White Ninja Studio, the developers of troubled Kickstarter project Irena: Metal Genesis Fury, have offered a new update on the project (as well as a backer-exclusive demo), following the loss of its publishers Mega Cat Studios and Broke Studio.
Irena: Metal Genesis Fury, in case you're unaware of it, is a brand new shoot'em up for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis that raised €62,240 from 1,051 backers, back in early 2021. According to the Kickstarter, it was initially supposed to start fulfilling orders later that same year. However, as of August 2025, it has still not been released, due to a series of "personal challenges" that befell the team and the unfortunate passing of its lead artist OHKO.
To add to the team's problems, back in March 2025, its publishers Broke Studio and Mega Cat Studios, which had originally been brought onboard to fulfil the Kickstarter obligations, announced publicly on the crowdfunding platform that they had cut ties with the project, following a lack of communication from the developers, meaning the game is currently without a distributor.
In the past, White Ninja Studio has issued several apologies to backers, outlining some of the problems the team had faced over the last few years, but has always reiterated that its "determination to complete Irena Genesis Metal Fury remains stronger than ever". It also promised in a previous update to send out refunds to those who had grown fed up of waiting for the project to be completed, but only after the delivery of a backer-exclusive demo which would be released at an unspecified time in the future.
After five months, White Ninja Studio finally released this demo to backers over the past weekend, with this demo said to include 5 playable stages from the finished game. In addition to this, it also delivered an update via email regarding the current status of the project, which stated that the game was now 90% complete and that it is "focusing on finishing development within the next 6 months — maybe even sooner."
In this message, White Ninja Studio wrote, "With this new demo, we truly hope to restore confidence among our backers and show that the project is alive and well" and also acknowledged the loss of its two publishers. It commented that "to ensure Irena: Genesis Metal Fury gets into your hands", it is "actively seeking a new publisher", with the expectation being that this publisher would be responsible for handling the distribution of its Kickstarter rewards.
Interestingly, speaking exclusively to Time Extension via email, Broke Studio suggested, "We're not closed to helping White Ninja Studio once the game is finished, but that's a question that will arise when the game will be finished." However, if that eventually happens, that would still leave the US shipping in question, with Mega Cat Studios having previously been brought on board to handle distribution for the country.
At the end of the message, White Ninja Studio provided some information on how people could still seek a refund, if they still weren't satisfied with the project following the demo, suggesting backers reach out to them personally via Kickstarter.
We tried to reach out to the game's lead developer for further comment about the project and the publisher situation, but were unable to get a response.