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90s Arcade Racer seemingly cancelled for Wii U and PC

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Dude, people already bought the game through Kickstarter. It was funded as a Wii U game.
I mean, I get it, but this is a small project.

I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation but...continuing to work on a Wii U game at this point in time when you're such a small operation could be dangerous. The Wii U is the worst place to release a new game at the moment especially if it's e-shop exclusive.

I'd still like to see a finished version on there but...the Kickstarter was made when the Wii U was still viable. It is no longer viable.

I think he should just release an unfinished Wii U version for backers.
 

LewieP

Member
I agree that with a few exceptions, for all games not published by Nintendo, cancelling a Wii U version is probably a smart business move.

Even smarter would have been not taking money under false pretenses with promises that you can't keep. If you are not certain a game will release on a platform, don't promise that it will and then take money for people based on those promises.

This is pretty basic stuff.
 

wrowa

Member
I'd still like to see a finished version on there but...the Kickstarter was made when the Wii U was still viable. It is no longer viable.

Is it? Have indie game sales on Wii U declined over the past one or two years? Do you have any hard evidence for that or is it just a feeling you have? I'm honestly curios.

Also, the Kickstarter was for PC, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and Wii U. If this news is true (and I really don't see why they'd cancel the PC version), none of the platforms the game was kickstarted for will receive the final game. This would frankly be ridiculous.
 

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
Imo those versions are just delayed, i mean i can understand the cancellation of the wiiu version, but the pc one too? No, imo ps4 and xb1 are just the priority.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Imo those versions are just delayed, i mean i can understand the cancellation of the wiiu version, but the pc one too? No, imo ps4 and xb1 are just the priority.

Which is damn wrong because none of those versions was kickstarted. It would be practically a scam.
 

Superfrog

Member
I will be so happy, the day Nicalis goes bankrupt. What a shit and incompetent company they are.
Honestly, I think it's a fair assumption considering how bad their track record has been, especially recently. That's the story I'm going to believe until we hear otherwise..
Nicalis gonna Nicalis. Why would anyone give that shit company the benefit of the doubt. They have never surprised me in a positive way.
Spiral Insanity said:
Can we blame Nicalis for this? What is up with them?

100% sure we can and I will until proven otherwise. (Boy, I hope it hasn't been proven otherwise already)
I've not been following up on what Nicalis apparently fucked up recently. Could anyone give me a brief summary?

Edit: Nevermind, I just read this and this thread.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
I agree that with a few exceptions, for all games not published by Nintendo, cancelling a Wii U version is probably a smart business move.

Even smarter would have been not taking money under false pretenses with promises that you can't keep. If you are not certain a game will release on a platform, don't promise that it will and then take money for people based on those promises.

This is pretty basic stuff.

I don't think their inability to deliver has anything to do with Wii U or PC; its purely a consequence of them being incompetent, either individually or collectively. Remember, this game was supposed to be finished, like, two years ago--if they were concerned about the viability of the market they should have released their game in a timely manner.
 

Turrican3

Member
I'd still like to see a finished version on there but...the Kickstarter was made when the Wii U was still viable. It is no longer viable.
Even assuming that's true (and it's a big IF, since it's a small project it could be argued it would likely require less copies to break even, and that's ignoring the fact they had a kickstarter funding), it still doesn't make sense to cancel the PC version as well.
 

StayDead

Member
Cancelling the Wii U version would be pretty shady, because I imagine a lot of people kickstarted the game initially when it was advertised as a Wii U game, same goes for the PC version.

I wonder if they'll offer refunds?
 
Even assuming that's true (and it's a big IF, since it's a small project it could be argued it would likely require less copies to break even, and that's ignoring the fact they had a kickstarter funding), it still doesn't make sense to cancel the PC version as well.

What makes you think it's a "small" project? You have no inside knowledge of how much it cost for them to develop the game and how much they would need to sell in order to break even. Also just because they ran a Kickstarter campaign that doesn't mean the whole budget of the game was funded.
 

ChryZ

Member
Without official word I wouldn't assume cancelled just because it's currently not listed. They prolly just focus on platforms that somewhat guaranty a quick return and then take it from there.
 

Xater

Member
Canceling versions people funded on Kickstarter would be super scummy. I can't even see Nicalis doing that.
 

PillarEN

Member
I would expect a PC version eventually. First get some marketing support on PSN, Live, then hope for strong word of mouth and drop a PC version
 

Draeter

Banned
So if im getting this right this game was supposed to go out 2 years ago, and it was funded with a kickstarter for PC and Wii U, and i guess ps4 and xbox one were added later as strech goals; and now that game its getting cancelled for the platforms it was funded originally but still releasing for the ones that werent in the kickstarter
This sounds like such a gigantic scam that im going to guess its going to be entirely cancelled or someone trolled them and changed that info

What i dont understand its why people say that it makes sense to drop Wii U when it was funded for that
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
So if im getting this right this game was supposed to go out 2 years ago, and it was funded with a kickstarter for PC and Wii U, and i guess ps4 and xbox one were added later as strech goals; and now that game its getting cancelled for the platforms it was funded originally but still releasing for the ones that werent in the kickstarter
This sounds like such a gigantic scam that im going to guess its going to be entirely cancelled or someone trolled them and changed that info

What i dont understand its why people say that it makes sense to drop Wii U when it was funded for that

Not even as stretch goals. PS4 and Xbone versions have nothing to do with the kickstarter, so financing those with the kickstarter money is very close to a pyramidal scheme in my view.
 

Steejee

Member
Pretty shady to nix it for the original kickstarter platforms (and I really don't get killing the PC version in general). I would understand if they were shifting to NX because of some issue they encountered in testing they couldn't surmount for the WiiU, thus keeping the spirit of the kickstarter but not the letter, but unless those 60fps videos were all smoke and mirrors I have to wonder what the logic behind this move was.
 

patientx

Member
This game came up for wiiu first ! all other platforms came after. What a stupid idea to cancel the game on its original target platform. FUCK THAT:
 

Green Yoshi

Member
Not even as stretch goals. PS4 and Xbone versions have nothing to do with the kickstarter, so financing those with the kickstarter money is very close to a pyramidal scheme in my view.

Kickstarter doesn't mean that you pre-oder a game but fund a project. And PS4&One make more sense than WiiU at this point in time. But I expect that there will be a PC-version some months after the console version.
 

KingBroly

Banned
Kickstarter doesn't mean that you pre-oder a game but fund a project. And PS4&One make more sense than WiiU at this point in time. But I expect that there will be a PC-version some months after the console version.

People funded a Wii U and PC game. Not a PS4 and XBO game.
 

OBias

Member
I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation but...continuing to work on a Wii U game at this point in time when you're such a small operation could be dangerous.
Not fulfilling the promises you made to your customers is much more dangerous.
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
If true, I think this would mark a new low for Nicalis' already shady history as an indie publisher. Using kickstarter money that people gave them to make a a game for Wii U and PC, then casually dropping those after years and years of development hell and releasing it with a slightly different name on two previously unmentioned platforms? wut

The game is still listed for Wii U and PC on their offical website, so I guess we should wait for official confirmation before concluding.
 

nkarafo

Member
PS4/XBOX owners will see this in the credits:

"Special thanks to WiiU and PC owners who backed up the game".
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
Quoting a comment I saw on G0Nintendo (are they still banned? I forget):

http://who.is/whois/angelcomm.net
http://who.is/whois/nicalis.com
Looking things up, angelcomm.net is registered through Google, and nicalis.com is registered through GoDaddy. While not uncommon for people to have domains registered through different registrars, it's still unusual.
angelcomm.net has WHOIS privacy, so hard to tell who actually owns the domain. nicalis.com shows the registrant as Jerry Throckmorton. Trying to look him up, I found his LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-throckmorton-4a169a97
And it appears he left Nicalis in 2014. Whether or not he still controls the domain, or Nicalis has yet to update the WHOIS information (pretty common for domains to have outdated contact info) is hard to say.
However, I think the most telling sign here is the blog updates on each site.
http://angelcomm.net/blog
Last post was on February 5, 2015.
http://blog.nicalis.com/
Last post was May 10, 2016
So, between the two, I'd trust the information on nicalis.com moreso than angelcomm.net. Just sayin'.

That still doesn't explain why the angelcomm site has more up-to-date game information than the nicalis site...
 
Kickstarter doesn't mean that you pre-oder a game but fund a project. And PS4&One make more sense than WiiU at this point in time. But I expect that there will be a PC-version some months after the console version.

PC download was part of the rewards. Kickstarter does not require you to complete a game. If it's part of the rewards though, you'll end up out of a lot of money as it's considered a violation of the agreement with backers which means every single one of the backers can sue you. You also lose face too.
 
That would suck, especially if they cancel PC and Wii U. I mean, the Wii U is dead and all, but it's still not getting replaced until nearly a year (and who knows if the March of 2017 date could change).
 
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