On paper, the idea of crowdfunding is great: people giving money to things they love but that very few people know about for one reason or another. Fanzines, albums, video games… Indie in general should embrace Kickstarter as a way to move forward and have a direct relationship with their fans. However, recently artists like Brandon Sanderson have used it to have a mass appeal and raise a lot of money for their products, which were already going to make a lot of money. And it raises certain doubts.
Omni-man, take us all
And it is that Skybound has fully entered crowdfunding, asking fans for money to make “the best possible video game” of Invincible, Robert Kirkman’s comic converted into a magnificent series for Prime Video. And mind you, I have no doubt that the game will be incredible and will have great ideas, but… Is it really necessary to crowdfund to release a title from a well-known franchise? Aren’t they simply skipping several steps along the way?
And how far can we go with this trend? Will there ever be a ‘Call of Duty’ one day that asks its fans for money? For now, ‘Invincible’ has raised almost $500,000 from 167 people in less than a day, and there are only 13 days left to “invest” in the game. Considering that the minimum they ask to enter is one hundred dollars, I’m not sure if we’re facing a great deal.
If you don’t want to put money into the crowdfunding, don’t worry, because the game will be released, no matter what. This is just support for, according to them, a game that is “anything but indie”. In other words, “lots of production, an eight-octane bloodbath. What do you say? Guts, gore, and the glory of potential investors?“. If it’s so not indie, the truth is, the only question we should ask ourselves is… Is it really worth it for them to go begging from house to house? Either it’s not so indie… or they’re pulling our leg.
