Gimmicks! 2 has been announced for Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox consoles, and PC during publisher Limited Run Games’ summer event. Many were happy with it, but not Tomomi Sakai, the author of the first chapter, who was not notified of the making of the sequel. Naturally there was no contractual obligation to do so, but in these cases the courtesy is always appreciated, also because the starting point of what is about to become a series is still him.
A matter of courtesy
Furthermore, it is clear that fans of Gimmick! they would ask Sakai to his possible involvement in the sequel, as promptly happened. However, the Japanese developer clarified with a message on
Sakai: “I have received messages about the sequel to Gimmick!. While I am honored that the original game continues to be an inspiration, I want to clarify that I was not involved in the development of Gimmick!2. The news of this project also came as a surprise for me. Thank you for your support.”
Guess what? Fans didn’t take it well at allincluding YouTuber/streamer Gigaboots, who argued that the author should have been consulted before the sequel’s development:
“I’m infuriated to hear that the original creator of Gimmick! only found out during the Limited Run Games Showcase that they were making a sequel. It’s already crazy to make a sequel to Gimmick!, but to do it without any input from the creator? Disgusting.”
Time Extension then reached out to Bitwave Game and Clear River Games, the two studios involved in the project, to hear their version of the story. It was confirmed to him that there was no contact with the perpetrator and that the entire situation could have been handled better. “I’m sorry to say that neither Bitwave nor Clear River Games have reached out to Tomomi Sakai. As huge fans, collaborating with him would have been an honor, but we believed he left the industry years ago. We deeply respect Tomomi Sakai’s creativity and recognize that Gimmick! 2 would not exist without the inspiration his work has provided us. A colleague of mine has already issued an official apology. I recognize that we could have handled this situation much better.”
As anticipated in the message, an official public apology also arrived: “To clarify the situation: we owe an apology to Tomomi Sakai. Although we had obtained the license for the intellectual property of Gimmick!, we were unable to get in touch with the original creator We deeply respect Tomomi Sakai’s work: Gimmick! 2 wouldn’t exist without him, we should have done better.
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