This is really starting to show the potential of Kickstarter.
So many of the successful Kickstarter projects have been unknowns. Just really smart and driven people with a dream.
If established companies can bypass publishers and investors by promising to sell a product directly to the consumer then we have a whole new ballgame here.
Double Fine has successfully funded a game where the only promise is that they will release it. That's it. No percentage of revenue to the publisher. The publisher can't demand they add DRM, etc. Their only obligation is to do what they do best because they are only answering to someone who wants a great game, not a return on their investment.
They already decided to use DRM. They use Steam. I'd be among the backers if I would get a simple standalone installer or even zip archive without any honest-customer-punishment.
DF/Tim is/was already famous in the gaming community beforehand though. This helps. It's a bit like if Paul & Ringo created a Kickstarter project saying they're thinking of making a new Beatles album, and wanting to know if anyone would front them the production costs upfront.
To reiterate:
Up till now, it has basically only been the "unknowns" using Kickstarter, hoping that their product and pitch video are good enough. Some of them have done well, but the Double Fine project has made more than any other project in 24 hours.
This project shows what can happen if an already well-known brand goes with crowd-funding. To me, the craziest part is that they didn't even pitch a specific game, just the genre.
So many of the successful Kickstarter projects have been unknowns. Just really smart and driven people with a dream.
If established companies can bypass publishers and investors by promising to sell a product directly to the consumer then we have a whole new ballgame here.
Double Fine has successfully funded a game where the only promise is that they will release it. That's it. No percentage of revenue to the publisher. The publisher can't demand they add DRM, etc. Their only obligation is to do what they do best because they are only answering to someone who wants a great game, not a return on their investment.
This is big.