Set the scene: it’s 2015, Thomas Happ is a one-man development team who’s just created a Metroidvania style title known as Axiom Verge. The player is placed onto an alien planet and must survive through a network of bio-organic caverns and ruins to uncover the past of the planet through its lost civilization, and in turn, learn about the character’s past. It received Highly Recommended reviews on Steam, and still sits there at that level. With critical acclaim and winning the hearts over many, Thomas Happ made the announcement that Axiom Verge would be coming to PS Vita, Xbox One, and Wii U in 2017. However, this would end up not being the final date that Axiom Verge arrives on the Wii U.
This article from Gamingindustrybiz goes into full detail of what happened, but the basic rundown is as follows:
Badland Games, the retail publisher for Axiom Verge, had gone to Limited Run Games. Limited Run Games is a publishing company that creates lavish physical copies of independent titles, and was told that they would be the ones to hold the rights to an exclusive package of Axiom Verge that would hold the game, a booklet with art and developer commentary, a poster, and a making-of documentary. Limited Run eventually accepted the deal. With this, they paid $78,000 USD dollars to gain, what they supposed would be, 6,000 copies of Axiom Verge for Wii U. They would receive these copies a couple weeks before the due date of the Wii U release in 2017. However, this did not end up happening as there was a delay to January 2018. And the copies still never showed up.
What then proceeded to be nearly a six-month silence from Badland, Limited Run began the legal procedures to the failed contract between the two companies. This legal action would proceed to take roughly a year and a half. Limited Run was determined to make sure that this deluxe version of Axiom Verge would hit the shelves, no matter the cost. Eventually, it was taken to court and Badlands is due to repay Limited Run all $78,000 plus another almost $4,000 in interest which Badlands has allegedly yet to pay.
Through all of this, Limited Run put in about $120,000 into making sure Axiom Verge would hit the shelves, despite the Wii U being near obsolete. But in a tweet, they were more than happy to announce it:
Limited Run admits that they might not even break even with this project, but they still wanted to finish it, to make sure Wii U players still got the chance to play it, and get the goodies that come with it.
The physical copy of Axiom Verge for the Wii U will finally be available on March 29, 2019. After two long and stressful years, Limited Run Games still poured out what they promised they would bring.