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I'm surprised Bandai isn't just doing it themselves. They certainly have the capability.

Interesting that there are no low-end pledge levels nor the ability to simply purchase some of the models. Oh well. I know Highlord Tamburlaine will back this, so I can sit it out.

I wonder if Bandai has some hand in the oddities going on.

 Alpharius wrote:
If so...huh?

They didn't know a game based on Dark Souls would do really, really well?

I suppose that's possible...

This is Bandai we're talking about. They're not exactly good at marketing or handling their own properties outside of Japan. Just look at how well they handled Gundam- which is their biggest cash cow- outside of Japan.

I don't really get why they're bothering with the"Retailer Exclusive" stuff. Only a select few get access to them and they aren't really even exclusive since they said they would be available on their webshop. So really, it's just something coming out when the game hits retail. Why even bother showing it or including it? Do they expect early access to certain expansions will be enough to entice retailers to support this? If they do, why not just go with a traditional funding model then?

Nah, what this really needs is an exclusive Solaire praising the sun.

 Hanskrampf wrote:
Still no clear infos from Steamforged about big parts of the game. Bandai is holding the leash pretty tight and who would have thought that a board game for a big name like Dark Souls might get so many backers and should have pre-approved lots of stretchgoals?

Very underwhelmed so far, sticking with my minimum pledge.

Again, this is Bandai. They can pretty much be guaranteed to mismanage any property. Let's also not forget their habit of immediately giving up and dumping a product line if it doesn't perform to their expectations.

ced1106 wrote:

 Barzam wrote:
Again, this is Bandai. They can pretty much be guaranteed to mismanage any property. Let's also not forget their habit of immediately giving up and dumping a product line if it doesn't perform to their expectations.

Like what? I'd like to look more into how well or poorly Bandai managed licensed products in the past. Links to forum posts, articles, etc. appreciated. TIA.

As Malevolence mentioned, pretty much every one of their card games. A lot of their own brands they've mishandled and drooped without hesitation as well, like Jagun Warriors, Digimon, D.I.C.E., Ultraman, Saint Seiya, Kamen Rider, Escaflowne, Danball Senki... this list goes on, and these are just some of the properties they've bungled outside of Japan. Gundam they handled decently at first, but once SEED came around, they screwed everything up and dumped the entire brand in the US and abroad. Then you have the stuff they half-assed and dumped immediately in Japan, like Nobunaga The Fool, Eureka Seven, Valvrave, Mars Daybreak, Nadesico, several Macross lines, Gyrozetter, Aquarion, and many, many others.

What makes them even more infuriating when they dump these, they tend to have a lot of merchandise planned that never sees the light of day. For instance, D.I.C.E. had a whole second series ready to be released when they canned that line. It was going to have 1/18 scale transforming dinosaur and Egyptian themed mecha. Gundam had tons of stuff planned that never saw the light of day in the US or Japan


It would be nice if they didn't succumb to their usual tricks here. Hopefully Steamforged has more control over things than Bandai does with this project.

Some are entirely their own, others are collaborative with other companies. Gyrozetter for instance was a Square-Enix game, the anime was by A1 Pictures with TV Tokyo as the network that aired it, and Bandai made the toys. So, there's a lot of companies involved with some of these properties. Going back to the example of Gyrozetter though, the game seemed fairly popular. The game has, to date 74 playable mecha with new updates adding more, actual car company involvement, and collaborations with well known mecha designers. The show lasted 51 episodes, which is actually quite long for an anime these days. For Bandai's involvement, they made a whopping 12 small budget priced Matchbox sized cars and all of 6 DX sized cars before scrapping the line. There was only one full wave of releases with a few of the small cars being released in sporadic 1's and 2's while the 6th DX car was released by itself just before the line was scrapped. Supposedly there were supposed to be two more DX releases, but I've never seen any evidence that they actually came out. So, you have a relatively successful franchise, but Bandai half assed the toys (I have some, they're not very good) and when kids didn't go crazy over the mediocre first wave of releases, they killed the line. I should also note that they abandoned the line before the show even finished airing. The manga came out first in 2011 and is still going, the game came out in 2012 and is still being updated, the show ran from October of 2012 - September 2013, and Bandai's supposed final releases were slated for June 2013, but those were scrapped as far as I know, so they ended their involvement after only a few months of producing the toys.

Thanks to you, Ced it sounds like we have confirmation that this is mostly in Steamforged's hands and not Bandai's.

Wow, that is just really stupid. What's even the point of having treasure, armor sets, and equipment then?