Frontwing canceled the PS Vita version of Sharin no Kuni: the girl among the sunflowers, announced the developer in a Kickstarter update for supporters only.
“The direct cause of the cancellation of the development of the PS Vita game version was the delayed delivery date of the development contractor, but the ultimate responsibility for the situation, including the management of the contractor, lies with the project team, or more accurately, Frontwing, who is the main project organizer and responsible for development management, ”said Frontwing in the update.
Sharin no Kuni: the girl among the sunflowers first released for PC in November 2005 in Japan, followed by Xbox 360 in October 2010, PSP in February 2012, PlayStation 3 in February 2013 and Android in August 2014. The PC version is expected to be released in English in March.
Here is Frontwing’s full message about canceling the PS Vita version via r / visualnovels:
It is with great regret that we decided to announce that, although last-minute adjustments to the development and production schedule with all parties involved occurred until very recently, it has been confirmed since last week that one of the main rewards for this project, the PS Vita version of the game (physical and digital), will not be able to meet the deadline for its production. As such, we will be canceling and refunding or switching from the PS Vita version of the game to the PC version for all qualified supporters and buyers from the pre-order store.
We deeply apologize to our supporters who are eager to play the game, despite repeated delays.
Please note that we will not accept cancellations for the PC version of the game at this time, as we believe it will be launched and delivered successfully.
Details about canceling the PS Vita version
We believe that we should be as open as possible about the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the development of the PS Vita game version and, as such, we will share with our sponsors the circumstances that led to this point.
From the beginning, the PS Vita development schedule suffered from the effects of delays in the development of the PC version of the game, but here we will focus on developments in the last year and a half after the change of publisher.
In the July 2019 update, we announced that our publisher contract with Limited Run Games (LRG) has been dissolved and that we would be working from now on with Hong Kong publisher Eastasiasoft Limited. The reason for this change was to prevent PS Vita production from ending in North America that same year. The project team knew that by moving the editor to a different region, the manufacturing timeframe would also change, so we outsource pre-production and game development for the PS Vita version to a particular development company that has a license to develop PS Vita games, and reorganized the schedule to meet the deadline.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it has brought to workplaces around the world have affected this timeline, the game’s full master data was scheduled to be delivered in October 2020 at the latest.
However, at the last minute, that date was changed and the game was not delivered to us in October due to circumstances with the development company, and the project team was unable to confirm the actual product until November. Even more problematic than that was the fact that the game had many bugs, including fatal flaws, at that stage, and additional development time was inevitable.
However, even at this stage and throughout this time, we had repeatedly asked the development company for a clear deadline for mastering the PS Vita version in order to manufacture the cartridges by the end of the year. We set a manufacturing schedule for production through discussions with Eastasiasoft, we shared this information with the development company, and the development company responded that it hoped to meet this deadline.
Until the last moment, the project team still believed that game production would end and enter the manufacturing phase, but in the end the various problems that continued to appear during development and the additional time required to fix each one resulted in the developer not being able to meet the deadline discussed with Eastasiasoft. We are currently in negotiations on liability issues arising from the development contractor’s failure to meet the delivery date.
Even after last year’s delivery date passed, throughout January the project team was studying and looking for alternative methods through various channels, including Eastasiasoft, but in February it was clear that we would have to abandon PS Vita production. version, which is why we are making this announcement.
One thing we would like to make clear is that the schedule and development estimates that we report on updates and comments so far have never been false: they have always been based on information that was shared with us in our meetings with the developer that we outsourced the project to. We believe that we would be able to deliver the PS Vita game version to everyone by the end.
As you can see, the direct cause of the cancellation of the development of the PS Vita game version was the development contractor’s delayed delivery date, but the ultimate responsibility for the situation, including the contractor’s management, lies with the project team or, to be more precise, Frontwing, who is the main organizer of the project and responsible for development management.
We would like to make it clear that AKABEi SOFT2, Eastasiasoft Limited, Limited Run Games and Tokyo Otaku Mode Inc., which were previously mentioned as members of the project, have no role or responsibility for delaying or canceling the game, including the PS Version Vita. Avoid contacting these companies individually with any complaints or questions.