Over the weekend, a report cropped up claiming that PlatinumGames will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign to help port Wii U game The Wonderful 101 to other platforms including the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
The report originally came from YouTube channel GameXplain but it has since been corroborated by known insider and video game historian Liam Robertson. To add more weight to the rumor, Twitter user Nibellion spotted PlatinumGames’ newly-created Kickstarter profile, and if that wasn’t enough, PlatinumGames itself posted a photo of Hideki Kamiya that seems to be teasing something to do with The Wonderful 101.
Scenes from the PG office! Who’s that photobombing Hideki Kamiya? pic.twitter.com/D70oalUTKo
— PlatinumGames Inc. (@platinumgames) January 31, 2020
Rumor: PlatinumGames to start a Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101 – coming to Switch/PS4 and possibly XBO – on February 3
PlatinumGames Kickstarter profile has popped up as well https://t.co/VTZTUaSdcjhttps://t.co/Tb7794MT4a pic.twitter.com/y0jkNBMBJ4
— Nibel (@Nibellion) February 1, 2020
Platinum (apparently) pitched it around to different publishers. Nobody wanted it. Nintendo certainly didn’t want it. Kickstarter is a back-up plan.
— Liam Robertson (@Doctor_Cupcakes) February 1, 2020
The Wonderful 101 is an action-adventure, hack-and-slash game that released in 2013 to positive reviews. However, the game wasn’t a commercial success. If the aforementioned report is true, then it looks like lackluster sales may have been part of the reason Nintendo agreed to let go of the IP.
Earlier this month, PlatinumGames secured funding from industry giant Tencent to help the studio self-publish its games going forward. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmed has said that the investment will allow the developer to pursue smaller projects – something it has been eyeing for a while.
We’ll update our readers when we have more information.
[Source: GameXplain via ResetEra]
