Vanillaware ran out of money for Unicorn Overlord’s development (as they did for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim)

Atlus and Vanillaware’s tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord launches worldwide in just one day’s time. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) counting down the last remaining day before the release, Vanillaware’s CEO George Kamitani admits to having run out of development funds for the game “as usual” and having to cover for the maxed-out budget out of pocket. 

Unicorn Overlord is a fantasy tactical RPG with overworld exploration and real-time battles. The game’s development has famously lasted over 10 years – as it was first conceived by Takafumi Noma in 2014. But, as the title’s programmer Onishi has revealed, it is also Vanillaware’s most ambitious title up to date in terms of content.  Apart from its rich gameplay and story and impressive volume of hand-drawn assets, it has also been revealed that Unicorn Overlord will feature over 60 companion characters and over 60 classes of units that the player can freely combine in parties.   

Tweet by Vanillaware's official X account

However, it seems that Unicorn Overlord’s ambitious scale also took a toll on Vanillaware’s budget, as Kamitani jovially revealed on March 7 that the company had run out of development funds “this time too,” and had to operate hand-to-mouth while covering expenses out of pocket. On the other hand, Kamitani assures us that their 10 years of hard work on Unicorn Overlord were not just for show, and will be apparent in the final product. 

Unicorn Overlord is scheduled to launch on March 8 for the PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.   

Amber V
Amber V

Novice Editor-in-Chief since October 2023.

She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.

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  1. For someone to be able to pay out of pocket for an entire game development (paying other people’s salaries and everything else) means that the CEO is making way too much money to begin with.

    Either that or Kamitami is grossly overexaggerating how much money they lost while during development.

  2. This guy has passion and hopefully he recovers the out of pocket expenses. He’s been in video games since early 90’s and worked his way up. I guess he did this because he’s been there. Yeah he has money but he doesn’t have like… Money Money. I can respect this guy and to keep his crew alfoat and their livelihood intact like that. Pickles is just a jealous nobody who cannot understand people with Drive, Passion and Ambition.

  3. No. Vanillaware is an art house with a very small staff. Think, indie filmmaker pays for own film; indie band develops and distributes own album. It’s a bad thing to post negative speculation when the truth is available and fairly normal!