Let's talk about ethics

This is probably the second worse place in the world to post this, but since 505 seems to have completely abandoned backers, I figured that I'd rather try to start a conversation here.

I'm a backer as many of you are, I’m also an enthusiast of the metroidvania genre. I usually back games on kickstarter for the lowest possible amount that allows me to get the game, that price usually matches the price that the game will have on the first ever discount or sale it has (if the game is actually good) or matches the price the game will get forever if the game is not that good, that’s in case the game turns out to be a scam, like it has happened before, but with this game it was different, having a reputable producer as the head of the project, an impressive cast and a studio like inti creates with armature studio as backup for some of the ports, my only concern was that the stretch goals were pushing the scope way to much for the game to be in time, I also remember the “transparency” by them saying upfront that they had a publisher that was going to support the project, but that it was a strategic partner and was not going to fill in the role of a traditional publisher, thanks to the funds WE provided. So being a collector as well, I jumped in with a tier that even if the game was bad, would allow me to have a piece of history of the genre.

Since I don’t want to turn this into a briefing of the project’s history, I’ll cut it down to what is relevant, deep silver had the rights for bloodstained, as soon as mighty number 9 was released and crushed, they gave the rights back to artplay, distanced from inti and brought in 505 games, 505 commited to support the game and to honor the deal with the backers, the first red light for me, was the poll, the open poll, used to assest the viability of selling the backer exclusive content, that poll that even today is up, is one of the pilars for stripping away the backer exclusive content, that’s under the lie that “selling the content had an overwhelming support”, I don’t wanna get fixed into all the fiasco that was this poll, so i’ll leave it there for now.



The cancellation of the wii u and vita versions though a low blow in my opinion, they tried to address them properly by allowing refunds and also by allowing platform change, I don’t like that cancellations but those are not close to the worse they’ve done on this journey, this post won’t follow a time line I know vita cancellation was after curse of the moon release.



Then came the curse of the moon release, they had a troubled release, but also had mitigation strategies in place, temporal steam keys for instance, Roberto from 505 never missed a chance to ensure that 505 had nothing to do with that game, it was something between artplay and inti, and that they will make sure nothing similar would happened on the release of “the main game”, a subtle change was made, curse of the moon went from being a prequel to an almost non-canon spin off.



I also won’t forget the fact that when they announced they were going to sell the backer exclusive content, roberto said something pretty stupid like “it was either that or cutting content”, why were those options to begin with? Where are your ethics dude?



A “futurepak” version was announced for retail, that could be gotten for as low as 32 usd, the starting price point for the game of 40 usd made us backers 60 and above, any tier, got effectively ripped out, but worry not because they had a plan, make a chart to try to break down the price to show that backers got a better deal, that chart had items like “backer beta demo”, just a note here, backers provided a TON of feedback for that demo, that use to be called beta-testing, and you’d get pay to do it, that beta-testing was added as if they were providing us something of value, when it was the other way around, they also threw in the curse of the moon copy that eariler roberto was so eager to distance from, now it was a proof that backers got a ton of value, this is a lie, all backers 60 and above got ripped, and a sad attempt to try to say they were not it is another proof of questionable ethics, he also priced at 10 usd a piece of cardboard that is worth a couple cents.



Then pax came, o dear pax, switch version got… valuable feedback, then our dearest lier came in to assure that all of that was due to specific circumstances.



Release window came and the fact that release was imminent and shipments to backers were not way to be seen, the guy that lies the most came in to say that anyone saying that backers wouldn’t get their copies on time was spreading misinformation, well, it turned out this time was even worse than curse of the moon, because still today, some backers don’t have their copies yet, what’s even worse? Remember that content that was backer exclusive content and we got stripped off? Well that’s widely available to anyone who can buy it, but backers don’t have it yet. Also remember all the specific circumstances that would make the switch version to run bad? It turns out that the switch version is even worse than reported at pax



This is already too long , I just wanna start a discussion about ethics, why it seems like roberto from 505 has NO ETICHS, why didn’t he pushed back in the name of backers? Why are getting such a raw deal? Why are some guys begging for what they paid for like 4 years ago and still think that somehow they are doing us a favor? Where are igarashi’s ethics in all this? Is he aware of what is going on here?





Roberto from 505 is my perception that you have no ethics, that you have no interest to honor what 505 agreed upon entering, feel free to prove me wrong, pushback your company in the name of backers to try to mitigate all the wrongs you and your company have done to backers, even if some are ok with it, you shouldn’t be able to sleep at nigh.