With all signs pointing to Red Ash's Kickstarter not making its campaign goal this week, Comcept announced a publisher will fund the game's development.

Comcept revealed on Kickstarter that the Chinese digital entertainment company, Fuze Entertainment, will be funding the development of its spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends, Red Ash. This news comes in light of Red Ash still having around 40 percent of its Kickstarter goal to meet with just four days left of its campaign. As Red Ash looks like it won't be making its Kickstarter goal, the timeliness of Comcept's announcement leaves a lot of questions. Did Comcept have this deal with Fuze from the start? Was the Kickstarter implemented for just more money? Does the tie-in anime movie already have funding as well? I'm not saying that Comcept is money hungry or cheating anyone here, I'm just questioning the timeliness of this announcement, as many people invest money into Kickstarter projects assuming that if the campaign fails, the project isn't going to happen.

Here's what Comcept had to say about Fuze funding Red Ash's development:

 

First off, the contribution of FUZE is a done deal. We can officially confirm that "The KalKanon Incident” will be developed to completion, with the initial goals for game content (8 hours), along with ports to BOTH PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

The rights to RED ASH will be retained by comcept. We're excited to find such a great partner in FUZE who believes in our vision in its pure form. In addition, comcept will retain rights to creative discretion and decisions in game development.

So where does the $500,000 actually raised from the fans on Kickstarter actually go?

The Kickstarter campaign is going 100% towards more content! Consider your pledge a contribution to stretch goals from here on out.

Exactly what are those stretch goals? We're sorry to say that will have to wait a little while longer! Like we said, we're very busy with many behind-the-scenes things over here, and we apologize if you feel left in the dark. As you can see, the things we have brewing that are keeping us occupied are BIG, and all for the purpose of getting you RED ASH in its biggest, bestest form. That's the reason we're less communicative than we'd like to be!

We know we’re in the final days of our campaign, but we’d like to ask fans to continue their support of RED ASH! Your money is going towards 100% content now, so please look forward to the revised "stretch goals"!

As a fan, contributor (to both the game and the anime's campaigns), and as someone who followed this project since day one, something about this feels wrong. While it's great that Red Ash is funded and heading to PS4 and Xbox One, I'd like a bit more clarity about this funding, as it likely takes time to broker a major deal like that.

As of the publication of this article, Red Ash's tie-in anime Kickstarter is sitting at a little over $112,000 of its $150,000 Kickstarter goal. Likewise, the game's Kickstarter is at $489,000 of its $800,000 goal (not like that matters anymore), with both campaigns having four days left to go. Nevertheless, this leaves me wondering, would Shenmue 3 still be happening if its Kickstarter campaign wasn't successful?

In related news, Comcept posted a video playthrough of Mighty No. 9's opening stage:

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