The last time anyone got an official notice about Mighty No. 9 by Keiji Inafune and Comcept was a delay announcement on January 25th 2016. They were straight to the point stating they needed to “resolve any network issues and porting work necessary to publish Mighty No. 9 on the various platforms. However, the issues relating to the network modes were more critical than expected,” according to the post.
But they didn’t give any definite time frame of when the game could be launched, telling the Kickstarter backers they wanted to “make sure that everything is confirmed to be ready before giving a new specific release date. But we expect it to realistically be in Spring 2016”.
Many people replied to this update demanding refunds or requesting to change the platform they ordered the game for, amongst other concerns. One worried backer named CarneyVorous stated she loved “being able to support games I believe in, but I’m losing faith in Kickstarter based games,” and it seemed doubtful that she’d be involved in future crowdfunding ventures.
Elaborating on the Mighty No. 9 situation further, she was firm about her views. “In the last update Comcept said Spring 2016,” but here we are. Two months with no news and Q2 is upon us. They owe us SOME update. Even if it’s another pushback to summer or fall. By all means, produce the best game you can and don’t release it until it’s ready, but respect your backers and update us,” CarneyVorous told me.
Nothing significant has been posted by any of Mighty No. 9’s media accounts. The official Facebook page for the game stopped posting after Christmas of last year. Any expected comments of holiday cheer are drowned out by months of backer complaints The official piled into it. Darryl Boyen writes “These guys are crooks, stole thousands of dollars from backers who have not heard anything about their prizes that have nothing to do with online play. I have heard talk of a class action lawsuit based on this and hope it comes to fruition,” and his words weren’t out of place among the upset chorus of responses.
The official English twitter account for Mighty No. 9 became quiet after the delay announcement.
In late February, it posted an unrelated tweet showcasing a photo from their Japanese twitter account.
Inafune is a HUGE Mad Max fan and after seeing all the awards today he drew a quick sketch to congratulate them! https://t.co/LvZ5uuY5Db
— Mighty No. 9 (@MightyNo9) February 29, 2016
The tweets in response showed the restlessness of the community.
@MightyNo9 i want a update of the game
— patricio bustamante (@pbe_x) March 17, 2016
@MightyNo9 Wow, he looks hard at work on the game 😐
— Augusto I. (@Kingpinn02) March 16, 2016
One backer was willing to compromise and just wanted their other kickstarter awards.
@MightyNo9 So, when are you sending the other rewards? the game's taking forever, you could at least give me my artbook and USB…
— César H. Sandoval (@TekkZero) March 16, 2016
Strangely, the Japanese Mighty No. 9 twitter account still tweets regularly, often sharing fan art and interacting with the community. The last instance of any of these tweets having anything to do with the game’s progress is difficult to discern. But they definitely advertised Mighty No. 9’s MAGFest 2016 involvement.
アメリカ ワシントンD.C.で開催されるMAGFest内でMighty No. 9 Liveがおこなわれるようです!!日本時間：2月20日(土) 朝11:00～12:00 ライブはTwitchで配信されるそうです(｀_´)ゞ→ https://t.co/Fq3d1VMjnJ
— Mighty No. 9 日本語PR (@mightyno9jp) February 18, 2016
According to Nintendo Life, Keiji Inafune addressed the delay. “Inafune stated that “19 to 20” of 24 master ROMs required for simultaneous release – 8 platforms apiece for 3 regions, basically – are “primed and ready to go”. Inafune thanked the audience for their continued support and apologised for the delays.”
This small mention of news was a promising sign of potential progress. Fast forward to March 17th of this year, another nod to the situation came from the CEO of Deep Silver. Talking to MCVUK he said “Unfortunately we just had to iron out the last multiplayer issues and that’s well on its way now. We are confident that we will release the game in the coming months.”
These unclear comments on the Mighty No. 9 delay could all be cleared up by simply checking back in with another update. Finding new information about any progress shouldn’t require a few hours of internet searching to obtain. Go to the Steam forums for the PC version of Mighty No. 9 and you’ll find nothing but refund requests, complaints about the lack of updates, and last desperate attempts to maintain the peace.
I asked Andrew Huerta what his views of this situation were as a backer of the game. He stated “I’ve seen quite a few kickstarter projects that have been in production for years and still nothing. The other thing that happens is with time passing, what I wanted in 2013, I no longer care for in 2016,” and he seemed to give up caring about Mighty No. 9 at all.
Between their Kickstarter and Paypal, the Mighty No. 9 project raised a total of $4,031,550 by the October 1, 2013 deadline. In April 2016, the backers are left in the dark as to what’s going on. All they appear to want is some sort of explanation on where they are with the network problems at the moment. They want what was paid for, and as the State of Washington vs. Asylum crowdfunding lawsuit in 2014 showed us, there’s an obligation to provide the product.
When it comes to what the developers of the game are doing right now, they’ve seemed to move on to other projects. Inti Creates has moved onto other projects, including Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Deep Silver had no official comment to make on the current status of Mighty No. 9. In response to my request for a statement they told me: “We have no comments at this time. You’ll be the first to know once we have new information to share.”
For more reading, be sure to check out Ian’s editorial, “Let The Backer Beware: The Disappointment of Mighty No. 9.”
