George Broussard, Cliff Bleszinski and Notch talk about Kickstarter


cliff bleszinski
Now this is really wonderful. Chris Taylor has just canceled the Kickstarter campaign of Wildman and George Broussard, Cliff Bleszinski and Notch decided to discuss whether or not the Kickstarter ‘magic’ is fading out. In fact, everything started by Bleszinski when he wondered whether Kickstarter is feeling ‘kind of… played out …lately‘ or not.
Notch replied to Cliff’s tweet, stating that Kickstarter was never sustainable, though it’s a step towards the right direction:
“It was never going to be sustainable. A couple of big fails, and all the faith is gone. But it’s a great stepping stone.”
Morgan Jaffit, founder of Defiant Development, joined the party later on, disagreeing with Cliff and stating that the total amount of $$ running through Kickstarter today is ‘much higher than it was a year ago.’
George Broussard, co-founder of 3D Realms, has also joined the conversation. Broussard believes that Kickstarter is great for those asking a small amount of money in order to fund their games. However, Broussard believes that Kickstarter is not viable to those asking $1 million.
“KS is great if you’re indie and need 50k. It’s not viable for most wanting 500k-1m. Most pitches are weak.”
Brian Fargo, on the other hand, is a strong supporter of Kickstarter campaigns and has been backing up a lot of projects.
It’s really interesting witnessing such discussions between various developers. It is still obvious that some believe that Kickstarter is falling apart, while others believe that it is the way to go. As always, truth is somewhere in the middle of all those opinions, and we agree with Broussard’s idea.
However, if Kickstarter did not take off for some studios, we wouldn’t be waiting for games such as Star Citizen, Wasteland 2 and Obsidian’s Project Eternity, projects that would have never been funded via any other way. And that means that the Kickstarter magic is definitely still there, though Wildman’s cancelation was a major disappointment for all PC gamers.
So, what do you think? Is Kickstarter falling apart or is it still going strong?