Unsung Story developer announces PS4, Switch and Xbox One versions

The new developers behind Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the tactical role-playing game that was funded on Kickstarter in 2014 and has had a tumultuous time coming to fruition, is heading to three new platforms. Little Orbit announced this weekend that Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Unsung Story are in the works.

When Unsung Story was first unveiled, the plan was to bring it to mobile devices, but original developer Playdek later targeted PC platforms. The game’s Kickstarter campaign had stretch goals for Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, though pledges fell short of those goals.

Unsung Story’s new developer Little Orbit, which officially took over the project in August, said the current-generation console versions of the game are being developed for a reason close to their hearts.

“For me, I remember playing Final Fantasy Tactics from the couch on my PS1, and that format was quintessential to my experience enjoying that game,” Little Orbit CEO Matthew Scott said. He added that backers of the project will be able to update their platform preferences via a survey.

Scott said that Little Orbit was also canceling or changing some of Unsung Story’s backer rewards. Some, the developer said, would be “financially wasteful to produce” because so few backers wanted them, while others weren’t properly priced to account for shipping costs. Here’s an explanation for the former:

The biggest example of the first case is the Game Package sold as a $5 add-on. This package promises 3 exclusive stages only for the backers that ordered it, and only 329 backers purchased it. That means we would be producing 3 extra stages of the game for a small group of players, and we can never release those stages anywhere else. That's not a commitment we can make. For now, we are going to cancel this item. However we are evaluating the possibility of offering a new add-on closer to launch that will give backers a discount on purchasing some form of DLC that isn't exclusive.

Similarly only 52 backers selected the Kindle version of the main game and 61 backers selected the Kindle version of the Card Game. Windows Tablet had equally low orders. It's possible that back in 2014, both of these platforms were more viable, but today we need to focus on systems that the majority of backers chose.

The late addition 2nd T-Shirt is another example. Only 5 backers selected this add-on, so it makes no sense to go through the work and effort of making it.

Scott asked backers not to panic, saying, “While we are changing or canceling some rewards, we are also going to give some limited refunds to make up for it.”

Little Orbit dropped this weekend’s good and bad news as part of what it hopes will be regular communication about Unsung Story’s development. The studio picked up the game from original developer Playdek, the two companies announced in August, saying they were starting from scratch on the tactical RPG.