Just a few hours after the Wonderful 101 Kickstarter was announced, Platinum Games had hit its funding goal, then most of its stretch goals. That piece of good news means the remastered version of the former Wii U title is going to be coming to the Nintendo Switch, the PS4 and Steam. It’s going to be coming fast, too. Platinum Games announced the title will launch in April of 2020.
While most people were just excited to see the game coming to current generation consoles, and as quickly as it was assured it will come, others wondered whether or not this was really something that needed to be put on Kickstarter at all. Industry insider Benji-Sales was one of the first to wonder whether the massive amount of money the company made in a matter of hours was really needed in order to get the game ported.
He believes Wonderful 101 could have been coming to all three platforms anyway. Further, he believes Platinum Games achieved a level of profitability it might not have seen if it had simply launched the game in the more traditional way.
Wonderful 101 Kickstarter is about to hit $350,000 in less than an hour and a half. It'll hit the half a million $ PS4 goal in no time
Porting a game definitely takes work and money but I can tell you this
Platinum is going to be gerting a LOT of profit from this Kickstarter
— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) February 3, 2020
When he posted, the Wonderful 101 Kickstarter had only been live for an hour. As of 8:00 PM eastern, Monday night, the funding was streaking towards $800,000 with no signs of slowing down.
It’s important to keep in mind the original goal laid out by Platinum Games was $50,000. The stretch goals weren’t set that much higher and the company announced they were achieved seemingly right after they were launched.
Other users were quick to point out that if the game really is coming in April, it stands to reason the ports have already been finished. That would make the crowdfunding efforts taking place on Monday, more of reimbursement than anything else.
While Benji-Sales and the rest were quick to point out there was nothing wrong with Platinum Games earning money off the return of Wonderful 101, the Kickstarter tiers and stretch goals seemed to be geared towards more towards making a profit instead of funding a project.
