PlatinumGames has admitted that the Kickstarter for the remastered edition of Wonderful 101 for home consoles had nothing to do with actual funding. It was entirely about gauging interest in the property.

Nintendo Life picked up the news from an interview that Gematsu had with PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba, where he told them…

“Well the actual reason we decided to do a Kickstarter campaign was not for funding at all, it was more about gauging interest in The Wonderful 101. This is a game we’ve always wanted to revisit at some point in time, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the fans together—to unite them—and gauge interest. And in essence, to release the game. So it wasn’t really about the amount of funding at all, it was about self-publishing, bringing fans together, and revisiting The Wonderful 101.”

Quite naturally, this would lead people to ask “What the heck was the point of the Kickstarter then?”

According to Inaba, the $2 million – yes the $2 million – that they’ve raised via the Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered will be used to produce the physical backer goods and additional content that they have plans on adding to the game.

Inaba told Gematsu…

“First off, the money is going towards the production of all the goods—I don’t know if you’ve seen all the tiers and their rewards, but those cost money to produce. The rest of the money is going towards the additional content that will be added to the game. All that costs money, and it takes time and work to port the game to the additional platforms. I want to clarify that we didn’t do the campaign to ‘get money’ or anything like that—that wasn’t the point of it. The main goal was to bring the fans together, gauge interest, and find a good way to revisit and release the game.”

So there you have it.

They didn’t actually need the money to port the game, and that was going to happen regardless.

Some people are already on social media attempting to defend the crowdfund, claiming that this was already clarified in the FAQ.

Eh, this was clarified on the original Kickstarter page and the FAQ. It’s not new info. The headline should say “Platinum reiterate info found on TW101 remaster Kickstarter page”.

— Wonder-Santa (@MahvelZambie) March 2, 2020

This is untrue.

If you click on the FAQ page and highlight the first question, which is “Why bring The Wonderful 101 to Kickstarter?” it doesn’t mention anything about it being to “gauge interest”. In fact, it states…

“Although PlatinumGames has been able to grow over the years thanks to the players and our fans, we still haven’t been able to fully realize our long-time dream of self-publishing our own IPs. With your support, we hope not only to bring The Wonderful 101 to a wider audience on a variety of platforms, but also to add some content that will enhance the experience even more! This campaign is your chance to empower us to pursue self-publishing and take our destinies into our own hands.”

So basically gamers were taken for a loop.

This also comes after PlatinumGames teamed up with Tencent and announced that they have plans on pursuing live services.

Something about a fool and his money is coming to mind.

(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)