Alright. Admittedly that headline is a bit long, but it is the truth.
A little back story before we get into the meat of this article. Since 2015, Ninja Division/Soda Pop Miniatures have launched 5 successful Kickstarters. The most successful of these campaigns was for Super Dungeon Explore: Legends. More than 6,000 backers pledged over $1.29 million dollars during the Kickstarter and who knows how much more during the pledge manager via the company’s official web store. After Super Dungeon Explore: Legends, they launched campaigns for Relic Knights 2nd Edition, Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures, Rail Raiders: Infinite, and Way of the Fighter.
To date, Rail Raiders: Infinite and Way of the Fighter have been in retail stores for more than a year while there are still backers awaiting their copies, stretch goals and more. The Starfinder miniatures have just now begun making their way to US backers, with quality control issue after quality control issue. Relic Knights 2nd Edition was supped to have been done and shipped by February 2018 but there has been only radio silence since August 2018. And, finally, Super Dungeon Explore: Legends had been shelved until Starfinder and Relic Knights had been completed.
Despite the projects’ various degrees of completion, more than $2.56 million dollars was raised by more than 17,000 backers through the Kickstarter campaigns. This does not included the undisclosed amount raised during the various pledge mangers, as there would be late backers and people who upped their pledges.
With that in mind, it brings us to the the present. As the company has been radio silent on all their Kickstarter pages (See: Ninja Division Pulling Back from Kickstarter), this had led several backers to write to their attorney generals as well as the Idaho attorney general (Ninja Division/Soda Pop Miniatures are based out of Idaho) in regards to fraud. The response from Ninja Division/Soda Pop was finally made public: Ninja Division Response to Attorney General.
While the response is worded as such to skate over many of the pressing questions backers have had, as well as give a detailed account usage of all funds raised and not just of those during the Super Dungeon Explore: Legends Kickstarter, it does have a few interesting bits of information:
- Under their disclosure of Initial Funding, they state that approximately $343,559 was used for “annual overhead”. This included payroll, facilities and additional overhead. This funding was to cover them for the remainder of 2015, as well as all of 2016. They then state they had to deplete the funds to cover 2017 as well.
- Also under their disclosure of Initial Funding, they state that approximately $485,679 went to “project expenses”, including license fees and marketing.
- Funds for the game are completely ran through, leaving a deficit of $750,000 needed to bring the project to completion.
- While the fate of their other non-SDE IPs are not disclosed, they do mention that they are in discussion with multiple outside companies for acquisition of their studio.
There is also several bits of blame laid at the backers’ feet that we won’t go into.
In the end, ultimately, this does not bold well for anyone connected with these games. Be it a backer, designer or what have you, it looks like the curtain is slowly falling on what was once a great company and a great stable of fantastic games.
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For full details on the four outstanding Kickstarters and some basic stats. Way of the Fighter is not included in this break down as it backers for this are waiting on miniature add-ons. While not to be cast aside or forgotten about in the least, it is hard to gage a proper number of backers effected by this as Way of the Fighter featured the least amount of backers and most have moved on from the campaign.
Relic Knights 2nd Edition
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sodapopminiatures/relic-knights-2nd-edition/description
Originally ran on KS from Feb 27, 2017 until March 14, 2017
- Raised $386,826 from 2,489 backers
- Does not account for any/all additional funds raised via the Pledge Manager
- Game/Stretch goals were to ship in 3 waves over an 8 month period
- Wave 1 – Summer 2017: Base game and majority of stretch goals/add ons
- Wave 2 – Winter 2017: Remaining stretch goals/add ons
- Wave 3 – Feb. 2018: Void Break Expansion Rulebook/outstanding stretch goals
As of November 2018, zero of the game’s 2000+ backers have seen anything. Last real update on production was back in July 2018. Several comments made at GenCon by Soda Pop employees was that the game was to begin shipping at the end of August. Last comment made by John Cadice (owner of Ninja Division) was that they ran out of bases, and the comment was made via a Facebook Relic Knights fan page.
Rail Raiders: Infinite
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sodapopminiatures/rail-raiders-infinite/description
- Originally ran on KS from April 6, 2016 until April 22, 2016
- Raised $339,724 from 4,649 backers
- Does not account for any/all additional funds raised via the Pledge Manager
- Game/Stretch goals were to ship October 2016.
- Shipping finally began in August 2017.
As of November 2018, many of the game’s backers (primarily those out of the United States) are still awaiting their games though the game has been available at retail for months. Last update was January 2018.
Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/325468910/starfinder-masterclass-miniatures/description
- Originally ran on KS from September 27, 2017 until October 17, 207
- Raised $457,539 from 2,294 backers
- Does not account for any/all additional funds raised via Pledge Manager
- Game/Stretch goals were to ship May 2018
- Shipping began in waves in May 2018, however they have switched to a new model of shipping what they have when they are done.
- This could be a single miniature or multiples.
As of November 2018, Wave 1 miniatures have begun making their way to US backers. These shipments have been plagued by quality control issues and broken miniatures.
Super Dungeon Explores: Legends
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sodapopminiatures/super-dungeon-explore-legends/comments
- Originally ran on KS from October 21, 2015 until November 11, 2015
- Raised $1,290,522 from 6,611 backers
- Does not account for any/all additional funs raised via Pledge Manager
- Game/Stretch goals were to Ship December 2016
As of November 2018, zero of the game’s backers have received anything. The last update of any type regarding fulfillment and shipping was back in March 2018.
$2,566,516 from 17,428 backers, or $148.80 per person.