Obsidian Entertainment says major publishers want to exploit Kickstarter

9/24/12 11:00am

According to Obsidian Entertainment, major big name gaming publishers and companies have been recently trying to exploit the Kickstarter system.

They state they have been contacted several times over the past several months from big name publishers who wanted the company to operate Kickstarter projects for them. This was during the same period as the company themselves was preparing and having their own Kickstarter for Project Eternity which ended up being a success.

The only catch was if they accepted then several restrictions would be placed such as the project couldn't be revealed as being from the publisher, the refusal to fund any of their money to the project, complete ownership of the IP, and the majority of revenues if the project was successful.

"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”."

The benefits for these publishers would be letting the public bear the entire costs for development while gaining easy IP rights from developers.

» Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/major-publishers-want-to-exploit-smaller-companies-for-kickstarter-games/
» Tagged In: #community showcase, #developers, #IP rights, #Kickstarer, #Obsidian Entertainment, #publishers

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

darkhyrulelord

September 26, 2012 - 8:54pm

Yeah this all sounds rather...fishy.

CyberAngel573

September 25, 2012 - 8:57am

I find it ironic that "The 15 Biggest WTF Moments in Gaming" was suggested to me under this blog entry. I think this needs to go on that list.

Heigen

September 25, 2012 - 7:21am

It would be just insane accept that and they would burn kickstarter too when they get caught.

Dcmac

September 24, 2012 - 5:24pm

If we already funded it, what point is there for a publisher? They're asking for free money and IPs from devs. Wonder what they're smoking...

Tom the Iron Man

September 24, 2012 - 5:56pm

I disapprove of this

My money is on EA just to get as many IPs as they can and just keep them internally developed.

Tom the Iron Man

September 24, 2012 - 5:53pm

Distribution rights, if the game is going to be released on consoles and have physical copies for PC it needs a distributor. Valve developed and published The Orange Box on 360 but EA was the distributor.

Blu3Beret

September 24, 2012 - 4:09pm

No developer would agree to that, it's self-defeating. I would love to hear the follow up to:

"...but we then don’t get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits” They said, “Yes”."

"Ahem, and.. uhh... why would we do that?"

Down with publishers - they've been entrenched for too long and now their business model is flaking apart while doing anything to maintain the upper hand. Obsidian should whistle-blow this and say who actually did it, customers and the-more-honest publishers would applaud it

http://thecostofknowledge.com/ is trying to take a stab at another big publisher with a stranglehold on academia, check it out if you are tied to R&D

Munkimanz

September 24, 2012 - 3:09pm

so basically the publishers want to maximise profits. understandable. but thats the most underhand way possible, for example what if the double fine adventure kickstarter is secretly run by ea? nobody would go for it anymore.

sprode

September 24, 2012 - 2:33pm

Aaaaaand here comes that bad part about our expression of direct demand. These publishers will always find a way to take their pound of flesh.

KurzWeber75

September 24, 2012 - 2:02pm

So basically Publlishers, whose job it is to fund, advertise and sell games for developers nin return for a majority cut of the profit and complete ownership of their creations, wants us to give them money through kickstarter, essentially doing their part of the job for them?