Post by jack on Oct 30, 2019 2:40:26 GMT -6
Mere days before the game’s 18th June 2019 release, the Bloodstained Kickstarter page released an update from 505 games global brand manager Roberto Piraino saying that the game would be delayed for the country by “a few months”, with no concrete details on why this happened or how long the delay would be. The update outlined three ways that they would be addressing this issue
Giving out Steam keys to Japanese backers
Giving out digital keys to Japanese digital backers “as soon as ready” “before the public launch of the game”
Sending out physical game copies “as soon as they are ready”
The Steam key was the first indication that 505 Games was out of touch with the Japanese market: PC gaming is a minor niche in Japan, and many backers did not have computers that could run the game, or personal computers at all. Thus, despite the game’s Japanese roots, Japanese backers alone were left unable to play the game on release.
To make matters worse, North American retailers had broken the street date on the game’s release, and NA region copies had already been on sale in import and online stores around the country days before the release, priced at far less than most Japanese retail releases due to discrepancies in regional pricing. This meant that people who did not back the game could simply go to a store and buy it, while backers were left waiting.
Though the update did not give details on when exactly the game would be released, gaming website Automaton reported that the game was scheduled for an early September release.
In June, Japanese backers managed to confront Piraino, who goes by the name “Angel-Corvux” online, on Reddit.
Piraino stated in a post that:
Their top priority would be to get Japanese backers their copies
They would be speeding up the Japanese launch of the game
They would release information on additional efforts to apologise for the delay
They would investigate if they could do something additional to apologise for the delay
Far from speeding up the release, however, it was announced on July, that the game was delayed yet again, this time to 24th October.
As the 24th October release date approached, backers began to feel that something was wrong, as no shipping notifications had come. This culminated on the day of the release: Hours after the game had already started going on sale in all stores across Japan, backers received an e-mail saying that copies would be shipping “in the coming weeks”. For some reason the Xbox One, a console of which only 100,000 had been sold in Japan by the end of 2018, would be the first to get its copies, while the PS4, of which over 8 million have been sold in Japan, would be getting its copies last. The delay applied to digital copies as well.
The e-mail stated “if you don’t receive your package or a shipping confirmation right away there’s no cause for concern, it’s just the normal processing of the production queue”, empty words that offered no comfort or justification to backers who were again left betrayed, and ended saying that as an apology, all Japanese backers would receive an extra digital copy of the game for the same platform they backed, a completely pointless gesture for people who had backed the game for digital copies to begin with, and almost equally pointless for physical version backers, as the digital versions had also been delayed, meaning that this would not allow them to play the game any sooner.
As of the publication of this article (29th October 2019), the Japanese PS4 digital version has still not yet been released. Nothing related to this delay was posted on the Kickstarter page either.
In a July update on Kickstarter, 505 Games had offered Japanese backers a chance to get a North American digital console copy for the game, but only in exchange for backers giving up on what they had backed the game for to begin with, and offering no resolution to backers who wanted a physical version of the game.
If giving Japanese backers a North American digital console copy was an option at all, however, one can only wonder why they were not given out to all Japanese backers to begin with when the game was released in June, instead of giving out Steam codes which many Japanese backers could not use. This is even more egregious for Xbox One digital backers who were made to wait this long only to be given, in October, after the game was launched in Japan, a US digital code for the game. No reasoning for this has been offered by 505 Games, but one can assume that it is because the Japanese Xbox One digital release was cancelled.
While the shipping of the game itself was ridden with problems, so was the shipping of other backer rewards. While Fangamer did manage to ship the items on time, the items were packed into boxes with no padding material at all, and the shipments being from America to Japan meant that many backers found items, mostly the slipcase, damaged.
Staff from Happinet, the Japanese distributor of the game, were also present at the autograph session. This author asked them and got confirmation that Happinet and Japan regional publisher Game Source Entertainment have nothing at all to do with backer reward fulfilment: They are only handling the physical retail releases in Japan, while shipping to backers is being handled by Fangamer. Game Source Entertainment reiterates this on Twitter, further adding that digital releases in Japan are being handled not by them, but by 505 Games.
In the end, 505 Games and brand manager Piraino’s statements in June that they would be:
Giving out digital keys to Japanese digital backers “as soon as ready” “before the public launch of the game”
Sending out physical game copies “as soon as they are ready”
Their top priority would be to get Japanese backers their copies
They would be speeding up the Japanese launch of the game
They would release information on additional efforts to apologise for the delay
They would investigate if they could do something additional to apologise for the delay
Ring completely hollow. The launch was delayed to October. Physical copies have been in stores for nearly a week, meaning that the copies themselves must have been ready for far longer. Despite this, backers have not yet even been shipped the games yet. Likewise, digital releases were not ready before the public launch of the game, with the PS4 version not available yet at the time of this article’s publication. No effort at all has been put into making reparations with Japanese backers.
Giving out Steam keys to Japanese backers
Giving out digital keys to Japanese digital backers “as soon as ready” “before the public launch of the game”
Sending out physical game copies “as soon as they are ready”
The Steam key was the first indication that 505 Games was out of touch with the Japanese market: PC gaming is a minor niche in Japan, and many backers did not have computers that could run the game, or personal computers at all. Thus, despite the game’s Japanese roots, Japanese backers alone were left unable to play the game on release.
To make matters worse, North American retailers had broken the street date on the game’s release, and NA region copies had already been on sale in import and online stores around the country days before the release, priced at far less than most Japanese retail releases due to discrepancies in regional pricing. This meant that people who did not back the game could simply go to a store and buy it, while backers were left waiting.
Though the update did not give details on when exactly the game would be released, gaming website Automaton reported that the game was scheduled for an early September release.
In June, Japanese backers managed to confront Piraino, who goes by the name “Angel-Corvux” online, on Reddit.
Piraino stated in a post that:
Their top priority would be to get Japanese backers their copies
They would be speeding up the Japanese launch of the game
They would release information on additional efforts to apologise for the delay
They would investigate if they could do something additional to apologise for the delay
Far from speeding up the release, however, it was announced on July, that the game was delayed yet again, this time to 24th October.
As the 24th October release date approached, backers began to feel that something was wrong, as no shipping notifications had come. This culminated on the day of the release: Hours after the game had already started going on sale in all stores across Japan, backers received an e-mail saying that copies would be shipping “in the coming weeks”. For some reason the Xbox One, a console of which only 100,000 had been sold in Japan by the end of 2018, would be the first to get its copies, while the PS4, of which over 8 million have been sold in Japan, would be getting its copies last. The delay applied to digital copies as well.
The e-mail stated “if you don’t receive your package or a shipping confirmation right away there’s no cause for concern, it’s just the normal processing of the production queue”, empty words that offered no comfort or justification to backers who were again left betrayed, and ended saying that as an apology, all Japanese backers would receive an extra digital copy of the game for the same platform they backed, a completely pointless gesture for people who had backed the game for digital copies to begin with, and almost equally pointless for physical version backers, as the digital versions had also been delayed, meaning that this would not allow them to play the game any sooner.
As of the publication of this article (29th October 2019), the Japanese PS4 digital version has still not yet been released. Nothing related to this delay was posted on the Kickstarter page either.
In a July update on Kickstarter, 505 Games had offered Japanese backers a chance to get a North American digital console copy for the game, but only in exchange for backers giving up on what they had backed the game for to begin with, and offering no resolution to backers who wanted a physical version of the game.
If giving Japanese backers a North American digital console copy was an option at all, however, one can only wonder why they were not given out to all Japanese backers to begin with when the game was released in June, instead of giving out Steam codes which many Japanese backers could not use. This is even more egregious for Xbox One digital backers who were made to wait this long only to be given, in October, after the game was launched in Japan, a US digital code for the game. No reasoning for this has been offered by 505 Games, but one can assume that it is because the Japanese Xbox One digital release was cancelled.
While the shipping of the game itself was ridden with problems, so was the shipping of other backer rewards. While Fangamer did manage to ship the items on time, the items were packed into boxes with no padding material at all, and the shipments being from America to Japan meant that many backers found items, mostly the slipcase, damaged.
Staff from Happinet, the Japanese distributor of the game, were also present at the autograph session. This author asked them and got confirmation that Happinet and Japan regional publisher Game Source Entertainment have nothing at all to do with backer reward fulfilment: They are only handling the physical retail releases in Japan, while shipping to backers is being handled by Fangamer. Game Source Entertainment reiterates this on Twitter, further adding that digital releases in Japan are being handled not by them, but by 505 Games.
In the end, 505 Games and brand manager Piraino’s statements in June that they would be:
Giving out digital keys to Japanese digital backers “as soon as ready” “before the public launch of the game”
Sending out physical game copies “as soon as they are ready”
Their top priority would be to get Japanese backers their copies
They would be speeding up the Japanese launch of the game
They would release information on additional efforts to apologise for the delay
They would investigate if they could do something additional to apologise for the delay
Ring completely hollow. The launch was delayed to October. Physical copies have been in stores for nearly a week, meaning that the copies themselves must have been ready for far longer. Despite this, backers have not yet even been shipped the games yet. Likewise, digital releases were not ready before the public launch of the game, with the PS4 version not available yet at the time of this article’s publication. No effort at all has been put into making reparations with Japanese backers.
yey