The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s physical release has been delayed

PlatinumGames has delayed The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s physical release date in North America and Europe due to disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In North America, the title’s boxed release has been pushed back from May 19 to June 30, and in Europe it has slipped from May 22 to July 3.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s digital release date is unchanged from May 19 in the US, May 22 in Europe, and June 11 in Japan, the same day as the physical version goes on sale in the developer’s home nation.

“The health and safety of everyone involved in getting The Wonderful 101: Remastered into stores was a key factor in our decision to delay release of the game, in addition to store closures and the many restrictions consumers and businesses are currently facing,” Platinum said in a statement released on Friday.

“We want to offer our sincerest apologies to everyone who has been anticipating the game’s release, but we hope we can have your understanding regarding these unforeseen circumstances.”

The crowdfunded game, which raised some $2.2 million from over 33,000 Kickstarter backers, will be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam.

While Platinum said backer rewards “are being given the highest priority”, distribution issues mean backers who chose physical versions of the title could now receive it after it goes on sale in stores.

To compensate for this, all physical version backers will be sent a Steam code for the game so that they have the option of playing it at the same time as backers who bought the digital version.

Plans for an Xbox One version of The Wonderful 101 Remastered were cancelled because it was considered too expensive to bring the game to Microsoft’s console.

In a The Wonderful 101 Remastered interview published in February, Platinum studio head Atsushi Inaba told VGC the crowdfunding campaign was a way for fans to help the studio become more independent and move into self-publishing.

“If this is a big success, that allows us to confirm that we have a large fanbase and we can be confident in moving forward with projects in the future,” he said.

“We’re trying to move forward to the next stage and hopefully with everybody’s help and support that’s what we can do.”

Platinum subsequently announced Project G.G. (working title) from director Hideki Kamiya, which it described as its “first fully owned and self-published title”, and a new Tokyo-based PlatinumGames studio which will lead the company’s expansion into the games as a service market.