Millionaires Funding Games, Where Are They?

[4RM3D]

Millionaires Funding Games, Where Are They?

I mean seriously... somewhere, someone out there must have thought: "wouldn't it we cool if we make a game like 'this'" and that person happens to have a million or two to spend. Or did I just miss something? As far as I have seen, I haven't seen anyone funding his 'pet' game project.

But why...?

Because if I would make a million a year, I would definitely buy a game studio to make a game that I have envisioned.

 

[Epic Bear Man]

Because gaming can be a very risky venture, and because there's other alternatives to receiving a loan aside from meeting with a bank or a venture capitalist?

You can always sell your IP to a gaming studio or publisher, or if you're trying to start up an indie company, there's always Kickstarter.

Also a million or two will hardly fund a game these days. Didn't Tim Schafer have this problem with Notch where he said he'd only need "a couple million", but turned that couple into a 18 million dollar price tag?

 

[hazabaza1]

Busy making money.
Seriously millionaires probably have to do a ton of shit to stop themselves going under, no time for games and stuff.

 

[ThriKreen]

Like... Curt Schilling and 38 Studios?

Problem is, making money and managing a studio to make an entertaining game to sell to the masses are pretty different skill sets, and the ROI on games is pretty low.

 

[krazykidd]

Because Videogaming is a poormans hobby . "But gaming is expensive !" I hear you say . Sure it's expensive to poor people . Not to say riche people don't play games , but riche people are better and more productive things to do than play games .

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Because funding pet gaming projects would most likely give us another Too Human.

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[Exius Xavarus]

The last one I saw was Curt Schilling. That was an ugly affair.

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[MrCollins]

There is also the issue that making a video game in the current gen of graphics engines costs more than a million dollars. You would need to be a billionaire.

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[JEBWrench]

Most millionaires don't become millionaires by throwing money away. And they certainly don't stay millionaires that way.

Though there's always Jonathan Blow. He sank a couple hundred grand into Braid and a couple million into The Witness.

 

[sXeth]

You'd have to crossover a gamer niche with someone worth in the nine figures (or more) department. And not necessarilyj ust worth that much, but having the assets in pure liquidated cash form. Your seven-eight figure millionares can't usually take a big hit and shrug it off, and most of the higher end ones are heavily tied into investments and so on. Its not like they just have a few million lying around to pull out of their ATM at a moments notice.

Beyond that, most people are gonna want to find proper staff and such for their project, and those may not be available, or willing to jump at someones "vanity project" and the potential troubles of dealing with someones personal vision who may or may not know a thing about how to actually make a game.