Pillars of Eternity 2 and crowdfunding on Kickstarter?

[Abel]

 

Development costs were (mostly) paid for.  This means they can sell the game for (almost) pure profit.  I don't see how simple addition and substitution is so hard to understand.

 

Profit  = Total Money In - Total Money Out.

Total Money In = Kickstarter + Other Prerelease Sales + Release Sales.

Therefore:  Profit = (Kickstarter + Other Sales) - Total Money Out.

 

 

Let's say they spent all their kickstarter money on game development (which they did), and then they made $6m in released sales.

 

Profit = ($4m +$6m) - $4m

Profit = $6m

 

Then, lets imagine a world without kickstarter, where Obsidian fronts its own cash and makes it up in release sales.  They still make $6m in release sales.

 

Profit = $6m - $4m

Profit = $2m

 

What?  Profit changed?  It's almost like money from Kickstarter is just a different source of income that still affects profits.  Yes, it's spent making the game, but that just means that the creator doesn't incur a loss in the creation of the game.  Come on, this is simple addition.

 

 

I don't think it is the problem here. I always thought that to make profit, one needed to have something to sell beforehand. KS helped OE to have something to sell, allowig them to make profit afterwards. Plus, i feel that PoE costs were nearer from 7/8M than from the 4 KS M. I don't seek for justice or anything else here. The whole point of KS is not just in allowing to do a game that publishers refuse to back. It is also ideally to allow a studio to earn their part and the publisher part as well to help them auto publish themselves afterwards. If OE want to have freedom in the future, they need to autopublish themselves. People are way too used to the publisher model. Why a studio can't be a studio as well as its own publisher? And why in hell this auto produced studio would have to take only the money for the developing part? Designing games is expensive, and they need the money to do so. The money earned is not something they will take for their own purse. A company is about earning money and investing this money for further project. In video game industry, the weirdness is that the making and the investing parts are separated.

 

This is how i see this KS question. It's just how even your baker rules his shop: Investing money >> earning money >> investing the money earned >> earning money >> and so on. This scheme allow a company to survive, granted the earnings are at least equal to the invested money. That's why a company has to save an important enough sum of money as backup if a project just fail to sell, to avoid bankruptcy.

 

One KS project, even if successful may not bring enough money to finance and auto produce the next game. From now on, they may do the same as Larian with Divinity Original Sin, seeking for just a part of the money needed with KS. If they do so with PoE2, i'll back it. And i hope their investment will be profitable. The only thing i could discuss about is whether KS is more profitable than a bank loan for OE (granted a bank would agree with the 4/6M loan, which is not a guarantee at all).

Edited March 12, 2015 by Abel

[jjmgreen]

 

 

The only one that can answer is Obsidian.

I have a valid arguement. 1+1=2.

People may say it's The Market, or I don't care it's luxury, or what did you expect or whatever, nothing of which changes the fact that this is a game with 0 personal money invenstment that costs as much as a game that someone put their money in to produce it.

I don't understand why are people jumping to protect and speak on behalf of Obsidian like they know something more.

If Obsidian wants to answer this, let them do it and here I am.

 

The reason I am jumping on you is your accusations are empty, your facts are wrong, and furthermore I want Obsidian to make a lot of money on this so I reject your entire premise.  Part of the reason I backed this game was so that Obsidian could make 100% profit on any sales.  I am completely 100% your enemy on this point.  The last thing I want to see is some revolt against Obsidian undermining them at this important juncture.  Further you are a backer so you already got the game at a discount.

 

If you have a problem with the price, it will be onsale at some point.

 

If Obsidian wants to give you an explanation that is up to them but I have every right and justification to disagree with you.

 

Enemy on what? You haven't read anything I wrote except my last post didn't you?

I never said I'm against Obsidian making profit. I find the price just too high and I don't see the reason for this.

I'm also a backer as you obviously (?) see; I've already bought the game at a lower price. Anyway I've explained myself in detail in umerous posts before. Read 'em if you wish.

You see as enemies anyone that dissagrees (?) with you so easily? What can I say.

 

Well - here's a possible reason for the price being set "high" at launch - early adopters are usually willing to pay a premium.

Setting a "high" price initially allows it to be lowered later, which will then bring in the tier of interested players waiting for better

value.  They need to still make a profit at the lowered price.

[rjshae]

I simply try to point out how Kickstarter is not supposed to be for profit.

 

Since when? Kickstarter is to fund projects we want to see come to fruition. There's nothing said about it being a non-profit endeavor, unless a project chooses to make that distinction. We aren't funding marxist communism here; it's still a business.

[Kal Adan]

Perhaps you should read the explanation how exactly Kickstarter works? It's a business, but you're not bound to make significant profit from your game. Kickstarter doesn't care about that. It's there only to make sure you make a game you want to make and there are people willing to support you on that. Beyond that point a game still needs to sell itself - on its own - and there are many competitors on the market, if you want profit. That's why Kickstarter isn't there for profit. I hope it's clearer now.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Kal Adan

[Kinthalis]

This is just the OP having a complete lack of understanding on how games are developed and how much they cost to develop, and how a developers without a publisher backing them up NEEDS to be working on atleast one, hopefully more than one project back to back in order to survive, short of miraculously developing something super successful like a Minecraft or something.

[Voss]

This is just the OP having a complete lack of understanding on how games are developed and how much they cost to develop, and how a developers without a publisher backing them up NEEDS to be working on atleast one, hopefully more than one project back to back in order to survive, short of miraculously developing something super successful like a Minecraft or something.

Not to defend the OP, but given the small size of the PoE team, I think its reasonable to assume that Obsidian is working on multiple other projects not-PoE related.   Something about armored cards or finding war paths, maybe?

Edited March 13, 2015 by Voss