Tag: Reward

[Column] Six Months Later, Mighty No. 9 Is Still An Unmitigated Disaster


Mighty No. 9 has been out since June 21st, long enough for the internet to blow up in anger and then mostly forget about the title at least until the ‘most disappointing games of 2016’ lists start coming out, to the tune of $4 million in wasted crowdfunding cash via Kickstarter, and while the fire has been mostly put out, the embers are still burning somewhere underground. It may seem hard to believe but after $3.9 million in funding, three delays, and six months post launch, Mighty No. 9 still hasn’t fully delivered.

And I am not talking about the game being disappointing. Individuals who pledged at higher levels in the original Kickstarter campaign were promised all sorts of goodies and many of them have still not been delivered. Take this post from Reddit:

Mighty No. 9 was finally released on June 21st, and almost 6 months later Comcept has not sent out any physical rewards other than t-shirts early in the year. Those who backed the game for the handheld versions have just been told by Engine Software (the company porting the game) that it is in development with no scheduled release date. Mighty No 9 twitter and kickstarter page has been silent since September 15th as well.

According to one poster, the list of items includes books, USB keys, sketches, physical copies, instruction books, art books, and possibly PAX rewards and 3D printed figures. At this point, the game still hasn’t come out on handhelds, meaning those who backed the game to get it on their 3DS and Vita have had six months of knowing just how disappointing the game is, coupled with no idea when it will actually be released.

Fans (or backers) have no idea when they are receiving the rewards they pledged for, and Comcept isn’t talking.

(Source: Reddit)

Defiance Might Not Hit Steam Tiers


defiances

Those of you who read Flying Ostrich Media are aware that over there I have covered Steam’s new system of pre-purchase reward tiers from time to time. If you aren’t familiar with the system, it works pretty simply: The more people pre-purchase through Steam, the higher the percentage and more rewards are unlocked. Bioshock Infinite, for instance, offered a free copy of XCOM for the ultimate reward. Trion’s upcoming shooter Defiance is offering everything from exclusive vehicles to weapons, titles and xp boosters all in return for more people pre-purchasing through Steam on the PC.

The system also works to gauge interest in the game, and unfortunately Defiance’s progress does not give great first impressions. With two weeks to go until the title launches and the deadline to pre-purchase is passed, Defiance has still not hit its first milestone. At 33%, it isn’t even close. Now obviously using this to gauge the game’s overall success is virtually meaningless. We have no way of knowing how many people have pre-purchased through alternate sources from Steam, or how many have purchased the game on the PS3 or Xbox360. We also have no way of knowing how many orders are required to hit each milestone.

So why isn’t Defiance skyrocketing to unlock all three tiers of rewards (at least not yet)? It’d take a day and a half to go over all of the variables, from releases on other platforms to Steam not opening up pre-purchases until after the game had been available at other outlets, to the game launching on consoles, etc. On the other hand, players are still able to grab rewards regardless of their system of choice, or whether or not Steam hits its targets, by submitting a lot of Arkfall codes as they are discovered. The number of codes discovered is approaching ninety at the time of this publishing, out of one hundred twenty total, and the more codes you enter, the better stuff you get out of it including permanent skill bonuses, weapons, titles, and more.

Defiance comes out April 2nd on PC, 360, and PS3, and operates on a buy to play model supported by DLC content.

(Source: Steam)