PlatinumGames’ first foray into their self-publishing future was a pretty unexpected one. They announced a crowdfunding project to revive The Wonderful 101, one of their most niche games (you can read more about that through here). The project has already soared past its initial goal and broken the $1 million mark at the time of writing this, so it seems to be successful. But apparently, it is more an experiment than the norm as the company doesn’t seem posed to use crowdfunding regularly.
In talking with Eurogamer, Lead Producer Atsushi Inaba said The Wonderful 101 approach wouldn’t be the norm. It was a special case, and the KickStarter was more about making sure interest was there over necessarily getting funds. Other self-published projects won’t follow this path, but Inaba didn’t rule out the possibility of using crowdfunding again.
“This is an original case – it’s not so much the case that we’re saying hey we need money,” said Inaba. “It’s more saying hey everyone let’s come together and make this project a reality.
“So moving forward there’s no thought of needing to crowdfund and doing it again – this is just a particular case. But if in the future there’s a similar case where crowdfunding makes sense, it’s an option we’ll consider.”
While Inaba doesn’t explicitly say so, probably a large reason for doing The Wonderful 101 re-release this way also had to do with the game being an infamous flop when it originally released on Wii U. The developer has at least three more announcements on deck to be revealed, and odds are none of them are KickStarters.
