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Sniper Elite Dev Purchases Defunct Kickstarter IP Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries
Rebellion has announced it has purchased an IP tied to a defunct Kickstarter project. The Sniper Elite developer announced today it now owns Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries.
As part of the announcement, Rebellion says it will be making good on Kickstarter promises. Physical rewards owed to backers will be delivered.
“Just because we’ve joined the Woolfe project much further down the road doesn’t mean we shouldn’t respect the people who made it happen in the first place,” writes Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley. “If a backer hasn’t received the reward they pledged for, we’re going to do our best to get it to them, even if we have to make it ourselves.”
Grin, the developer behind the Kickstarter and Woolfe’s first episode, was forced to close in August. Note that this is not the same studio called Grin that handled the 2009 Bionic Commando reboot for Capcom.
When studio co-founder Wim Wouters shared the news in August, he mentioned that most of the backer rewards were ready to ship. “The crazy thing is, that we have most of the rewards ready for postage,” Wouters wrote at the time. “All the backer stickers and letters of enlistment just need a stamp. All the poster sets printed, signed and ready. The artbook is ready to be printed, the soundtrack is ready for distribution, the DVD case is ready for production. But we have literally no money whatsoever to pay for stamps, let alone print the artbooks and dvd-cases.”
At the time, Wouters indicated that the IP was for sale and some assets for future chapters were already prepared. Rebellion isn’t divulging its plans for future installments or the IP at this time.
Our Take
While it’s highly unlikely that Rebellion purchased the IP and committed to deliver backer rewards without a plan for the series, the opening gesture is a smart one. Making things right for backers before announcing further work is an important move to build trust and repair damage.
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