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.
steam has been doing similar promotions for quite some time and are quite clearly the #1 online gaming repository because of it. this KS project is mostly about getting to have a small say in the production as it's being produced, which you can't really buy any place else ...yet
"The RIAA has shown a certain disregard for the creative people of the industry in their eagerness to protect the revenues of the record companies." -- Frank Zappa
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
The Order of the Stick webcomic raises over $1million in 30 days on kickstarter!
20/02/2012 01:07:37 AM
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I always marvel at the fact that some people donate thousands of dollars to these things
20/02/2012 03:05:27 AM
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PBS drives make sense as they are tax deductible
20/02/2012 03:01:22 PM
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The real moral here may be that PBS should offer greater icentives.
20/02/2012 09:03:13 PM
- 777 Views
I am unsure whether to be impressed or appalled.
20/02/2012 07:41:31 AM
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The actors of Friends were making 1 million per episode in season 9 and 10
20/02/2012 02:41:24 PM
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Yeah, but they were not being paid by their (probably far less numerous) viewers.
20/02/2012 08:26:16 PM
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Its like the Double Fine story from a few days days ago
20/02/2012 05:59:31 PM
- 896 Views
That is very interesting in the context of the recent and ongoing piracy debates.
20/02/2012 08:47:35 PM
- 837 Views
you just described the steam/valve business model
21/02/2012 06:24:01 AM
- 779 Views
except double fine is more of a technical project than a creative one
21/02/2012 06:22:32 AM
- 740 Views
Not really- the reason people kickstarted Double Fine is BECAUSE of the creative part
21/02/2012 03:51:17 PM
- 772 Views
my point is that it appeals to the tech crowd, which is typically better when it comes to $$$
22/02/2012 03:06:13 AM
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I helped
21/02/2012 06:13:31 AM
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I did try singing the praise of Kickstarter here not long ago. *NM*
23/02/2012 11:25:24 PM
- 353 Views