Publishers accused of trying to exploit Kickstarter (Obsidian)

[Goran]

Raise your pledges, fan funding is the only future for real RPGs:

http://www.destructo...er-235292.phtml

 

(Publishers will get caught eventually)

Edited September 19, 2012 by Goran

[Hornet85]

Hahaha

 

That was pretty pathetic really. Publishers want their share of Kickstarter and aim to exploit the dev for that?

 

Wow. Words fail me

[czinczar]

Well, I am sure it was electronic arts, because of the bonds between bioware and obsidian. And something like that was to be expected : that's the wet dream of any publisher, I guess.

[Badprenup]

Good on Obsidian for saying no, shame they won't expose the Publisher (as much as I like them, I bet it was Bethesda Softworks due to their past work with Obsidian and their few occasional brushes with other developers and even fans).

[Nonek]

Not one to step on a hate wagon, but by crikey that's taking the bloody mustard.

[Crosmando]

Kickstarter = Free media coverage generated by actual fans, not bribery of video game review sites.

 

No wonder they are jealous.

[Piccolo]

Those deplorable apes...

 

They deserve to be named and shamed.

[Badprenup]

Coming soon to a Kickstarter near you:

 

A publisher looking for backers to finance a studio to make a game which they will then sell to you for $60 a pop.

[Ashram]

Wow thats pretty low. Stick to your guns devs, we support you!

[Hornet85]

Big publishers like EA have their band of lawyers who can sue you just because of the way you look at them if they wanted to.

 

So I think Obsidian probably don't want to risk getting into any legal trouble. It won't make any difference for them now since their project is fan funded and they don't have to deal with them anymore.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Hornet85

[Deraldin]

Big publishers like EA have their band of lawyers who can sue you just because of the way you look at them if they wanted to.

 

So I think Obsidian probably don't want to risk getting into any legal trouble. It won't make any difference for them now since their project is fan funded and they don't have to deal with them anymore.

 

I think legal trouble is the least of their worries. It's more likely they don't want to damage any possible business relationship they might have in the future.

[BruceVC]

I don't particularly like Jim Sterling, he is a master of theatrics and a populist when it comes to his rants to gamers. He knows how to get gamers riled up and supportive of his articles. I remember his diatribe about Pirating, it ended with him saying something similar to "f**k all publishers and if you can Pirate then you should"

 

Anyway whatever Publisher tried to do this is very disingenuous but it wouldn't be someone as large as EA or Atari. They have lots of money to fund games. Its probably one of the smaller ones

Edited September 19, 2012 by BruceVC

[phimseto]

I am helping to write a smaller indie Kickstarter RPG and we've even had publishers approach us trying to buy out the project/get it under their aegis. Not quite the same as what happened with Obsidian, but either way, supporting a publisher that way certainly represents a betrayal of backer trust.

 

If this is actually making publishers sweat, then...good. Really, though, I suspect it's a case of the greedy simply not having enough and wanting a piece of that sweet action.

 

**** them.

[Nakia]

I won't say who I think it is but wouldn't surprise me to find out it is a publisher that I detest. Really detest.

[Inyourprime]

Now this makes me wary for future ks projects. Whomever this was, they couldn't persuade Obsidian, but publishers will keep sweetening the deal until an independent studio accepts. For all we know, this could've happened already and we won't know about it until the game releases.

[Lexx]

Man, news media exploiting everything. They make it sound as if someone has put a gun on Feargus head.

[Longknife]

Am I missing something?

 

I see the obvious lack of logic in the statement and how ridiculous it is, but I can't help but feel like while I'm laughing at the stupid attempt to basically steal an IP with an offer only an idiot would take, I feel like everyone else is treating this like an extremely cunning plot that would fool many and is a disgrace to society, responsible for the downfall of several potential IPs.

 

Sure, it'd be a disgrace, if it weren't so ****ing funny in how pathetic of an attempt it is. Or am I missing something?

Edited September 19, 2012 by Longknife

[Badprenup]

Am I missing something?

 

I see the obvious lack of logic in the statement and how ridiculous it is, but I can't help but feel like while I'm laughing at the stupid attempt to basically steal an IP with an offer only an idiot would take, I feel like everyone else is treating this like an extremely cunning plot that would fool many and is a disgrace to society, responsible for the downfall of several potential IPs.

 

Sure, it'd be a disgrace, if it weren't so ****ing funny in how pathetic of an attempt it is. Or am I missing something?

Nope, you nailed it.

[Longknife]

Am I missing something?

 

I see the obvious lack of logic in the statement and how ridiculous it is, but I can't help but feel like while I'm laughing at the stupid attempt to basically steal an IP with an offer only an idiot would take, I feel like everyone else is treating this like an extremely cunning plot that would fool many and is a disgrace to society, responsible for the downfall of several potential IPs.

 

Sure, it'd be a disgrace, if it weren't so ****ing funny in how pathetic of an attempt it is. Or am I missing something?

Nope, you nailed it.

 

Ok well then it's ****ing funny how pathetic of an attempt that was to steal the IP, and assuming a marketing director would be in charge of making such an offer (I have no clue), the obvious culprit is Bethesda Softworks.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Gorth
Let's not get too abusive towards Obsidians colleagues in the industry

[BruceVC]

Now this makes me wary for future ks projects. Whomever this was, they couldn't persuade Obsidian, but publishers will keep sweetening the deal until an independent studio accepts. For all we know, this could've happened already and we won't know about it until the game releases.

 

I can't see how this would happen unless the developers choose to sell there IP and then its there choice.

Up to now most developers had to use Publishers due to limited funds. But they did agree to this, it wasn't like they were forced. Yes its not right but it was the way the world worked... until now. KS can permanently change this type of financial model and if Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity are financially successful then I predict we will see a paradigm shift around the way the games are produced.

[BSoda]

Am I missing something?

 

I see the obvious lack of logic in the statement and how ridiculous it is, but I can't help but feel like while I'm laughing at the stupid attempt to basically steal an IP with an offer only an idiot would take, I feel like everyone else is treating this like an extremely cunning plot that would fool many and is a disgrace to society, responsible for the downfall of several potential IPs.

 

Sure, it'd be a disgrace, if it weren't so ****ing funny in how pathetic of an attempt it is. Or am I missing something?

 

...well I would suppose that part of that deal was that the publisher would also pay x million $ if the kickstarter reaches y million $...resulting in a game with a budget of x+y. Otherwise this makes zero sense.

[Longknife]

Am I missing something?

 

I see the obvious lack of logic in the statement and how ridiculous it is, but I can't help but feel like while I'm laughing at the stupid attempt to basically steal an IP with an offer only an idiot would take, I feel like everyone else is treating this like an extremely cunning plot that would fool many and is a disgrace to society, responsible for the downfall of several potential IPs.

 

Sure, it'd be a disgrace, if it weren't so ****ing funny in how pathetic of an attempt it is. Or am I missing something?

 

...well I would suppose that part of that deal was that the publisher would also pay x million $ if the kickstarter reaches y million $...resulting in a game with a budget of x+y. Otherwise this makes zero sense.

 

It still makes zero sense because as it is now, Obsidian owns the IP and thus reaps all the rewards.

 

I'd assume what happened is the other company tried to say "let us publish it because our name is bigger and therefore we can get more sales for your game," but unless this were true and the company could literally quadruple Obsidian's sales to the point where Obsidian STILL earns more despite sharing the profit, the offer is completely ****. Even IF it can quadruple the sales and turns them a profit, it's bogus because they'd lose their IP and only gain them short term profits, not so much longterm ones.

 

Basically it's some giant company thinking they're so god damned awesome that their name will be enough to convince Obsidian to surrender their IP.

 

That's what makes it so funny. It's like some guy demanding to get into a club for free because he's famous and he's egotistical enough to believe everyone will know him and bow to his every whim, and then the security is like "who the **** are you" and ends up stopping him and beating the **** out of him because they dunno him and don't see why he's entitled to enter for free.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Longknife

[Sylvius the Mad]

It makes perfect sense. Kickstarter + digital distribution threatens to make publishers obsolete. They want to find a way to shoehorn themselves back into the industry.

[Longknife]

It makes perfect sense. Kickstarter + digital distribution threatens to make publishers obsolete. They want to find a way to shoehorn themselves back into the industry.

 

Then they should at least offer cake, because the offer as they made it was laughably pathetic.

Cake always sweetens the deal.

[Nivenus]

It was definitely a bad deal they offered and it would been a shame if it had gone forward...

 

But what developer in their right mind would accept the deal? I don't see any potential advantage, since they'd be raising all of the money anyway. So I'm not convinced this will be a problem in the future.