It’s been a crazy year for independent games development, but there a few stories larger than the influence that so-called “crowdfunding” has had on the industry, mostly via Kickstarter. So how much money did the aforementioned service — and the projects that harnessed it — contribute to gaming?
VentureBeat had a chat with the Kickstarter folk and the company was happy to divulge that $US79 million had been raised for 255 gaming projects. This isn’t in total since Kickstarter began in 2009, this is just for 2012.
For comparison, $US3.61 million was given to 87 gaming projects in 2011. That’s a 2088.3 per cent increase in a single year.
It’s hard to know if crowdfunding will have an even bigger year in 2013. I mean, who would have thought anyone would have anything left to contribute after Double Fine’s successful $US3.3 million drive, only to see Project Eternity beat it by another $US600,000 or so? That’s not to mention Ouya’s $US8.5 million.
Another unknown is how many of these projects will end up as disappointments or failures, as a few already have. One thing is for sure — it’s given some high-profile game developers a new lease on their careers and those of the studios they helm.
Kickstarter in 2012: 530,000 backers contributed $79M to game-related projects [VentureBeat]
Leave a Reply