Does anyone disagree with that sentiment? I don't generally like shitting on people who are trying hard to do stuff with limited resources, but it just seems to me that Nicalis has a terrible track record when it comes to announcing stuff, vanishing off the radar, communicating poorly with the fanbase and with the developers they work with, and just having a reputation for being unreliable. Why is that? Are they stretched too thin by trying to get their hands on whatever they can? Do they announce projects without having an actual publishing plan? Do they just suck?
Here's some stuff off the top of my head:
- The terribly handled La-Mulana WiiWare debacle, where the developer and Nicalis couldn't even agree on what caused the cancellation after a ton of delays even though the game was released in Japan.
- They were supposed to bring Pixel's Ikachan and Guxt to the 3DS eShop. In the end only Ikachan made it, despite Guxt having a ESRB rating. No one seems to know what happened.
- They ported Cave Story+ to the 3DS eShop in 2012, and it seems to have taken 2 years for them to finally release it in Europe. Wut?
- They announced Legend of Raven for 3DS in 2012, which would be a port of an existing and pretty old PC doujin fighter at that point. After not having any news for ages, the Japanese developers even managed to crowdsource a brand new remake in 2013. Nicalis then announces that they're scrapping the 3DS version in favor of a Vita version, and then later they announce PS4 and XB1 versions as well. Without releasing a single thing!
- They announced 1001 Spikes for 3DS and WiiU over 2 years ago. Still nowhere to be seen. It was supposed to be an enhanced port/remake of an existing XBLA game. Still no date.
What gives? Does anyone have insight into why this company can't seem to put out anything on time despite being a middleman publisher localizing and/or porting/enhancing games which already exist and are often pretty old?
Here's some stuff off the top of my head:
- The terribly handled La-Mulana WiiWare debacle, where the developer and Nicalis couldn't even agree on what caused the cancellation after a ton of delays even though the game was released in Japan.
- They were supposed to bring Pixel's Ikachan and Guxt to the 3DS eShop. In the end only Ikachan made it, despite Guxt having a ESRB rating. No one seems to know what happened.
- They ported Cave Story+ to the 3DS eShop in 2012, and it seems to have taken 2 years for them to finally release it in Europe. Wut?
- They announced Legend of Raven for 3DS in 2012, which would be a port of an existing and pretty old PC doujin fighter at that point. After not having any news for ages, the Japanese developers even managed to crowdsource a brand new remake in 2013. Nicalis then announces that they're scrapping the 3DS version in favor of a Vita version, and then later they announce PS4 and XB1 versions as well. Without releasing a single thing!
- They announced 1001 Spikes for 3DS and WiiU over 2 years ago. Still nowhere to be seen. It was supposed to be an enhanced port/remake of an existing XBLA game. Still no date.
What gives? Does anyone have insight into why this company can't seem to put out anything on time despite being a middleman publisher localizing and/or porting/enhancing games which already exist and are often pretty old?