Mechwarrior Online Beats Kickstarter

[Andy Chalk]

Mechwarrior Online Beats Kickstarter

Mechwarrior Online has rung up more than $5 million through its pre-release Founders Program.

With nearly $4 million in pledges, Obsidian's Project Eternity recently became the most successful [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120139-Update-Project-Eternity-Sets-Record-as-Most-Funded-Videogame] videogame on Kickstarter. That's awfully impressive, but it's still well short of the mark set by the upcoming Mechwarrior Online, which broke the $5 million mark without the help of the world's most famous crowdfunding site. Instead, it opted to fly solo with the Founders Program, which let fans pre-purchase the game at one of three separate levels, each with its own set of rewards in the form of in-game currency and mechs.

To be fair, the Mechwarrior Online Founders program has been running since July while the Project Eternity Kickstarter didn't launch until mid-September. On the other side of the coin, Kickstarter has been a tremendously popular force with gamers since Tim Schafer did his thing with the Double Fine Adventure, while the new Mechwarrior has a dedicated but still fairly niche audience. Either way, Piranha Games President Russ Bullock described the Founders Program as a "categorical success" for both the sales and the player feedback its brought it.

"The Founders are helping us fund, develop and support the game in order to deliver the best online gaming experience," added Infinite Game Publishing President Kelly Zmak. "The tremendous success of the MechWarrior Online Founder's Program demonstrates how passionate the fans are for the MechWarrior franchise."

And Mechwarrior Online isn't the only big game to take a pass on Kickstarter. Chris Roberts' recently-announced Star Citizen is also taking the solo crowdfunding route and has raised over $900,000 so far, although the studio is now apparently thinking about [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120162-Star-Citizen-Studio-Reconsiders-Kickstarter] taking its business to Kickstarter as well.

Sadly, it's too late to get in on the action now, as the Mechwarrior Online Founders Program closed on October 16, the same day the open beta was scheduled to start. The beta was delayed and does not currently have a start date, but is expected to begin fairly soon.


Permalink

 

[Fappy]

Is there any real benefit to not using Kickstarter for your crowd funding project?

 

[Slycne]

While I doubt my personal preference will ever overtake the AAA gaming space, I take a moment of pride over the fact that isometric RPGs and giant mech similuators can raise nearly $10 million.

 

[Fappy]

While I doubt my personal preference will ever overtake the AAA gaming space, I take a moment of pride over the fact that isometric RPGs and giant mech similuators can raise nearly $10 million.

I think it's kind of weird that developers are just now finding out they can get money thrown at them for niche games. Do think this would have worked a few years ago or are people these days just worn out by all the CoD clones and are starving for the "good ol' days"? I'm hoping these games succeed and crowd funding becomes a common method to publishing games, but I can't help but fear this may just be a fad.

 

[Slycne]

Is there any real benefit to not using Kickstarter for your crowd funding project?

Yes, a 5% cut of your earnings goes to Kickstarter. 5% is negligible for small projects, but 5% of say 5 million is $250,000, a not insubstantial amount.

 

[Fappy]

Is there any real benefit to not using Kickstarter for your crowd funding project?

Yes, a 5% cut of your earnings goes to Kickstarter. 5% is negligible for small projects, but 5% of say 5 million is $250,000, a not insubstantial amount.

Figured it'd be something like that. Skipping over Kickstarter seems like a pretty smart idea if you've already got a huge following like MechWarrior I suppose.

 

[Slycne]

I think it's kind of weird that developers are just now finding out they can get money thrown at them for niche games. Do think this would have worked a few years ago or are people these days just worn out by all the CoD clones and are starving for the "good ol' days"? I'm hoping these games succeed and crowd funding becomes a common method to publishing games, but I can't help but fear this may just be a fad.

I don't find it terribly odd, nor do I think developers are/were ignorant of it. In my opinion, the issue hasn't been that there isn't money to be made in niche, it's that in their minds there wasn't enough.

Say I'm a investor/publisher/etc, I could put say $100,000 on some niche title and make back $150,000. Which is nice. What if instead put $50,000,000 on some big AAA title and make back $100,000,000. I still made a profit on the niche game, but I made a bigger percentage return on the AAA.

What crowd funding really accomplishes is that it gets another hand out of the cookiejar, making project like these much more viable.

 

[Fappy]

I think it's kind of weird that developers are just now finding out they can get money thrown at them for niche games. Do think this would have worked a few years ago or are people these days just worn out by all the CoD clones and are starving for the "good ol' days"? I'm hoping these games succeed and crowd funding becomes a common method to publishing games, but I can't help but fear this may just be a fad.

I don't find it terribly odd, nor do I think developers are/were ignorant of it. In my opinion, the issue hasn't been that there isn't money to be made in niche, it's that in their minds there wasn't enough.

Say I'm a investor, I could put say $100,000 on some niche title and make back $150,000. Which is nice. What if instead put $50,000,000 on some big AAA title and make back $100,000,000. I still made a profit on the niche game, but I made a bigger % return on the AAA.

What crowd funding really accomplishes is that it gets another hand out of the cookiejar, making project like these much more viable.

Makes sense. I think most of us assume having no publisher overhead on a niche title is a good thing. Let's hope that's the case as these titles eventually start coming out.

 

[itsthesheppy]

It's just too bad the game isn't very good. I've tried it out in Beta and... well, it had a LOT of problems. Maybe they'll work it out for when it launches.

 

[Abbot of Beregost]

It's just too bad the game isn't very good. I've tried it out in Beta and... well, it had a LOT of problems. Maybe they'll work it out for when it launches.

There are a lot of problems, but then again, I am of the impression that they're adding and tweaking as they build.

Re: Crowdfunding- it's much less profitable to do a kickstarter when there's such a huge group of fanatics already out there. There's the roleplayers, the tabletop guys, the people who played the computer series...so why give Kickstarter 5% of all that sweet sweet obsession?

 

[Aenir]

The game was doomed as soon as they decided to make it F2P instead of retail. The beta is a mess and it's going to crash and burn.

 

[Tiger Sora]

5 million bucks will allow you to create an awesome game where millions of people can pilot mechs.
To build a real life sized mech from one of the in game ones with 5 million bucks = 0 mechs built.

I don't know wether we should be happy with what we have or ask for more funding to build a fully capable / operational battle mech.

 

[csoloist]

The game was doomed as soon as they decided to make it F2P instead of retail. The beta is a mess and it's going to crash and burn.

If planetary works out well though it could still turn out to be an awesome game.

IF.

 

[ASnogarD]

The beta is not a mess, the only thing thats messy is players heads when they judge a game based on closed beta status.

Much of the sub systems of the title are not in place yet, or are present as placeholder assets / systems yet the actual mech on mech combat is pretty intense and despite its seemingly plodding pace leaves a lot of scope for skilled play as well as allowing for some great teamplay tactics for groups.

It would of been a mistake to have gone open beta on the 16 , I mean just read some of the opinions in this topic for an idea of how players are quick to judge beta titles... open beta would of just opened a flood of whine.

I am not saying its all perfect , not even close but it isnt bad... I play from the UK with 120 - 150 ms pings and can still be a factor in the game, it takes less than 10 seconds to find a match when I click on launch, matches rarely go longer than 10 minutes.
The developer is listening to rational feedback (which is why it postponed the open beta) and is working to ensure the core of the game is working properly, then the content will come in, then the new maps will show up, new modes etc. etc.

At the moment its 4 maps, 1 mode and I think about 8 mechs with about 3 variants for most mechs... so it does get a bit repetive after a while, but again with the mechlab you get so many builds it keeps you on your toes, see a Catapult over there which is normally a long range fire support mech, except this one is packed with streaks and is a close range demolisher with its guided shotgun-like missile bursts.

In short, its petty and small minded to dismiss a potentially great title based on its current closed beta status... since its free 2 play give a chance and decide for yourself.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I take a moment of pride over the fact that isometric RPGs and giant mech similuators can raise nearly $10 million.

Aren't Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns isometric as well?

Say I'm a investor/publisher/etc, I could put say $100,000 on some niche title and make back $150,000. Which is nice. What if instead put $50,000,000 on some big AAA title and make back $100,000,000. I still made a profit on the niche game, but I made a bigger percentage return on the AAA.

... and you also contributed to the continuance of risk-averse AAA gaming. I hope you're happy, you monster. Of course, as an investor/publisher you wouldn't give a shit as long as you're making a fuckton of scratch on your investment.

 

[Slycne]

I take a moment of pride over the fact that isometric RPGs and giant mech similuators can raise nearly $10 million.

Aren't Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns isometric as well?

Yeah, I was just referencing the two specific titles mentioned here because at the end of the day it's not about who raised the most but that fans of these niche genres are getting new games.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The beta is not a mess, the only thing thats messy is players heads when they judge a game based on closed beta status

That's an inherent problem with selling closed beta access, as most gamers have unreasonable expectations of beta state software, especially the sort of pre-'in-house QA' early beta builds that most closed betas use.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I take a moment of pride over the fact that isometric RPGs and giant mech similuators can raise nearly $10 million.

Aren't Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns isometric as well?

Yeah, I was just referencing the two specific titles mentioned here because at the end of the day it's not about who raised the most but that fans of these niche genres are getting new games.

If Mechwarrior Online and Shadowrun Returns do well (and Mechwarrior Tactics and Shadowrun Online, I guess) then I hope other, less well known FASA properties are resurrected, specifically Crimson Skies and Renegade Legion.

 

[Slycne]

If Mechwarrior Online and Shadowrun Returns do well (and Mechwarrior Tactics and Shadowrun Online, I guess) then I hope other, less well known FASA properties are resurrected, specifically Crimson Skies and Renegade Legion.

While I actually liked the Xbox Crimson Skies games, which is considered heresy in some crowds, I would totally be on board for a new one, arcade-like or detailed.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

While I actually liked the Xbox Crimson Skies games, which is considered heresy in some crowds

I belong to those crowds... along with the 'Clix Crimson Skies is an Abomination' crowds and 'Mechwarrior: Dark Ages Offends the Very Universe' crowds.

I would totally be on board for a new one, arcade-like or detailed.

I'd like something with the feel of the old PC game but with a new coat of paint... Looked like a flight sim but with very arcade-y physics because, let's face it, realistic physics is an impediment to being an ace pilot and dare devil sky pirate.