There's a very lengthy article on Eurogamer on the status of Project CARS, the upcoming crowdfunded racing game in the world at NFS Shift developer Slightly Mad Studios. The game's €3.5m budget is mostly from fans who have backed the title, and the article goes into extreme detail in exploring to what degree this was presented to backers as an investment where they should expect returns, and how this may or may not all be kosher under U.K. law. They also note that examples of potential returns were based on far fewer backers participating than the project ultimately attracted. Part of the issue with U.K. laws concerns "unregulated investments," and though Slightly Mad has used the term investment at times, the article states they have a different way of characterizing this: "Slightly Mad argues that WMD isn't an investment scheme. It says those who backed Project CARS are freelance contractors and they will be paid from the profits." This situation is still under review by the authorities, as they explain: "The FSA is still investigating the pCARS scheme, under its new name of the Financial Conduct Authority, which came into effect on 1 April. If the regulator gives WMD the all clear, other developers could follow its example, and Slightly Mad's revolution could be even bigger than anyone thought." And the outcome may have serious repercussions for some of their investors/freelance contractors, as the story includes examples of people who sank relatively large sums of money into this project. Thanks tom.