Maybe it's skepticism. Maybe it's Kickstarter malaise. Maybe people just don't care.
Whatever the reason, Harmonix's Kickstarter for Amplitude, an attempt at reviving the niche PlayStation 2 game of the same name, is not doing very well. As of this writing, it's sitting at around $643,000 of its $775,000 goal, with just about two days to go.
While unsuccessful Kickstarters are hardly rare, this is a particularly unusual situation in that 1) Harmonix is an established, high-profile game studio with a solid track record and 2) Amplitude is a cult classic that some people are obsessed with. Still, things are coming down to the wire.
Over the past few days, the Kickstarter has seen a surge in interest and backing from high-profile figures. Minecraft creator Markus Persson and actress Felicia Day asked their millions of Twitter followers to go back Amplitude, and the studio Insomniac Games gave $7,500 to the project yesterday. But time's running out, and they're still over $100,000 short.
Harmonix has publicly stated that the game will not happen if this Kickstarter doesn't succeed. In a last-minute attempt to get Amplitude backed, they're are livestreaming themselves playing the old PS2 game over at Twitch. And they're still hopeful that they can pull this off.
"We're way more optimistic now than we were last week, but we're still incredibly nervous," Harmonix's John Drake told me in an e-mail this morning. "This has been a passion project at Harmonix for a long time and we're just within reach of making a game that publishers told us wouldn't be possible.
"The suspense is incredible."