Kickstarting A Backlash: Is Crowdfunding About To Turn Sour?

Dealspwn writes: One can't help but wonder if the timing of Kickstarter hitting the UK and the grumbling rumblings of backlash that we've spotted dotted around the corners of the internet over the past week or so aren't something more than purely coincidental. We are, after all, a nation rather more in tune with failure than success - one only has to look at the broad spectrum of a century of comedic output, let alone tabloid gossip "journalism", to note that us Brits have a predilection for placing people on pedestals one moment, and then mercilessly ripping them to shreds for shits and giggles the next.

The perception is that, for whatever reason, our friends across the pond are more encouraging, particularly when it comes to the rugged individualism of the American Dream that Kickstarter so readily presents, whereas we're a little more sceptical this side of the Atlantic, demanding to be won over.

[modesign]

whats the percentage of kickstarter games that actually get finished and then published.

[dedicatedtogamers]

The percentage isn't that high, I imagine. There are a lot of crappy games on Kickstarter.

I think that Kickstarter won't fizzle out QUITE yet. Star Citizen just shattered every crowdfunding record with $6+ million pledged. Several other high-profile games also got several million bucks (Project Eternity, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun, Double Fine Adventures) so there's definitely some interest in funding these sort of games. Even no-name games like FTL managed to get 10 times their original goal.

But eventually the gas will run out and it will be harder and harder to get pledges. I mean, how can an indie dev compete with the likes of Obsidian, or the Wing Commander crew, or the Wasteland crew, or Double Fine?

[Bimkoblerutso]

Well to start, a real indie dev should never expect to bring in the same amount of money as the bigger boys. It's just not realistic to assume that a quirky platformer or an artsy adventure game is going to attract as much attention as a new RPG from Obsidian.

[Somebody]

Interstellar Marines had sadly failed to meet up it's Kickstarter goal. I'm not sure what happened to it now as an aftermath. I do hope these indie developers aren't too dependent with Kickstarter to keep their games alive. IM was kept alive by pre-orders and the community so seeing it cancelled simply because it failed to meet its Kickstarter goal would be devastating both for it and the indie scene in general. Putting all your hopes, plans and dreams in one basket is not a good idea at all.

Maybe these developers should do what Born Ready Games did for their game, Strike Suit Zero: turning to Kickstarter only to fund the last leg of their development process. The game is almost finished but they need that extra money to polish it up. If they had failed to meet the goal, the game would still be finished but released at much later date.

[Bimkoblerutso]

^ That really is the problem. I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with indie developers both big and small sharing the Kickstarter stage.

The real problem is that a bunch of these ridiculously tiny studios suddenly think that they should be collecting as much money for their games as the more established, proven development houses like Double Fine and Obsidian. They don't understand that you have to work up to that level of success, and inevitably end up getting frustrated and claim that the entire Kickstarter system is broken.

[cleft5]

The first major backlash will be the Ouya deal. I would be incredibly surprised to see them even release a console and if they do I don't see it being anything more than an utter failure. I hope I am wrong and everything turns out great, but I don't see that happening.

[chasegarcia]

it is based on old cell phone tech. It will release.