So, Kickstarter became pretty big, but it's popularity is limited by the whole idea of throwing your money at the promises of some unaccoutable stranger. So far, most of the biggest projects were the ones started by established studios, and/or famous public figures. The kind of people who can be expected not to spend our money on drugs and hookers, and who would have a lot to lose if they got sued over an unfulfilled project. Thus, the bigger the studio behind a pitch, the more money they can get.
If this trend continues, is it possible that a large chunk of the industry talent moves on to crowdfunding, instead of working for publishers?
Currently, only 60-70k people backed the biggest software projects each, with 3-4 million dollars. This means, to collects $30-40 million level AAA budgets, devs would only need to gather a few hundreds of thouands of backers, that is still just a fragment of the kind of audience already preorders games nowadays.
Do you think that such an "industrialized" version of the model would benefit gaming, (devs owning their IPs, no more misguided dumbing down from the publishers in a pursuit of accessibility and increased sales, no desperate need to fight piracy), or harm it (entirely promise-driven sales, no way to punish bad final products)?
If this trend continues, is it possible that a large chunk of the industry talent moves on to crowdfunding, instead of working for publishers?
Currently, only 60-70k people backed the biggest software projects each, with 3-4 million dollars. This means, to collects $30-40 million level AAA budgets, devs would only need to gather a few hundreds of thouands of backers, that is still just a fragment of the kind of audience already preorders games nowadays.
Do you think that such an "industrialized" version of the model would benefit gaming, (devs owning their IPs, no more misguided dumbing down from the publishers in a pursuit of accessibility and increased sales, no desperate need to fight piracy), or harm it (entirely promise-driven sales, no way to punish bad final products)?