In a move pretty much anybody could have seen coming Mighty No. 9 has been delayed yet again. This time it’s being delayed from the latest release date of February 9th to the not-at-all nebulous “spring 2016”. Having initially been planned for release in spring 2015, this most recent delay will make the game a year late. Comcept representative Keiji Inafune cited bugs in the games network modes as the reason for the delay as well as a lack of support for the game engine being used. The wide range of platforms (10 in total) on which Mighty No. 9 is intended to release has compounded the problem further.
While video games being delayed is relatively common, in the case of Mighty No. 9 many Kickstarter backers have expressed frustration at the fact that what they wanted – a single player campaign – has already been completed and additional features are holding back release. Online features as well as the 9 of the 10 platforms were stretch goals of the Kickstarter campaign. Comcept went so far as to start accepting donations through PayPal after their campaign ended without reaching its $4,000,000 stretch goal. The 4 million mark added an online battle race mode, quite possibly one of the reasons for this most recent delay.
This is the third delay Comcept have had to deal with. As a result any trust Keiji Inafune has is being rapidly eroded by a torrent of harsh comments and outrage. Some speculate that Comcept must have known about this delay in advance of its announcement considering it was announced 2 weeks before the game should have hit store shelves. Such a short time would be nowhere near enough to put the game through the certification processes required by various platform holders.
Accusations of delaying announcements are not new to Comcept or Mighty No. 9. The game’s second delay was announced in August 2015 just days after another Kickstarter campaign by Comcept was successfully funded. Immediately followers and backers began speculating that the announcement had been held off in order to prevent any negative impact on the Red Ash Kickstarter. Prior knowledge of the delay was confirmed by Nick Yu in a Q&A with Mighty No. 9 forum users, though Red Ash was not mentioned as a reason for the delay. It should be noted that Red Ash had already failed to reach its funding goals on Kickstarter once.
Hopefully this will act as a cautionary tale for the risks of pledging money to Kickstarter projects. Anyone interested in keeping up to date on the latest happenings with Mighty No. 9 can find further details on the official website, Kickstarter page or Subreddit.
