The Games of the Future - Crowdfunding

[Ed_MyEscapist]

One of the biggest problems of working in a company that is planning to create crowdfunded games is to make sure their message reachs the right people... well like any company really but this made me think... Who are this people willing/able to fund a games in this environment? I did a bit of research and indeed everything tells me that they are out there, but who are they?!

Now before this thread get filled with insults by The Escapist Faithfull i do have an interesting topic on mind and it will have nothing to do with my company, which shall remain nameless, the Topic is What are the characteristics of the games of the future?

I remember when i was a child and i thought that games of the future will have lifelike graphic and virtual reality... That was all i wanted! Now it seems that gamers want an extra level of interaction not only while Playing the game but at the development level as well!

Personally i have never had felt the need to create my own game or be part of the creation of one besides flash games. I thought it was complicated and it worried me of what happens if the games is a flop? What are the real risks of crowdfunding?

However The more i research into crowdfunding the more i believed it was a great idea, Once my company involved me in the creation of the first game it was like giving birth to a game; i fel that there is very little chance it will flop! you could never not love him and it will always make you proud... So i have been converted! i am Pro Crowdfunding, But what about you? How do you see games in 10 years time?

 

[CrazyBlaze]

I see a mix of crowd funding and actual publishers providing money. Why? Because of the dangers of crowd funding? What happens if someone messes up with the money they receive or the game goes past its original budget? Something happens to the people making the game and because the game is on a secondary working schedule they have to drop it and people lose their money? The people who started the project have great ideas but no real experience and the game comes out bad?

Yes I am being a pessimist but those are things that could happen. I do think crowd funding is a great way to open the market up for new and different games but at the same time I think people need to be careful with it because it can blow up in their face. So hopefully it can make companies like Activision, EA and other major companies rethink their strategies but I don't think crowd-funding will be the exclusive way of video games.

 

[Rednog]

Crowdfunding for indie games, sure, but it's never going to be a viable option for anything else. While we have no data yet, there is the question if through crowd funding you're essentially using up all your buyers off the bat. And the problem with this is that most of these kickstarter/crowdfunding games are basically giving you a heavy discount off the bat for supporting them, this severely cuts down the buyers who will be buying it at full price. And like the name implies Kickstarter is essentially that, it's kick starting the project, rarely are we going to see the complete development cost covered from crowd funding. And the question remains whether or not you can turn a profit if you're potential full priced buyers were already used up by essentially selling discounted copies through crowd funding.

Also you have to remember that gamers are a skittish bunch, all it takes is one moderately high profile crowd funded game to go completely south to sour everyone on crowd funding for a while.

 

[Ed_MyEscapist]

I don't think you are being pessimistic at all! as a matter of fact those were my very thoughts before i was involved in the project, However i will tell you that there is something very attractive to this kind of involvement, i say attractive.... i mean addictive, and i feel that there is going to be a big audiences hooked to this type of funding.

Crowdfunding may never take over the the "normal" way of financing a game but i do believe that at the very least it will have its own, very defined, (not mention demanding) audience. I think for the amount of money that you put in and the levels of interaction you get back, it definitely overcomes the risks , and even if it doesn't the risk is half the fun right?

 

[Ed_MyEscapist]

Crowdfunding for indie games, sure, but it's never going to be a viable option for anything else. While we have no data yet, there is the question if through crowd funding you're essentially using up all your buyers off the bat. And the problem with this is that most of these kickstarter/crowdfunding games are basically giving you a heavy discount off the bat for supporting them, this severely cuts down the buyers who will be buying it at full price. And like the name implies Kickstarter is essentially that, it's kick starting the project, rarely are we going to see the complete development cost covered from crowd funding. And the question remains whether or not you can turn a profit if you're potential full priced buyers were already used up by essentially selling discounted copies through crowd funding.

Also you have to remember that gamers are a skittish bunch, all it takes is one moderately high profile crowd funded game to go completely south to sour everyone on crowd funding for a while.

That is being pessimistic! I agree that at this moment the notion of creating an AAA game through crowdfunding doesn't seem possible, but i refuse to believe there is no solution in the horizon! I have already heard a few interesting ideas that lower crowfunding's risk, IMO the best ones were the use of very well known studios and/or the use of a 50-50 approach,(half of the money is from a publisher and half the money from the public) making any public investment considerably safer.

Concerning our skittish gamers, i agree completely with your opinion but i think that eventually the trend is strong enough to survive a few bad patches... i feel i am being slightly too optimistic...