That is very interesting in the context of the recent and ongoing piracy debates. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 20/02/2012 08:47:56 PM
They wanted 400k to make a new game independent of major studios and set up a Kickstarter and within 48hrs they went miles past it and are currently at about 5 times their initial target and still have nearly a month to go.
I notice that the MINIMUM reward is a free copy of the game, plus a lot of bonus content that would not normally be available on copies purchased in stores or probably even online, all for $15. That is a win for everyone but the very big game companies they are consciously excluding from the process: Their sponsors get the game plus a lot of extras for no more (and probably much less) than it would cost in stores; a clear win. Meanwhile, the game creators need not deal with shipping, merchandising, promotion, licensing and all that other fun expensive stuff, so they get to keep any and all profits for themselves. Best of all, they need not commit to the projects time, effort and expense until donations have guaranteed the full cost of production will be met. Unless they badly miscalculate that cost, they literally cannot lose money.
Big Media and retailers can only watch in horror as the critical actors (content producers and consumers) make out like bandits cutting all middlemen out of the loop.