Well, BEFORE they fix the mess of bugs, or deliver the promised features (13 DLC, kickstarter stretched goals), they already ask fans' opinion, on paid for, vanity content. Hooray! Microtransactions for the win! Even BEFORE the game is actually completed and delivered in the promised state!

As if Curse of the Moon deecking wasn't enough, the FLAC ost scam and STEAM/GOG backers getting a separate download of digital goods instead of a code... Now, this!

As i said, the very first and absolutely the very LAST game, that i kickstarted. NEVER AGAIN!

You forgot about the low res Artbook and instruction manu... I mean retro "strategy booklet". It is obvious that both were rushed and the Artbook was authored incorrectly with light line artifacts showing that are not present in the "strategy booklet". Not to mention both have pages that have gone without being numbered.

Both 505 Games and Fangamer have been on radio silence since the release of the digital downloads. With the update concerning the cosmetic dlc poll things are just getting more and more heated. Doesn't help that the switch version is a broken pos and has been since they showed it off at PAX. Many people are still waiting on physical copies to be delivered to them as well. The state of the switch version is also why there hasn't been patches issued for any of the other consoles or even PC. Basically everybody else is getting screwed by that because they couldn't push back the switch version until it was in a more playable state.

Can't wait to see what is wrong with the physical goods that will be going out next month.

Switch users... I feel for them. They are the unluckiest of all of us... Hope they get proper service.

Well I don't want to downplay anything, or defend the cosmetic DLC (I'm not much enthused by this myself). But the people doing cosmetic DLC will probably be completely seperate from the people fixing bugs. If they know what they do, completely cosmetic DLC should not need any or much new code, so the people doing the DLC will be the artists doing textures and models and maybe a little bit of writing. And this should be the part of the team that should have the least work to do in fixing bugs, and maybe even in making the free DLCs.

At least I hope this is the case, it should be in a well organized dev team.

While your point seems to be logical and your arguments nicely presented... What do they need extra monetizing out of their incomplete and partly broken game, for? The kickstarter sum was epic, ludicrous, it even broke the record there, right before Shenmue surpassed it! They raised a LEGENDARY sum, hence the many goals; whoops, i mean, "promises", since they still are absent from the delivered product, that is...

This sounds like bad news, to me... Other than bad publicity, it means they somehow need extra FUNDS... Which probably translates into: "Unless they get extra funds, we all run the risk of the game remaining incomplete, or god forbid, be abandoned half-way".

I don't like the look of things...

Yeah I really hope it "just" a cash grab, and not money they really need to complete the game and make it bug free.

Although that Kickstarter broke records, many overlook that Kickstarter pockets around 40% of the funds collected for themselves, and the game had a false start with IntiCreates, then switched developer (no idea if it was started from scratch) and then also needed WayForward to polish up the graphics. So it could be they really need the money. Or their publisher 505 Games wants some more return of investment, but I have no experience with 505 so I can't say anything about that.

As I said, let's hope it is a cash grab / financing the next project, and not money needed for completing what was promised.

Edit: The 40% are wrong, see below.

Even if it was just a cash grab that still wouldn't be a good thing at all. Also it would be incredibly poorly timed considering all the present issues. The argument is not that they are taking away people from development for the cosmetic dlc, but the fact that they are more concerned with generating revenue than doing a proper update that fields the concerns of backers.

The cosmetic dlc poll was all 505 Games. If it was a proper update by IGA/ArtPlay there would of been more to it than just a hit and run post with a poll link. Sadly the devs are probably working on the switch version at the moment and not any fixes or the promised stretch goals (you know, the free dlc that they are giving away to everybody that buys the game from their own big hearts, even though all that content was paid for by the backers some time ago).

This also isn't 505 Games first rodeo when it comes to crowdfunded projects. They had a hand in Underworld Ascendant, which seemed to have gotten very mixed reviews and had issues right out of the gate. More research would have to be done concerning that campaign, but their track record doesn't seem to be the best when it comes to this stuff.

Also, do not forget that the game is selling pretty well due to word of mouth. If they are having revenue issues it would be because of all the extra work being done to fix the switch version (which remains to be seen). They have promised patches that would fix a number of issues for all available versions but that also is currently up in the air. Sadly it is a wait and see for the most part.

Do you have a source for that 40% figure?

Kickstarter has a page:
https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005028634-What-are-the-fees-
which claims that they only take 5%, with the payment processor taking another 3-5%, which should mean there's only a 10% cut taken at the max.

Good thing I didn't get this game right away because it sounds it will be a while before this game gets sorted out.

The 40% came from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCIYMPfDQW4

But I just saw this figure was declared wrong by the author in the top comment, so you're figure probably accurate and 40% are completely inaccurate.

It works flawlessly on PC and has an "Overwhelmingly positive" combined score on Steam.

Yep, I can confirm.
The problems seem mostly on the Switch port, probably because they lost precious time on the Vita and Wii U ports and had to start it relatively last minute when said consoles were all but abandoned by Sony and Nintendo.