Kickstarter Backers Remain Supportive in Spite of Bloodstained Delay

Delays for Kickstarter video game projects aren’t uncommon, in fact they’re almost expected. So it’s no huge surprise that the release date for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been pushed back from March 2017 to the first half of 2018. What is more notable however is the supportive reaction from backers, especially considering the anger that accompanied similar updates from Mighty No. 9.

In the hours since the announcement, the update received over 300 likes and 200 comments, with the majority of those comments being positive. This is likely due to the way the developers of Bloodstained have consistently engaged with the community and posted regular updates. This latest update also stresses that this delay is to ensure the final product meets the high standards of  Koji Igarashi – the update even includes a video message from IGA himself.

This is all in stark contrast to Mighty No. 9 where backers became more and more hostile towards the developers. However in the case of Bloodstained the backers are quite happy to wait if it means a quality product. It also helps that a playable demo was made available in June and was warmly received. And of course the overwhelming success of the original campaign means there are a lot of stretch goals that will need to be incorporated.

It’s not all good news though, as the new schedule means some of the platforms that Bloodstained will be released on will be past their prime, particularly the Vita and Wii U. I’m also personally concerned that IGA is adding a new development team over a year after the Kickstarter campaign ended. But as long as IGA and his team avoid the mistakes that Mighty No. 9 made, there’s every reason to believe Bloodstained will be a success.