The Wonderful 101 Remastered, an updated release of the previously Wii U-exclusive game, is nearing the end of its Kickstarter campaign. The game, which has earned over ¥200 million after asking for ¥5.425 million, has been the biggest gaming Kickstarter success story on the platform in some time.
However, as it turns out, the game was already a done deal before a single cent was earned through crowdfunding, and for Platinum this campaign was not about raising necessary funds so much as uniting a community of players.
Talking to Gematsu, producer Atsushi Inaba has revealed that the reason for the campaign was not because they needed the money. "The actual reason we decided to do a Kickstarter campaign was not for funding at all," he says. "It was more about gauging interest in The Wonderful 101. This is a game we’ve always wanted to revisit at some point in time, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the fans together—to unite them—and gauge interest."
Asked to clarify what the money would be used on, Inaba says that it would largely go towards fulfilling Kickstarter rewards and stretch goals. "I don’t know if you’ve seen all the tiers and their rewards, but those cost money to produce," he says. "The rest of the money is going towards the additional content that will be added to the game."
"I want to clarify that we didn’t do the campaign to ‘get money’ or anything like that—that wasn’t the point of it, he continues. "The main goal was to bring the fans together, gauge interest, and find a good way to revisit and release the game."
The Wonderful 101 Remastered is also coming to PC and PS4, although in the interview it's clarified that it will not come to Xbox One due to the difficulty of porting to that platform.
The game still has two potential stretch goals to meet. If it earns the equivalent of US$2 million, the game will feature an additional 2D adventure section, and if it hits $2.25 million, two of the game's music tracks will be re-recorded with a full orchestra.
Platinum Games has been busy lately. The studio is also working on Bayonetta 3, and the recently announced Project G.G., a new hero-focused action game.