18,000 Fans Paid to Bring This Game Back; the Publisher Killed It Anyway

Four years ago, fans of the classic JRPG Wild Arms put their money where their mouths were.

Veterans of the series wanted to make a spiritual successor called Armed Fantasia. Instead of waiting for a major publisher to decide whether anyone wanted such a game, they went to Kickstarter.

And the audience answered. Unequivocally.

A joint campaign for Armed Fantasia and another JRPG called Penny Blood raised ¥379,328,385. At the time of funding, that sum was roughly equivalent to $2.6 million.

Armed Fantasia found a receptive audience, which attracted a publisher.

And now the publisher has killed it.

Akifumi Kaneko, creator of Wild Arms, led the project alongside other series veterans. The developers pitched a new “Westernpunk” RPG built around exploration, gadgets, vehicles, and turn-based combat.

And 18,000 people turned out to pay for the game in advance.

Now, the Kickstarter wasn’t intended to 100 percent cover both games’ productions. Instead, the fan-raised funding would enable Kaneko et al. to build working prototypes. The next phase of the plan was to attract industry investment to take the project the rest of the way.

And that plan seemed to have worked. 505 Games signed on to publish Armed Fantasia. The conventional industry perspective would consider that outcome a win.

Which is what makes what happened next especially revealing.

In March, Kaneko announced that the team had sent working samples of the main scenario, core gameplay systems, and other key game elements, to 505. That done, his team set to work completing the game.

Fast forward to this month: 505 Games’ parent company Digital Bros announced that they had discontinued development of Armed Fantasia. The company cited multiple gameplay revisions, changing market conditions, and the need for additional funding, as contributing to their decision.

But whatever the reasons, the takeaway is that one publisher vetoed 18,000 fans.

Read the full post on Substack.

ONE LAST DAY

I’ve spent the last several years exercising creative independence on a scale I can control. That calculus included the The Souldancer 10th Anniversary Edition and the stretch goals that made it even more deluxe.

The campaign has concluded with the Special Edition and three stretch goals funded. So if you missed the campaign, you can still get the best version of SD10, but only for one more day. Seize your last chance now.