The Wonderful 101: Remastered is Platinum Games’ first self-published project. It’s also the studio’s first ever crowdfunding campaign, and many are wondering if this is the route future projects will take. According to Platinum, not necessarily. Speaking to Eurogamer, lead producer Atsushi Inaba explained that The Wonderful 101’s campaign wasn’t so much about raising money, but gauging interest. “This is an original case - it’s not so much the case that we’re saying hey we need money,” said Inaba. “It’s more saying hey everyone let’s come together and make this project a reality.” For future projects, Platinum will only take the crowdfunding route if it makes sense, but it’s not planning to do that with anything else just yet.
“So moving forward there’s no thought of needing to crowdfund and doing it again - this is just a particular case. But if in the future there’s a similar case where crowdfunding makes sense, it’s an option we’ll consider.” Inaba confirmed that future self-published projects will all be new games, as the studio has no plans to revive any of its older titles. Inaba also shut down a possible return for Scalebound, the cancelled Xbox One exclusive, as the IP is owned by Microsoft. “Whatever happens with this project, we really can’t do anything with it - unless Microsoft gives us the go-ahead,” he explained. Although Platinum didn’t specifically say if Nintendo owns The Wonderful 101 IP, the developer said that “Nintendo’s kindness has allowed us to expand to other platforms.” The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Kickstarter campaign is already a success with over $1 million raised so far. The developer’s Platinum 4 teaser site has three more announcements to go. Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya