Kickstarter-funded platformer Mighty No. 9 has seen its third major delay due to lingering bugs within its online multiplayer component, and the game will now miss its previously announced February launch date.
Producer Keiji Inafune explained that the long-in-development project has seen yet another setback as a result of “bugs inside the network modes, and specifically problems with matchmaking.”
Announced in 2013, Mighty No. 9 features sidescrolling gameplay in the vein of Capcom’s classic Mega Man series. Producer Keiji Inafune previously worked on the Mega Man series as a character artist, and helped to launch a key crowdfunding project via Kickstarter. Although Mega Man himself had been sketched out before Inafune joined the team of the original game, his art design was an important factor in the series’ development, creating characters like Zero, among others.
Mighty No. 9 amassed over $4 million in crowdsourced funding, but multiple delays have kept backers from enjoying the finished product.
Initially slated for a debut in April of 2015, and then later pushed back to September, Mighty No. 9 was seemingly primed for an early 2016 release. Announcing a firm launch date of February 9, 2016, producer Inafune pledged that the game would see no further delays before release.
Two weeks before Mighty No. 9‘s scheduled premiere, Inafune again took to Kickstarter to announce that the game no longer has a set release date.
“For this 3rd delay of the game, we have no excuses for disappointing our fans and especially our backers once more,” Inafune stated. “We want to take this chance to express our sincerest apologies to everyone who has looked forward to the release.
“Although we are far past our original release date, the release of Mighty No. 9 is still right around the corner. 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 is currently assigned a “spring 2016” launch window. A new release date will be announced in the coming weeks.