Four delays later, Mighty No. 9 will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U and PC in North America on June 21st, 2016. For everyone else, the game will arrive worldwide on June 24th.
In a written apology to fans, Keiji Inafune says "the release date we are announcing is set in stone and there will be no further delays for the game." In other words, Mighty No. 9 has (allegedly) gone gold.
Ah, but what of the portable versions? According to Inafune, the 3DS and PlayStation Vita ports will "follow at a later point." A release window - for all intents and purposes - was not provided.
So that's that. You can read Inafune's message in its entirety here.
I haven't even touched the demos from months back. The negativity this game garnered really made me lose interest. Quite sad.
ReplyDeleteInafune crying Wolf again, I'll believe it when I get my hands on it, not before it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they better send me the artbook, gamebox, usb and manual by that very same day too.
Well, there's no way it can be delayed again now... Right?
ReplyDelete...
Right?
Does anyone still care at all for this game? I mean seriously, they said Spring and it's actually coming out in summer. Go figure. That's an unofficial fourth delay. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes I do care. Thanks for asking.
DeleteAre people suppose to not care about a game because time goes by? That is news to me if so.
DeleteFor the sake of Comcept and for this madness to finally end, this had better be released by then. By "going gold," I assume this means that they got the bugs fixed or reached some kind of compromise with their publisher. This would have never happened had Comcept not gone with Deep Silver (and Spike Chunsoft in Japan) to publish this, or if they had kept their stretch goals a minimum. It's bad enough that by seeking out a publisher, you already alienated a lot of supporters who expected this to be an indie project.
ReplyDeleteOne part of me actually feels bad for Inafune and Comcept. After this disaster they have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves. But the other part of me really hopes that they learned their lesson. This is what happens when you effectively bite off more than you can chew. I really hope they don't go back into the crowdfunding scene seriously expecting to get funded, because no one is going to fund them again after all this. They have a lot of work still ahead of them. Good luck.
Regarding MN9, yeah, I lost all interest in it a long time ago after these repeated delays. Capcom is no longer in a worse state anymore. Maybe I'll get this if I find a used copy, but certainly not new.
What's Mighty No. 9 again...? Is it the ninth game in the Mighty Switch Force series? I forget. シ
ReplyDelete...Seriously? I am starting to think your jokes are bad and offensive.
Delete@Musashi: Meh, Joseph Collins chronically opposes Mighty No. 9 for reasons that are not entirely clear to me. (IIRC, he also didn't like Red Ash, so I think he's just not into Comcept in general. Which is OK I guess...) I suggest leaving him to vent his frustration by himself and not letting him dampen your own hype about the game. Glad Comcept seems to have resolved the issues with MN9 and are on track for release.
DeleteApparently making a joke about not knowing what a game is can be offensive to people. Nothing is safe!
DeleteWho cares if he doesn't like the game already? He has had plenty of reasons to... If they're not clear to you at this point... You obviously haven't followed the hellhole that was the past several months. Not even just the delays, but how they were handled. Hell, I'm pretty pissed too. But I'm still being optimistic/in denial and hope for something decent to come of it.
Good for you guys if you're all happy with everything, but don't start to act like everyone else has to have the same view.
Pretty sure I said this before... But even if MN9 ends up being great (which I doubt), it doesn't excuse the BS the backers were given during this whole ordeal.
But again, this is just my opinion. I hope I'm not immediately dismissed as a "hater" for it.
@Mushashi: Said the guy who blindly defends MN9.
Delete@Anon3: How is someone who "blindly defends" something any different from someone that "blindly opposes" it? How about instead realizing that people are basing their support on personal opinion, and that it's OK for others to have differing opinions?
Delete@Anon2: "it doesn't excuse the BS the backers were given during this whole ordeal."
That's part of investing in a Kickstarter project. You get to enjoy the snags along with the rewards. If a backer has an issue with the game because it was delayed, then they didn't take the time to understand what it means to "back" a project on Kickstarter. Contrary to popular belief, backing a project on Kickstarter is not a preorder, but instead a risky investment with potentially marginal return.
@Anonymous (May 2, 2016 at 1:56 PM)
DeleteI suggest leaving him to vent his frustration by himself and not letting him dampen your own hype about the game.
Now that… is the way to think, my friend. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about any number of things and there will always be people who agree or disagree. However, there's always the option of just tuning out opinions you find unfavorable.
Also, thank you for your kind words as well, Anonymous (May 2, 2016 at 3:53 PM). I do indeed have proper reasons to be against the project, which I'll go ahead and summarize here, for everyone's convenience:
I think...
- Funding was mis-managed and handled badly.
- They should have had enough money to finish the game with just the Kickstarter and PayPal.
- I understand why they can't patch in multiplayer, but disagree with the choice.
- It was in poor taste to try and raise funds for a second game when the first one hadn't even been published yet.
- It was in very poor taste to try and make Beck the new Megaman, complete with comic, cartoon, and cross-overs.
- Keiji Inafune (here we go...) has acted very aloof, immature, and just generally not like someone who "believes in his company" and "is doing it for the fans" should.
- Inafune's attitude toward everything has been far too casual.
- Inafune doesn't know what he's doing, in the grand scheme of things.
- Inafune needs a metaphorical slap to the back of the head and realize that he can't just say "make it work, I don't care how" to have it happen.
And finally... I think...
- Mighty No. 9 is an okay game. Just okay. Not bad, not great, just okay.
Again, this is a gross summarization of my extensive thoughts, both because I went over the 4,096 character limit with the original version of this post and don't want to muddy up Protodude's blog again/further. But hopefully, this clears up any vagueness about why I keep poking fun or getting angry over the whole Mighty No. 9 project.
@Joseph Collins: "It was in very poor taste to try and make Beck the new Megaman, complete with comic, cartoon, and cross-overs."
DeleteIn all fairness to Inafune, Mega Man was Inafune's primary IP, and Capcom did sort of pull the proverbial rug out from under him when they reduced his involvement in Mega Man development as things got rocky between them. So I don't see it as being in poor taste for him to try and rebuild something that he had in the past. Mega Man was his livelihood, and he is entitled to pursue it the best he can in spite of the legal issues that prevent him from using the actual IP. He did probably try to rebuild a little too quickly with the Red Ash campaign, but I think that anyone in his exact position would probably try to do the same.
"Inafune doesn't know what he's doing, in the grand scheme of things."
While some of this may be true, I believe that it is important keep in mind the fact that up until now Inafune has been mostly a software developer. He hasn't managed anything more than the technical aspects of projects, and his business skills are admittedly a bit weak. Those business skills will either improve, or he will decide that this path is not for him. However, the notion that he can just say "make it work, I don't care how" is not at all realistic. That is what leads to buggy code, and it is waaaay easier to take your time and write quality code that works than it is to cobble something together and debug it later. As a seasoned software developer, Inafune undoubtedly realizes this, and that it why he is taking extra time to make sure things are coded properly.
"Inafune is too casual, aloof, etc."
Now I don't believe that it is fair to fault Inafune based on his personality. He is who he is and nobody can change that. Even when he was at Capcom, he always had what some may consider an "aloof" personality, but that was OK then and it is OK now. I am sure that some would prefer that he have more of a showman's personality like Romero or Igarashi, but Inafune is his own individual and that's not who he is. I would wager that many developers for other games have a similar personality to Inafune, but you just never hear about them because their company has marketing people that provide a showy public face for the game instead of letting the developers discuss their work themselves. So I don't think that it's fair to criticize anyone's business (Inafune included) based on their personality.
"Mega Man was his livelihood, and he is entitled to pursue it the best he can in spite of the legal issues"
DeleteThat's fine, but he's not pursuing Mega Man he is trying to rip it off, which means to legally reestablish the works of something with minimal differences done outside of said something's licensing usually to the detriment of it as competition.
"but I think that anyone in his exact position would probably try to do the same."
Maybe, I wouldn't say probably either as I think the likelihood of that happening is ... Well actually beyond my knowledge. Either way, that doesn't make it right, at least in my opinion.
Also in terms of personable marketing no personalities don't gain originality points by making unoriginal things, points that help in the long run I feel;
Why do people call Mighty No. 9 a rip-off of Mega Man, but nobody ever calls Bloodstained a rip-off of Castlevania, or Yooka-Laylee a rip-off of Banjo Kazooie? The differences seem to be about as minimal, so I feel like it's just biased hatred against Inafune because of all the delays and the disaster that was Red Ash.
Delete"Why do people call Mighty No. 9 a rip-off of Mega Man, but nobody ever calls Bloodstained a rip-off of Castlevania, or Yooka-Laylee a rip-off of Banjo Kazooie?"
DeleteDon't forget to mention Souls/Bloodborne series as the world champion of "spiritual successor" games. :P But yeah, I've also been wondering the same thing. Inafune is who defined Mega Man as a great IP and not necessarily Capcom, so how can Inafune be ripping off Mega Man when he is Mega Man's heart and soul? How can you ripoff your own creation? By extension, this ripoff argument makes the X, Zero, Legends, Battle Network, and Star Force series invalid/inferior because they are similarly framed "ripoffs" of Mega Man. (And direct sequels could probably be similarly classified as well.) I also see complaints about how MN9 is not original, but Inafune is experimenting with new play styles in MN9 (for better or for worse depending on who you ask). So I am all the more confused about why MN9 is considered an unoriginal ripoff.
Inafune did not make Megaman.
Delete@Anonymous (May 3, 2016 at 5:50 PM)
DeleteBut people are calling Bloodshed and Yooka-Laylee rip/knock-offs of the series that inspired them. They're also calling them "spiritual successors". Both of these things have been said about Mighty No. 9, but with Mighty No. 9, it's a bit more obvious that Inafune and his team are being spiteful as opposed to just "picking up where they left off". Granted, IGA did that whole "I am Dracula" thing, but like the Kickstarter video for Mighty No. 9, that was more or less intended to be satire as opposed to a wave of the middle finger.
Regarding Anonymous (May 4, 2016 at 11:20 AM), you are correct. To quote from my own post (which I tossed up elsewhere):
"[...] the fact of the matter is that before Comcept, [Keiji Inafune] was just a producer and character designer… which basically meant he walked around and told people 'this is good, this is bad, here's some money, make it happen'."
As I also said, "not much has changed on that front".
"Inafune did not make Megaman."
DeleteHe designed his look for official art. A sprite of him may have already existed as a template for the design that he made, but I think Captain N is proof enough that had anybody else made their interpretation of that sprite, he'd look very different today. I know Inafune didn't create the character from scratch, but let's not pretend like he did nothing at all.
@5:50 PM: Are you kidding? By all accounts those are rip-offs of the games they are succeeding. The term spiritual successor is literally a polite version of rip-off. Being a rip-off isn't necessarily a bad thing anyway it just is what it is.
Delete@11:05 PM:"How can you ripoff your own creation?" By producing an externally licensed brand that copies it.
"By extension, this ripoff argument makes the X, Zero, Legends, Battle Network, and Star Force series invalid/inferior because they are similarly framed "ripoffs" of Mega Man."
You can't be serious with this statement...................................................... You are joking right? Fine whatever. OK those are not rip-offs of Mega Man they are literally Mega Man..... Some of those are even direct sequels to the original Mega Man series, meaning they fall within the original's continuity, that's like saying Mega Man 2 is a rip-off of Mega Man because it has a numerical subtitle . You know what's the funniest part about this statement, the series that you could perhaps possible make an argument that they are rip-offs for (the RPG series), are way different than Mega Man (the original game) than Mighty No.9 is by far. So even if I were to submit to the logic you laid out for what can be considered a ripoff it still wouldn't help your point in this case.
@11:20 AM: Inafune pretty much created Mega Man, let us not be unfair, before Inafune Mega Man was a very ruff concept of what Mega Man could possibly be like. Keiji then completely illustrated the character in both the in game sprite and official art department as well as flesh out the draft design while doing so. Since then he's been an integral part of the franchise.
"OK those are not rip-offs of Mega Man they are literally Mega Man"
DeleteSo by that logic, simply naming the game "Mega Man 11" or "Mega Man Beck" instead of "Mighty No. 9" would make all of these ripoff claims go away? I will agree with you though that the RPG series games would have to be classified as ripoffs before MN9 could be.
All of this aside, my main point of all of my discussion is that had Inafune been able to stay at Capcom and had been given the freedom to work on Mega Man as he wanted, Mighty No. 9 and Red Ash would have more than likely been made eventually with Mega Man, Roll, Volnutt, and Co as the main cast. (Yes, I am making an assumption that Inafune probably had at least a creative direction planned for the games, but I think it's very likely.) So what I do not understand is why there is so much hostility towards MN9 when under better circumstances a very similar game (or the exact same game?) would have been produced as a Mega Man title. It almost makes me feel like people are upset due to personal feelings about Inafune and are just trying to hide their bias behind a generic argument about MN9 being a ripoff.
"So by that logic, simply naming the game "Mega Man 11" or "Mega Man Beck" instead of "Mighty No. 9" would make all of these ripoff claims go away?"
DeleteNo, if they were trademarked under the holder of the Mega Man brand (meaning the ones that hold the licenses to its copyrights) thus allowing them to fall into Mega Man cannon officially THAT would make the ripoff claims go away.
But Comcept in this case can't just slap the Mega Man trademark on the title and expect to use the license to illegally (as in without the legal permission of the copyright holders) directly advertises their product in association with that of other bands that they do not hold the rights to. That is called Copyright infringement, and depending on the severity can be lead into a court case of which could lead the right holders into winning a clean money suit, or lead to a felony case for the party accused of the crime...................
I CAN NOT BELIEVE I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS SO CALLED "LOGIC".... I am legit dumbfounded.
"I will agree with you though that the RPG series games would have to be classified as ripoffs before MN9 could be."
You'd be agreeing with someone else as I have never stated anything of the kind. Reread my post, I think you are confused, as I essentially expressed the near exact opposite belief.
As for your last paragraph A. You've basically just describe exactly why MN9 is a ripoff B. You are assuming people are being hostile when calling MN9 a ripoff, which I don't get since a game being a ripoff is just a state of affairs, that is not in and of itself a negative or a positive.
Let me exemplify.
Case A. Dev smack talks a game series, claims to be able to make a better game, makes a game that copies a game in the series that was smack talked nearly point for point with minimal improvements, or even more poorly designed.
Case B. Dev loses his job due to internal politics out of his control within the company he worked for. Company cuts ties with the dev thus making him lose the ability to continue the projects he was a part of, so decides to re-brand the projects under another trademark and continue its development in a similar vein to the projects he could no longer legally work on.
Now they are both cases of ripoffs, but in case A I think the dev(s) is a jerk and hold that case of ripping something off as unoriginal, lazy and unprofessional. On the other hand case B I feel sympathy for, as that ripoff is simply that individual trying to continue what he started the best way he can.
Someone else made Mega Man. His name was Akira Kitamura.
DeleteInafune is doing things that are a dishonor.
稲船敬二さんが詐欺です。
彼は北村燦來さんの名前を吐きます。 ロックマンとカプコンは、稲船敬二なしのほうでした。
"thus allowing them to fall into Mega Man canon* (but you know what I mean) officially"
Delete"allowing them to fall into Mega Man cannon officially THAT would make the ripoff claims go away"
DeleteSo the complaint *is* solely about the name. Why does the name matter though? Capcom owns the name, but Inafune generated the ideas. Unfortunately, IP copyright laws are based on ownership and not leadership, thus Inafune can't call his game Mega Man and chose another name for legal purposes, and here we are. However, just because the game is not called "Mega Man" doesn't automatically make it an inferior Mega Man wannabe.
"Now they are both cases of ripoffs"
I completely understand and completely agree. What I disagree with is the complaints about MN9 that try to discredit the game by implying Case A. (Which you agree implies that the developer is lazy, etc.) That is what I cannot understand.
Well I can understand why you can't understand people using case A as the case for MN9. But I am not one of those people, in fact I don't think anyone on this thread said anything like that either. So what are you talking about when you say people calling MN9 a ripoff (which it is, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that itself) being hostile to MN9 if that is not the case here?
Delete@Anonymous May 5, 2016 at 3:19 PM:
DeleteThe whole "Is MN9 a ripoff?" discussion started with Anonymous May 3, 2016 at 2:44 PM saying Inafune is "not pursuing Mega Man he is trying to rip it off [...] usually to the detriment of it as competition", which as a complaint leaning more towards your Case A than your Case B. Really, this whole discussion is getting way too off-the-rails...
You are taking that quote out of context "usually(keyword) to the detriment of it as competition" is part of the description of what a ripoff is not that this case is like that.
DeleteIn my personal opinion if Mega Man were to release a good brand new game right now it would probably hurt MN9 way more than MN9 could hurt its sales and publicity. Even though I think at least some people would look at both and exclusively choose MN9 for whatever reason anyway. That's just the nature of gaming, it just has fanboys that stick to one thing over another.
It can be to the detriment of Mega Man though, do you think the profits are going toward Mega Man or something like that? That is just the nature of competition which could happen in this case. In fact Mega Man would compete with itself (which it has done at times), which is why Capcom has to coordinate the releases of the games. So maybe EXE can run along side Zero, they offer very different styles of gameplay. One person could invest in both if they wanted to experience one of each style, but if that same person wanted 1 RPG and 1 action platformer he'd be conflicted when forced to select between lets say Zero2 and X8 at the time and would likely choose one and hold off on the other for an RPG. In that case X and Zero are competing with each other as they are two very similar games on the market.
Yeah I know this is not a well thought out example since one is a handheld game and the other a console, and that the RPG games would offer competition anyway as they are separate games and lastly that diehard fans would buy all of them if they liked them and could afford to anyway. You get what I'm saying though, that the more the market has the same type of game in it the more split the market share for that type of game will be. Also irregardless of all that, Mega Man out competing itself is still better than an outside brand out competing it, since it is still pouring money into the company that owns it and raises overall brand recognition inadvertently helping the franchise as a whole.
Although now that I think about it, in this case competition could be a good thing in the sense that more attention could be brought to that style of game, and both can help elevate each other trying to out compete one another.
I guess I could rephrase and say "usually to the detriment or benefit of it as competition." That seems a little over done though..... It's like a glass half empty or full thing. I do however find it highly unlikely that either company would try and avoid conflicting release dates for their projects. So I'm guessing one day if Inafune has his dream of making MN9 a franchise, MN9 and Mega Man will compete.
Don't care, I'm still excited to play this!
ReplyDeleteWhat about de bonuses? I pledged for that NES cartridge pendrive and something says I'll never receive it =(
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, a good timing.
ReplyDeleteImagine this released with megaman legacy collection - Conflict of interest
"Going Gold" is a term used to mean the final master discs are finished when printing CD's.
DeleteIt basically means the released version is 100% authored and ready for mass production. The Gold Disc being the master copy. So "Gold" means the game is complete.
The bot screwed up my replies. The first one was for a post up top. Sorry.
DeleteI meant to say there was no conflict of interest. There is no relation to the two projects. Comcept and IntiCreates were not involved in MMLC, I believe. MMLC was made by Digital Eclipse Software.
I'm only questioning why it comes sooner in the states. I can't believe that I'm saying this but it "triggers" me.
ReplyDeleteIt might have only "triggered" you, but these "Legends" of delays for this game only "serv" to "DASH" the hopes of those eagerly waiting, who have treated it as the "mother lode"-
DeleteI'll stop now.
I'm glad it's finally happening, buy I'm a little concerned about the 3DS port. I have a New 3DS, and I want to test this game out. I guess I can wait a little longer.
One more year won't hurt.
Keiji Inafune Mighty No.9 Before Delay Launch June and Proxino Megaman Game 11 and Megaman Anime Cartoon 2017 Next Mega Man Legends 3
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe the $10,000 tier backer friend of mine, still hasn't gotten his reward yet.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the other $10,000 backers.
Well if this game did nothing else, it educated a lot more people on what to expect from Kickstarter projects. Mighty No. 9 didn't do much different from the dozen other projects I've backed (most of which I should have right now but are long past their projected release dates). They were simply the most famous and had a couple missteps along the way. Everyone freak out. Yay.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see all the rioting when Shenmue III fails to meet its projected release dates.
It's been a lot more then just "delays". I hope you realize that.
DeleteWasn't there some kind of dinner with Inafune as a reward or something?
ReplyDeleteIs that even happening?
That was the ten-thousand dollars backers I believe.
DeleteYour guess is as good as mine on that.
Last I knew, no one got that dinner or any of those other rewards.
Five people bought that prize and it was supposed to happen on February 2014... but to give Inafune and company the benefit of the doubt (Me?! Surely I jest! シ), they might just be waiting until the game is actually done and published before doing that. The game itself was supposed to be released in April of last year, but we all know how that turned out... so yeah. "Expect delays," as the saying goes.
DeleteAAAAAAAAAAnd still no more Signature editions....
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Star Fox Zero would have been like had it been released in the Fall of 2015 as originally planned, but I'm very satisfied with the final product, Gyrowing and all.
ReplyDeleteI'm not starved for games with MegaMan-ish gameplay so I'm not going to pull my hair out waiting for Comcept to add all the stretch goal features, iron out the bugs, and make sure there are no ridiculous glitches that beg to be patched before they ship it(unlike recent offerings from another game company with "COM" in their name...).
The delays weren't for single player bugs though, so that's a bit of a weak argument for this... And Legacy Collection was just sad, I think Inafune and Capcom are competing in trying to piss off the Mega Man fanbase the most
DeleteLet me correct you Mr Inafune, YOUR REPUTATION IS SET IN STONE.
ReplyDeleteI stopped caring for this long ago. Thanks to a combination of a lot of things (the overhyping, the abysmal treatment of the community manager, the constant delays, the lackluster demo, the whole thing with Red Ash), this game is just tainted for me and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteThat's just me. If you're still excited for the game, fine. Nothing's really going to change my opinion at this point.
Everybody here voicing their anger about all the delays and how it killed their hype and out for Inafune's blood, and I'm over here just wishing Street Fighter V had been delayed just as much. It's a good example of what happens when everyone gets impatient and a game is rushed out before it's ready.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Had Inafune followed the release schedule, I'm sure that the same people would be complaining about how he released a half-finished the game and should have delayed it in order to resolve the issues. Personally, I'm not at all upset with the delay. If a little patience on my part means that the product is better, then I can wait as long as necessary.
DeleteThis whole thing, has not been all about waiting or any delays.
DeleteThings go a lot deeper then that. So don't jump on the "it's just a delay" bandwagon.
Also, your are assuming that they are fixing bugs.
I wonder if I'll get the signature edition that I ordered two copies of just in case one of the orders gets canceled.
ReplyDeleteWhat about PS3/XBOX/WII U release? DX
ReplyDeleteI'm just wondering if the Linux and OSX versions are still slated for release with all the "modern" versions, myself.
DeleteDoes no one see a problem about the 3DS and Vita versions, will come at a unknown time?!
ReplyDeleteWell, to be fair, this happens with dozens of games. Not really a surprise.
DeleteI think Anon may be talking about backers choose 3DS or Vita as their platform for the game.
DeleteAfter all, when (and if) it does release, those that choose that platform are out of luck until they do release them.
I am with the personal opinion that Comcept may not even ever release the 3DS and Vita ports.