Mighty No. 9’s New Release Date, Demo Finally Launches

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Comcept has finally released its trial version of Mighty No. 9 as a February launch is planned.

Earlier this summer, we reported that Keiji Inafune's spiritual successor to the Mega Man series, Mighty No. 9 was delayed to 2016. The Kickstarter page for Mighty No. 9 originally had the game slated for a Dec. 2013 release, so just think how long fans have been waiting for this game. Comcept announced that Mighty No. 9 will now be launching in the Americas on Feb. 9, 2016 and will globally debut on Feb. 12. The PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS versions will digitally launch at a later date. The game will be physically and digitally available for the Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, whereas digital-only versions will hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC formats.

We've also learned that the trial version of Mighty No. 9, which was originally meant as a means of saying sorry for the game's dozenth delay, has finally launched after (you guessed it) another delay.

Original Story:

Comcept was supposed to launch a demo of Mighty No. 9 this week as an apology for the game being delayed into 2016. Unfortunately, that is being delayed as well.

The official website for Mighty No. 9 has some strange robot design contest going on. At the end of the website's newest post about the contest (found via Destructoid), Comcept slapped on a tiny note that the trial version of Mighty No. 9 would be delayed. Mind you, this demo/trial version is being released as an apology for Mighty No. 9 itself being delayed (AGAIN) to Q1 2016. Mighty No. 9 was supposed to have launched quite some time ago, having major delays announced in April and again last month.

The worst part is how Comcept is handling this delay. The people who helped fund the project and made Mighty No. 9 one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever should be the ones being first notified about the delay of this demo. Instead, Comcept tacked it at the end of a contest posting, hoping no one would notice.

The Kickstarter page for Mighty No. 9 originally had the game slated for a Dec. 2013 release. Comcept also launched multiple other crowdfunding campaigns after the game's successful run on Kickstarter.

Don't forget that Inafune and Comcept also announced a Kickstarter for the Mega Man Legends' spiritual successor, Red Ash, despite Mighty No. 9 not even being finished. Furthermore, Comcept announced Mighty No. 9 is getting both a live-action movie as well as an animated series — and the game hasn't even launched! To make things worse, Comcept also launched a Kickstarter for Red Ash' anime tie-in. Despite Red Ash's Kickstarter falling almost $300K short of its $800K goal (and rightfully so), Comcept announced they had a publisher for the game the whole time.

Regardless of my affinity for Mega Man and enjoyment of Keiji Inafune's work, the past six months have made me extremely skeptical of Comcept's business practices. How about Comcept just finish the one game that already had the tremendously successful crowdfunding campaign(s) before adding on new projects?

Here's what Comcept offhandedly said about the delay on its contest post:

Finally, we know that all of our fans are looking forward to the Special Demo Version we are preparing, and we just ask that you be a little more patient. The team is working on it, but some issues popped up regarding the distribution method so there is a good chance it will not be ready to launch by the 15th. We are really sorry for the inconvenience.

Mighty No. 9 is still expected to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS and PC.

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