Is crowdfunding dying, and what's its role going into the Next Gen?

[Prolepro]

Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general had a pretty crazy impact this gen, between further raising the tidal wave of indie games which flooded over the industry and contributing to some of the gen's most controversial stories. Entire studios like Obsidian were able to stay afloat, and some of the generations best (and arguably worst) games have come out of it.

For a few years, Id say 2013-2016, it seemed every other forgotten franchise or genre was getting a chance at revival due to crowdfunding, but the past couple of years have seemed to lack that presence.

This is probably due to one too many projects falling through or resulting in stinkers after this period of full development cycles being completed, but crowdfunding in general doesnt seem to have the same place it once did for much of the current gen.

With game streaming and corporate acquisition becoming more widespread, what role does crowdfunding have going into the next generation?

 

[Deleted member 8852]

It'll probably still be around, but like you said the big crowdfunding failures have made people wary of funding new projects.

 

[Oneself]

It may hopefully give more place to smaller teams, real indie projects and realistic demands. Huge corporations screwed the whole concept by using KS and the likes to fund parts of million dollar projects.

 

[FinalBossw/theMostPower]

Wouldn't go as harsh as saying dead, yet. Definitely tempered or plateaued though. It kinda revitalized/sustained the indie market to the point it is now, which is great considering some of the gems which exist.

 

[Stiler]

It's not dying but it's certainly fell from where it was circa 2013 or so.

The first few years of kickstarter was such a whirlwind, so many classic games/creators getting a second chance to create new things. Some worked out, we got a new Shadowrun, new Wasteland, new Obsidian rpg, Divinity: OS, and some other great ones, but then we had some that either fell through completely or were just not at all what people expected (Mighty no. 9, Clang, Stomping Land, etc), then worst of all were the scams.

All of those failures poisoned the well and now people are way more hesitant when (or even if, some people stopped all togeher because they got burnt) they pledge to a project.

Also the "big" kickstarter games (in terms of the IP or the creators behind them) seem to have all but vanished, the last one that comes to my mind is Shenmue 3, there hasn't really been a big "OMG this old IP is coming back" story since then.

 

[Brian_FETO]

I think people are more wary of "look it's the big epic successor fans wanted paid only by fans" but there's still a place for it

Crowdfunding is a really cool thing, despite the worst cases of things not panning out

Drift Stage was pitched with a demo that was good and most people were under the impression they'd just make more tracks and polish it. They seemed like they did everything you'd want a kickstarter to do with a reasonable scale for the project and it ended up being a total mess and is now presumably dead. Sucks but that's the risk I guess

 

[Prolepro]

It's not dying but it's certainly fell from where it was circa 2013 or so.

The first few years of kickstarter was such a whirlwind, so many classic games/creators getting a second chance to create new things. Some worked out, we got a new Shadowrun, new Wasteland, new Obsidian rpg, Divinity: OS, and some other great ones, but then we had some that either fell through completely or were just not at all what people expected (Mighty no. 9, Clang, Stomping Land, etc), then worst of all were the scams.

All of those failures poisoned the well and now people are way more hesitant when (or even if, some people stopped all togeher because they got burnt) they pledge to a project.

Also the "big" kickstarter games (in terms of the IP or the creators behind them) seem to have all but vanished, the last one that comes to my mind is Shenmue 3, there hasn't really been a big "OMG this old IP is coming back" story since then.

Click to shrink...

After the EGS fiasco with Shenmue 3, I feel like that well has reached toxic levels, especially for those big titles. If models like Xbox's gamepass become the new norm, and publishers keep acquiring studios or funding developers to bolster their catalogue, I really do see crowdfunding dying out.

 

[Radishhead]

I think most consumers have realised it's just glorified pre-ordering, but even worse because you're not even guaranteed what the final product will be. I appreciate those who participate in crowdfunding though, it means I can buy some of these games after they actually release.

 

[Cecil]

I don't think there's that much trust left for this, when you look at it for high profile big budget projects.

There have been certain high profile failures that took some edge of it, and while it's a project form that needs to be able to survive failures, there needs to be trust left for it. And I think that what developers like Snapshot games (Phoenix Point) and Ys.net (Shenmue III) have done with their Epic exclusivity deals might have taken too much from the trust now.

And I doubt that something like Fig will be a force to reckon with, with it being backed by four big developers, of which three (Double Fine, Obsidian, Inxile) now have been bought by Microsoft.

I think most consumers have realised it's just glorified pre-ordering, but even worse because you're not even guaranteed what the final product will be. I appreciate those who participate in crowdfunding though, it means I can buy some of these games after they actually release.

Click to shrink...

It never was that for me. The highlights of crowd funding for me was the campaigns for Broken Age and Massive Chalice, and half of the enjoyment of those two project was following the development.

 

[sleepnaught]

Only trusted Obsidian with backing and now they they don't need it in the future, I don't see a reason to back anything....unless the idea is really really really great.

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

Its not just those projects where people lost trust in them.

For every 2nd Visual Novel Sekai Project used KS, even though Nekopara is a goldmine for them.

 

[IIFloodyII]

I seems like a lot of smaller publishers replace it. It'd probably still be a thing, but seems it's used more to show a publisher people are interested, more than fully fund a game.

 

[Daphne]

Crowdfunding has worked well for me until this year, but I can see I was lucky hearing about all the bad projects. Non-game related, but PledgeMusic silently collapsed at the beginning of this year and ran off with all the money from all the fans and artists of the projects they hosted. Then the palaver with Shenmue 3 happened.

I'm still optimistic but I'm going to be extremely careful going forward. Failure of a project or a poor outcome I can accept, but scamming, theft or not protecting and considering your backers with your deliberate decisions, I will not accept.

 

[borntoulouselautrec]

KS is not dying but it won't bring as much money as it did. Genuinely great titles are few and far between and there's lots of mediocrity, miscommunication or outright scams. For every Shovel Knight you get Project Phoenix and Confederate Express.

There are some red flags: never back a project that doesn't have a programmer and never, ever back an MMO as it will inevitably go f2p before trying to monetize every single part of the game (Shroud of the Avatar, I think Star Citizen will join it at some point).

Board games seem to do fine on KS though. But then board gamers are generally smarter and way less toxic than video gamers.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

If Crowdfunding takes a nosedive it will mostly impact the availability of Epic Game Store exclusives.

 

[Kaim Argonar]

Yeah, I'm not crowdfunding any more games. I have not been directly affected but I certainly do not want to get my funding reward changed to an EGS key after I've chipped in for a Steam key.
I'm done with crowdfunding after what we've seen lately.

 

[Famassu]

We just saw R-Type Final 2 achieve its funding (and then some) in a week and it could've achieved more if it was a more typical, longer month-long campaign. Crowdfunding isn't dead, there just aren't as many high profile projects from big names as there were when it first kicked off and burned-by-big-publishers household names went to Kickstarter for awhile to get to make the kind of games big publishers weren't funding anymore. I'd say there are also more publishers (not EA or Ubisoft) who are willing to throw some money at smaller & mid tier projects that could be the kind that would've gone to Kickstarter for money a few years ago and gotten success through that.

I'm sure if, like, Square Enix gave the Chrono Trigger IP rights to Sakaguchi & he gathered a good team around him made out of Chrono Trigger vets and they went to Kickstarter/crowdfunding, that would make a bazillion dollars in one hour.

 

[Deleted member 50949]

There are so many great crowdfunded games that released that had way smaller budgets (Hollow Knight, Hyper light drifter, Undertale, etc.). I think it's just people disillusioned with the higher budget ones since they got the more famous names behind it and failed to deliver, which clouded people's judgement on crownfunding. The nail of the coffin for me was big publishers trying to enter either by publishing deals or giving them extra money if people showed enough interest in the games. I still keep an eye on the smaller ones, but unless they had a playable demo and have realistic planning, I won't pledge money anytime soon.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Baordgame kickstarter is as healthy as ever at least.

 

[Hamchan]

Epic has poisoned this well. I just can't trust developers with my money now.

 

[subtropisch]

I wouldn't necessarily say it's dying, but it's definitely not experiencing a hype either. I also don't think that's every coming back. There are too many people (including me) who just refuse to support crowdfunding for video games anymore. It's just too much of a risk.

 

[Wotkar]

I've kickstarted roughly 20 games and I doubt I'll do it again in the near future. epic killed it for me.

 

[sredgrin]

It's more or less deadish but it has done what it needed to do really, it helped with a resurgence of AA tier games. I think we'll see a handful of small successes but we're past the point of 3 million dollar kickstarters. We'll probably see some Hollow Knight / Undertale style hits that had like 200 backers though. We're at a point where at least one platform holder is gonna court these types of devs specifically (for Gamepass), Nintendo has stepped up their game, and like them or not, places like EGS can end up being that financial lifeline for some devs (though that one probably isn't as long lived). Plus the world is a lot more acceptable of Early Access / Alpha / beta type of support that can supplement some of these games.

A lot of the types of devs that could benefit from KS have stepped up in their careers (devs like Larian), proven their track record, been acquired, or fallen flat on their faces and thus would not get another real shot. Divorcing all the controversies, I can't think of many devs that are in a position to make a campaign that really gets attention anymore. They've already done it by now (and ether don't need it anymore or destroyed goodwill). It's going to be mainly in the hands of the really small indies that are just starting.

Like the entire trust of Fig has now been bought by Microsoft, that says enough about the state of the world.

 

[Famassu]

I wouldn't necessarily say it's dying, but it's definitely not experiencing a hype either. I also don't think that's every coming back. There are too many people (including me) who just refuse to support crowdfunding for video games anymore. It's just too much of a risk.

Click to shrink...

It's not experiencing hype because there just aren't nearly as many Kickstarter projects of the likes of "the first spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate & other infinity engine cRPGs in 15 years from people behind some of those games" and "a new point & click adventure game from the makers of some all-time point & click classics" anymore. Most of those were already made or attempted, and generally even the more successful attempts noticed that perhaps a lot of those are a thing of the past for a reason (as in, while Kickstarter might've helped them make one game, the success on KS didn't necessarily translate to any level of long-term sustainability)

 

[Le Dude]

It'll stick around. It's pretty much necessary to have a working prototype in the trailer though. Previously many projects got off the ground with little more than a concept. Nowadays if there's not some sort of gameplay shown then many people are immediately disinterested.