Woolfe‘s original developer folded shortly after the game’s release, and failed to ship many of its promised Kickstarter backer rewards prior to its closure.
Belgium-based developer GRIN pitched Woolfe via Kickstarter’s crowdfunding platform in 2014, promising “an action-platforming fairy tale of death, industrial greed and vengeance” for PC platforms. The project surpassed its initial funding goal of $50,000, earning a total of $72,139 by the time the campaign wrapped up in September of 2014.
Woolfe was released via Steam earlier this year to a mixed reception among players and critics. A few months afterward, developer Wim Wouters announced that GRIN had filed for bankruptcy, canceling a promised second chapter in Woolfe‘s storyline and leaving the studio unable to ship many of its Kickstarter-exclusive physical rewards.
Rebellion’s purchase of the Woolfe IP entitles the studio to the game’s original source code, along with all related assets. Eurogamer reports that Rebellion staffers afterward traveled to Belgium in order to transport Woolfe‘s manufactured but unfulfilled physical rewards for Kickstarter backers.
“We’re really keen to do the right thing by the Woolfe backers,” said Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley. “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. 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.”
Though Rebellion hints that the series will continue, the company announced that it has “not yet made any decision on how it will use the Woolfe property in any further creative work.” Rebellion has issued a Kickstarter update that outlines its plans to fulfill backer rewards “by the end of the year.”
