Bloodstained’s Wii U version canceled, game now coming to Switch

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the “Igavania” game from Koji Igarashi, is no longer coming to Wii U, Igarashi announced today in a Kickstarter update. That version has been canceled in favor of a Nintendo Switch version.

Igarashi cited the impending death of the Wii U as the main reason for the decision. He pointed out that developers looking to make games for Nintendo platforms are in a very different situation now than they were two years ago, when Bloodstained’s Kickstarter campaign closed with $5.55 million in pledges.

“During our Kickstarter campaign, the Wii U was at the height of its popularity, but the situation has drastically changed after the release of Nintendo Switch,” said Igarashi. “This change made it difficult to receive the necessary support from the hardware maker, which has led us to drop the Wii U development and shift the development to Nintendo Switch.”

While there are still Wii U games in development from third parties, Nintendo announced in January that the Wii U version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last game the company ever releases on the console.

This announcement from the makers of Bloodstained isn’t surprising in the least, but it’s still likely to leave some of the game’s backers unhappy. The funding drive specifically added a Wii U version with a stretch goal for $3 million.

“We are very sorry that it has come to this after all your support, but we hope you will understand,” said Igarashi.

Fangamer, the company that’s administering the Kickstarter campaign for Bloodstained, is offering backers a bunch of options. Anybody who chose the Wii U version of the game will now receive the Switch version automatically. But those customers can also move to any of the other platforms for which Bloodstained is in development (Linux/Mac/PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita or Xbox One). And if they originally asked for the Wii U version and don’t want any other version, they can get a refund if they meet certain criteria and submit a request by April 20.

Bloodstained was originally supposed to be released this month, but last fall, it was delayed to the first half of 2018.