In crowdfunding, Kickstarter raises significantly less money than in the previous year. But what does this mean and what is the reason for it?
Lack of large projects reduces support
For several years, crowdfunding has established itself as a solid method to launch a game project without having to argue for a long time with publishers about funding. Many ambitious projects were never accepted anyway because they were not a “guarantee” for profit – experiments are indeed expensive. Therefore, many developers used Kickstarter to convince potential fans and to receive donations until the development of the game was possible.
As ICO Partners reports, however, the “revenue” from Kickstarter in 2016 in the video game sector is anything but rosy. From January to June, backers decided to support their projects with 8.2 million dollars – in the previous year, it was double that in the same period with over 20 million dollars.
No doom and gloom
However, the picture is not as terrible as it seems. The decline can mainly be attributed to the fact that truly “big” projects are still scarce this year. Last year, the two games Shenmue 3 (6 million) and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (5.5 million) made up a large part of the nearly 40 million.
The reputation of many Kickstarter games has also declined over the years, as after a game is financed, it often takes many years before supporters receive something to play. On average, it takes about 29 months for a game to be truly released – prominent examples here are Pillars of Eternity or Wasteland 2.
Another reason for the decline is the emergence of other crowdfunding platforms that compete directly with Kickstarter (such as Startnext or IndieGoGo). However, there is also a silver lining: the number of “garbage projects” that get stuck at $0 is drastically decreasing. Clearly, many now see that financing a game on Kickstarter is not necessarily easier – as backers can also be critical and dismissive.
