Mighty No. 9, Keiji Inafune’s spiritual successor to Mega Man, has been delayed again. The announcement was made in an update to Kickstarter backers, where Inafune–who created Mega Man along with a number of iconic properties for Capcom, before leaving in 2010–explained developer Comcept encountered “critical” issues in the game’s online matchmaking.
“In preparation for the February release of Mighty No. 9 we have been working hard with our partners to resolve any network issues and porting work necessary to publish Mighty No. 9 on the various platforms,” he said. “However, the issues relating to the network modes were more critical than expected, and it has become apparent that we will need to delay the game from its February 9 release date.
“We have been working up until the very last moment to resolve these issues in order to make the February release, but it has become clear that we no longer have enough time to fix the issues and have everything prepared for release.”
According to Inafune, the delay is necessary as the solution to the issues are slightly different for each of the platforms the game is being released on. Since there are no longer updates being made to the game’s engine, each fix must be manually implemented.
Continuing, Inafune took ownership of the “miscalculations” that have resulted in the delay.
“Unfortunately, this is all a result of miscalculations on the part of us, the development staff. As a result, our fans who have been looking forward to Mighty No. 9 have been forced to wait for over half a year longer than expected, and for that we are sincerely sorry. I want to take this chance to apologize personally, and on the behalf of the development staff.
“Over the end-of-the-year-break and the beginning of 2016, the development staff has been working on these issues non-stop without break, and thanks to their hard work the end is in sight. We continue to make progress to resolve these last issues that have been holding up the release of the game on the different platforms.”
A new release date for Might No. 9 has not been specified as the team wants to “wait and make sure everything is confirmed” first. Realistically, however, the game is likely to launch in spring 2016, Inafune said.
“For this 3rd delay of the game, we have no excuses for disappointing our fans and especially our backers once more. We want to take this chance to express our sincerest apologies to everyone who has looked forward to the release.
“We are all working hard to make sure that we can finish and release the game to all of our fans as quickly as possible, and ask once more for your support of this project that we have created together over these last few years.”
Mighty No. 9 was originally slated to launch in 2015 before being pushed to February 9, 2016. It is set for release on PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U on physical discs and digitally.
It will also be available digitally for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS versions are also in the works, but release dates for these versions have not been provided yet.
