Warning: PS3 firmware 4.45 crashing consoles
Dragon's Prophet preview: how to catch your dragon
Report: Respawn Entertainment co-founder left due to personal conflict
Oculus Rift secures $16 million in venture capital
Max Payne 3 slowly dives onto Mac this week
Obsidian CEO: publishers wanted to do Kickstarters with us
by Alice O'Connor, Sep 19, 2012 9:00am PDTPart of the lure of Kickstarter for developers is that they're free from the demands of publishers, able to make whatever they want, however they want, for as long as they want, and own it all. Publishers, unsurprisingly, may want in on this crowd-funding lark. Obsidian Entertainment, now riding high on its own smash-hit Kickstarter Project Eternity, has said that several publishers had approached Obsidian to front a campaign then join up with them to publish it.
In the comments (via Atomic MPC) for the Project Eternity Kickstarter, CEO Feargus Urquhart wrote last night:
"We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a Kickstarter. I said to them 'So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don't get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits.' They said, 'Yes'."
He later clarified that the idea was not quite as insidious or daft as it may first seem:
I think they were trying, honestly, to be able to do something with us and they felt that was the easiest way to do it. They would then not need to go get budget approved and deal with the challenge of that. What I don't think they did was to think about our side of it and what they were really asking.
Perhaps there is some merit to a hybrid model. Publishers are far better equipped to handle QA and localisation than most developers, and are tapped into retail. Even the mighty Valve distributes the retail versions of its games through EA Partners. Not to mention that, though publishers are supposedly evil shapeshifting lizards sent from the centre of the Earth to destroy fun, having someone external watch over a game to keep it on track can be invaluable.
Of course, publishers would need to realise that they were there to help the developer--not the other way around--and ease up on silly things like wanting to own the intellectual property.
Anyway, Obsidian. The Project Eternity campaign is still roaring away, hitting the $1.6 million stretch goal to fund a Mac edition and expand the campaign. Pledging at least $25 will get you a digital copy of the old-school RPG when it's finished.
Comments
Part of the lure of Kickstarter for developers is that they're free from the demands of publishers, able to make whatever they want, however they want, for as long as they want, and own everything they do. Publishers, unsurprisingly, may want in on this crowd-funding lark. Obsidian Entertainment, now riding high on its own smash-hit Kickstarter, has said that several publishers had approached Obsidian to front a campaign then join up with them to publish it.
Part of the lure of Kickstarter for developers is that they're free from the demands of publishers, able to make whatever they want, however they want, for as long as they want, and own everything they do. Publishers, unsurprisingly, may want in on this crowd-funding lark. Obsidian Entertainment, now riding high on its own smash-hit Kickstarter, has said that several publishers had approached Obsidian to front a campaign then join up with them to publish it. : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 59 replies.
Seth Godin did a kickstarter campaign earlier this year for his new book: http://kck.st/KvkY4h
at one point he made this announcement: Icarus publisher announced...
"Good News! Penguin/Porftolio, the company that published all of my traditional books from Purple Cow up to Linchpin, has signed on to be the publisher of The Icarus Project.
"Thanks to the success you guys have brought to this project, the announcement is being featured in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, as it represents a significant shift in the power of publishing. To quote the Journal, "...could well become an industry template because it eliminates much of the uncertainty for booksellers and publishers deciding which titles to bet on.""
Well worth the read, both for his post & the conversation in the comments:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/297519465/the-icarus-deception-why-make-art-new-from-seth-go/posts/253569
Here is some of Seth's explanation from the comment:
Publishing is not printing, they're very different. Printing is easy, anyone can do it. Publishing is the act of taking a significant financial risk to bring an idea to the world, particularly strangers.
Publishers and bookstores take risks all the time. The problem is, as their business struggles, is that they don't know where to take those risks, and tend to default to TV shows and proven sequels, certainly nothing that feels really risky.
Was there going to be a problem with me finding someone who would 'publish' my book the old way without Kickstarter? Of course not. But to get bookstores to carry it in real bulk, to get the publisher to put his imprint on the line--how to motivate that and turn their enthusiasm into a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I am not a defender of publishers, but I suspect that it's a little more complex then presented.
You must be logged in to post.