4 replies to this topic

[Jason Clement]

It seems like it was only yesterday when Tim Schafer's development studio Double Fine took to the internet to fund an adventure game through Kickstarter.com.

Of course, those who followed the story know that the result was and continues to be a ridiculous success, with Double Fine having pulled in over $2,000,000 of the more modest $400,000 that they first requested.

The thought of removing the pubilsher as the middleman that supplies that kind of money to the developer is unheard of, so surely something along those lines would make video game publisher powerhouses like Activision and EA quake in their boots, right?

Not exactly.

According to The Escapist, Schafter has spoken to publishers since the Kickstarter campaign made headlines, and while they've been respectfully polite about it, they also remain largely unimpressed.

Schafer likened the conversation to something like this in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "Oh that's great - congratulations on that. Now let's talk about games like we always have."

"I don't think any publishers are quaking in their boots - they're like, 'Oh, two million dollars, that's cute!'" Schafer continued.

"'That's the marketing budget for the little game I'm working on.' It's not a big amount of money for them. It's a big amount of money for us though."

I suspect that until we see Kickstarter campaigns reaching upwards of 20-30 million dollars, publishers won't have much to be afraid of. In the meantime, Schafer is fine with that and is excited to see how Kickstarter helps out Indie devs with their games from now on.

Would you like to see Kickstarter eventually replace publishers as a method of funding developers in the future?

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[TYLERxDURDEN]

No. Fans may like to pat themselves on the back for this now but we'll see how they feel about their investment when the game bombs.

Let's be honest. While gaming fans are very loyal, they are very critical too. It won't take many disappointments for gamers to back away from the investment market.

[Number 905]

I'm quite a bit more optimistic about the game than Tyler, but I don't se Kickstarter changing the way the video game industry works.

[Shin GenX]

Yeah it was definitely interesting how they did it, but for now I think this is a special case. I heard there is a lot of stuff you need to be careful on Kickstarter as well. Tim has name power that most others dont.

[sirdan357]

Replace publishers? No way in hell. I think the fans were just trying to make a statement about Double Fine not getting funding for anything.