Post Comment - Blue's News

Op Ed

[May 08, 2012, 09:28 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Gamasutra - How long before the Kickstarter bubble bursts?
We are still in the early days of our Kickstarter relationship, the early days of falling in love. Everything our partner does is wonderful. We gloss over the risks, we ignore the downsides, because the glory of falling in love is everything.

I think we have about six months left of that period. Towards the end of this year, some Kickstarter projects are going to start slipping. Some will see their teams collapse amidst bicker recriminations. Some pledgers are going to start getting very angry.

Post Comment
Enter the details of the comment you'd like to post in the boxes below and click the button at the bottom of the form.

50.

Re: Op Ed

May 8, 2012, 15:29

briktal

Prez wrote on May 8, 2012, 14:57: Tumbler wrote on May 8, 2012, 14:47: Here's the test for a bubble: 1) Are people spending lots of money? 2) Is the money being spent someone foolishly, without much due diligence or regard for how reasonable the promised returns are? 3) If the promises don't come true, will people become much stingier? Again, two sides of the coin. For Kickstarter stuff: 1) No. 2) No. 3) Maybe. For AAA $60 stuff: 1) Yes. 2) Yes. 3) Yes. I don't know how many kickstarter projects have fan boys but a lot of the companies that make AAA games do and I'm pretty sure those guys don't do a lot of due diligence before they run in screaming, "TAKE MY MONEY!" Exactly. The vast majority of kickstarter backers are risking only a fraction of what they blew on Dragon Age 2 before finding out it was crap. Yet according to the kickstarter phenomenon naysayers, we're in for some terrible cataclysmic loss if a few ill-conceived projects fall on their face as if there's no risk in buying at retail. The sky isn't falling if you lose 15 or 20 bucks on a bad project or two any more than it is when you buy a $60 "AAA" game and finish it after 5 mediocre hours. A bit of perspective is in order. I think the number of people paying into the higher tiers might drop off in the future of Kickstarter though.

Subject

Comment [quote="briktal"May 8, 2012, 15:29][quote="Prez"May 8, 2012, 14:57][quote="Tumbler"May 8, 2012, 14:47]q[Here's the test for a bubble: 1) Are people spending lots of money? 2) Is the money being spent someone foolishly, without much due diligence or regard for how reasonable the promised returns are? 3) If the promises don't come true, will people become much stingier?]q Again, two sides of the coin. For Kickstarter stuff: 1) No. 2) No. 3) Maybe. For AAA $60 stuff: 1) Yes. 2) Yes. 3) Yes. I don't know how many kickstarter projects have fan boys but a lot of the companies that make AAA games do and I'm pretty sure those guys don't do a lot of due diligence before they run in screaming, "TAKE MY MONEY!" [/quote] Exactly. The vast majority of kickstarter backers are risking only a fraction of what they blew on Dragon Age 2 before finding out it was crap. Yet according to the kickstarter phenomenon naysayers, we're in for some terrible cataclysmic loss if a few ill-conceived projects fall on their face as if there's no risk in buying at retail. The sky isn't falling if you lose 15 or 20 bucks on a bad project or two any more than it is when you buy a $60 "AAA" game and finish it after 5 mediocre hours. A bit of perspective is in order. [/quote] I think the number of people paying into the higher tiers might drop off in the future of Kickstarter though. [/quote]

;) :( :o %) :) :| ;P X| :D More

If you have a signature set up, it will be automatically appended to your comment.
If you don't already have a Blue's News user account, you can sign up here.
Forgotten your password? Click here.

Email me when this topic is updated.

Special Codes

b[bold text]b
i[italic text]i
u[underline text]u
-[~~strikethrough text~~]-
c[code text]c
+[bullet point]+
q[quote text (indented)]q
[quote="Author"]quote text (indented)[/quote]
[url=Link]text[/url]
r{red text}r
g{green text}g
b{blue text}b
m{maroon text}m
s{secret text (shows in the background colour)}s

Forum Rules

Disagree all you want but attacks of a personal nature will not be tolerated.
Ethnic slurs and homophobic language will not be tolerated.
Do not post spam, links to warez sites, or instructions on how to obtain pirated software.
Abusing the forums in any manner that could be construed as 'griefing' will not be tolerated.