their heads louder," it'd come up at a 1.5. Technically a little odd, but over such a minor issue (community manager is such a peon position), if you care, it says more about you than the incident itself.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

She was also the liason between the public and Comcept JP and one of the primary English-to-Japanese translators. Given her duplicitous and dishonest behavior in regards to the way she handled several users on the forums, it is entirely possible she manipulated those connections to try and "filter" (read: censor) fan input.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

Yeah, and I bet Sarkeesian is still trying to brain wash everyone into becoming a "feminazi."

edited 6th Aug '15 11:11:10 AM by Lionheart0

She ain't brainwashing anything into being a feminazi.

She just sucks at feminist critique, uses boilerplate gender studies 101 terminology, without actually delving deeper into the themes, uses footage without permission from the orginal content creators. Makes 90's styles appeal that violence in videogames are a reflection of a culture that gloryfies violence as a bad thing, has no ability to stick to a schedule. And has a co-writer that says shit like: Christopher Hitchens was a war monger and I am glad he is dead while saying that he is not as indignant about osama bin laden.

So much for using Sarcasm Mode

edited 6th Aug '15 11:03:54 AM by YoKab