| noname2200 said: While the fact that people are stupid enough to buy into this system is one thing, I'm also bothered by how this demonstrates that the current videogame industry can't be doing its job particularly well. Presumably, each kickstarter goal is enough for the game to break even. Also presumably, there's enough demand for every Kickstarted game for it to break even. And, presumably, there are additional people who will buy the title after release, so the game should be profitable. So...why aren't publishers funding thes things instead? Why is there such a demonstrative untapped market here? |
Note that Kickstarter does have one advantage over publishers, in that they ask the people directly for money. This means a few things - for one, they won't end up funding any failures, because we know for a fact they're creating the type of game that people want to play. The game isn't guaranteed to be a hit, as the quality is in question, but the money is going to the right place, in terms of what job the game fills.
Secondly, there's less people to be paid. These games tend to be small, so I'm not sure if there's really a better way to make some of these games. Theoretically a publisher should have created games for the most successful of the Kickstarted games, but for the ones that were closer to breaking even, would it have been worth it for them? Leads to the third advantage, how some people end up blowing thousands of dollars on some of these things, who knows... would the game have been covered if all these people only paid for a single retail copy?
I guess Kickstarter being popular just goes to show how desperately some niches want their needs fulfilled.
