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Kaio: The King of Pirates (3DS) cancelled

L~A

Member
Marvelous has just announced that Kaio: The King of Pirates (supposed to come out on 3DS) has been cancelled. It was the game Keiji Inafune worked on, at Comcept.

It was supposed to be a big cross-media project, but due to rapid changes in market conditions, it looks like it became too hard to make this project. I believe they aw how Bomba Crusher, Gyrobomba and Hero Bomba did, and went all "NOPE". From the looks of it, the whole project cost them 461m Yen.


Trailer for those who can't remember the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6aggT5JENs


Source
 

Sandfox

Member
I was excited for this game when it was first announced, but I guess all the drama and moving around Inafune has been involved with over the past few years took up all his time.
 

L~A

Member
これにより、仕掛品残高461百万円を開発中止損として特別損失に計上するとしています。

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like they lost 461m Yen with this project.
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Sad that it died while Rodeo survived.

I have find it weird that he went on to announce so many 3DS games (Insect War, Azure Striker Gunvolt, Mighty Number 9, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2) after announcing Kaio, some of which are released.
 
Sad that it died while Rodeo survived.

I have find it weird that he went on to announce so many 3DS games (Insect War, Azure Striker Gunvolt, Mighty Number 9, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2) after announcing Kaio, some of which are released.

Gunvolt arent his games.
Only is Mighty Number 9... which is developped by Inti Creates.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
When they can openly come forward and say this is kill but TLG cannot. Ah well, it probably wouldn't have been much good anyway.
 

L~A

Member
Sad that it died while Rodeo survived.

I have find it weird that he went on to announce so many 3DS games (Insect War, Azure Striker Gunvolt, Mighty Number 9, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2) after announcing Kaio, some of which are released.

But Inafuna didn't really work on Gunvolt (though Inti Creates did consult him for some stuff).

Eeew. That's worse ! How could they throw 4 millions USD in a project to not even release it ?
And yet nothing to show ! Something sounds fishy here...

Well, they were going to lose even more money if they continued. I mean, look at SEGA with Hero Bank or Capcom with Gaist Crusher. Since it was supposed to be a cross-media project, there would have been stuff like anime and more.... costly stuff.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
Gunvolt arent his games.
Only is Mighty Number 9... which is developped by Inti Creates.

Yeah, and Bugs vs Tanks was developed by Natsume. I don't think Comcept is able or willing to handle full-scale development on their own; they're a production studio that pitches games to publishers and contracts other studios to make them under their supervision. Who knows what was up with Kaio...
 
Well, they were going to lose even more money if they continued. I mean, look at SEGA with Hero Bank or Capcom with Gaist Crusher. Since it was supposed to be a cross-media project, there would have been stuff like anime and more.... costly stuff.

Couldn't they have just dumped it on eshop without the other media? Would have still probably been a loss, but it would have at least mitigated some of their cost...
 

kiri

Member
I have had this game on my mind for the past few months. I figured with comcept moving onto other projects/arcade that it was canned. Famitsu haven't had it in their upcoming software line-up for months now.

Its good to know officially that its been canned though, rather than staying in limbo.
 

crinale

Member
The money they have thrown away is like 4.6 times larger than entire Dragon's Crown's budget.
still not really that big amount of money I would say
 

crinale

Member
Seriously, media collaboration (Corocoro Magazine, TV series, Bamco toys and such) is extremely important for a IP to "blow up" in Japan and it has been like that for years.
I can perfectly understand the reasoning this being canned if market firms don't see this getting popular.

(And that's why Pokemon is a living legend as it is one of few IPs became everlasting brand by game itself. The TV series started after game was already popular).
 

sörine

Banned
Well, they were going to lose even more money if they continued. I mean, look at SEGA with Hero Bank or Capcom with Gaist Crusher. Since it was supposed to be a cross-media project, there would have been stuff like anime and more.... costly stuff.
Did Hero Bank lose money? I thought it did okay, I mean it got a sequel?
 

Mecha

Member
sörine;155782930 said:
Did Hero Bank lose money? I thought it did okay, I mean it got a sequel?

Gaist Crusher got a sequel and it did terribly. Hero Bank sold a bit better than Gaist Crusher, but both were flops.
 

NotLiquid

Member
I was thinking about this game the other day. I was reading up on Rodea finally coming back from limbo and thought "wait a second, wasn't there another game with a penguin or something that another legacy director was doing for 3DS?"

Really sucks to hear that it fell through so hard. Kinda figured it'd be dead in the waters.
 
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