Are AAA Game Developers Hurting Crowdfunding?

Paul Drankiewicz writes: "Pillars of Eternity was nothing more of an idea with daily to weekly concept art updates. Double Fine has also taken advantage of Kickstarter by telling people that they would make an Adventure game and that is really about it. There are so many projects on these crowdfunding sites that do the same thing and get nothing. There are also so many projects that have fully fleshed out ideas, game trailers and demos that don’t get funded either."

[pcz]

gamers must be the biggest suckers, cant believe its come to the point where not only do we have to pay extortionate prices for software, but the devs are begging us for donations to make the damn game.

i think it can only be a signal that the industry is dying, at least for anyone but the huge studios

[Canary]

...Congratulations, you have reached the exact opposite conclusion of everyone else looking at the crowdfunding model!

[MysticStrummer]

Disposable income is just that. The amount differs from person to person but if someone wants to try and help a project get started, that's their business. You see it as a signal that the industry is dying. I see it as people spending their money how they please. There are other numbers that go against your theory as well.

[Anthotis]

Yes.

Voting with your wallet is how i see it.

[pcz]

no, the way i see it is devs arent able to get the investment traditionally needed to get their business started, ie publishers, banks etc.

what does that tell you? it tells you in the professional world, those investors dont believe in their project, they dont believe it will make a sound investment. the fact the devs are turning to the very people their product is aimed at to fund their business shows a high level of desperation. it also shows a high level of stupidity in the end service user.

its like chipping in to pay a restaurants commercial mortgage, paying their rent just so you can go there to eat. its like paying for your favorite musician to go to the studio and make an album, and then paying for the album once its released. yes, it supports your interest, but it also gives a false sense that everything is ok. the reality is, without your 'investment' their product wouldnt exist.

since crowdfunding has become so widespread in gaming, that only shows that the industry has an illusion of being healthy when really, it is getting no real investment, its merely being propped up by a small number of fans.

[ninsigma]

@ your second comment

All investors are interested in are the next COD or Assassins, or fifa, that spew out barely changed from the last every year. They are not looking for a pitch of a really unique game that will cater only to a certain audiance. They want games to appeal to the largest crowd possible, games they can milk to death but people will buy anyway every single year regardless of whether it's the same game. We gamers have created the industry we have now, pubs make games for where the money is, and if everyone buys into yearly copy and paste, that's where the money is going to go. So what?? smaller studios that don't want to follow that trend should just not make a game?? I think it's the perfect solution. A game that's designed for a certain audience, then if they wish, that audience can support it.

I really think Sony is the best publisher of them all because of this. They cater such a wide audience with very different games. Nintendo cater to a Nintendo only audience where they release the same franchises every generation with very little new stuff. MS are all about the franchise and what new stuff they do bring out is not overly different to what they do have. And most games they have that ARE different, they paid a third party dev to keep it off other systems for them. No cultivation of their in house studios. The two new studios they got (343 and black tusk) they just handed them two franchises they already had and told them to keep that alive.

Gamers really need to start rewarding the new stuff. I'm not saying don't buy stuff like COD and the like, but don't destroy a game just because it's doing something different.

[00]

people not being able to complete their projects are hurting crowdfunding.

[GokuSolosAll]

Funding is more important for indies but bigger companies should use it, too. I'dhelp fund a new Chrono game if Square was afraid to invest.

[porkChop]

There are many things hurting crowdfunding.

- AAA studios that don't NEED crowdfunding
- Projects not being completed
- Scams
- Pitches that aren't descriptive enough
- Pitches that don't explain WHY you need crowdfunding

There's just so many things wrong with the current state of crowdfunding, which is why I don't back many kickstarters.

[WizzroSupreme]

Triple A game developers aren't hurting crowd funding – they're what drove indies to it in the first place with over saturating the market on blockbusters. The two are keeping each other in check more than any other time in the industry. Sure, both are going to have duds. That's what we call risk in the industry, but neither's presence is harmful in itself.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I cannot believe this question is being asked. I can't believe it was even festering in someone's head. How did we get here?