22 November 2011

Sound Off! P500 or Kickstarter?

Now that Kickstarter is gaining some legs among the gaming community, what do you think?

Do you prefer P500 and having dedicated total of pledges to reach, but no financial commitment 'til the game is ready to go?

Or do you prefer the Kickstarter method, where you contribute the cash up front, but can do so at a level below the cost of the actual game and not necessarily get a copy of it?

The evolution of the pre-order world is going to get very interesting over the next 2-3 years...

By: Brant

3 comments:

Matt Purvis said...

Oooh, good question. I'd be interested in the opinion of game designers and the companies that manage the production and sale of games.

Personally, I prefer a P500 system. I don't like the uncertainty of putting down my cash for something that isn't being put in the mail soon. That said, I haven't really looked into the guarantees given in a Kickstarter system.

Kevin (The Big Board) said...

Well lets make sure we are all talking about the same thing. Most kickstarter programs do not take ANY money unti the program reaches its funding goal.
Lock'nLoad Publishing have a similar offering, they charge cards when they are ready to print AFTER reaching the target amount.

I would have a hard time funding an unknown publisher, but if a GBoH style game popped up, I'd be in like flynn and paying EXTRA to get it sooner than the typical 12-24 month cycle of a P500.

both systems have their place I guess.

Anonymous said...

I think Kickstarter makes things happen more quickly and with some good hype can generate more exposure than P500 that can have some game linger forever on the halfway mark.

I think Kickstarter is better for gaining momentum and acheive faster results.

Also, If I saw a P500 game with only 15 preorder after a couple of months, I wouldn't feel encouraged to put money into the product.

One thing that I don't like about Kickstarter is that it's all of nothing. Either your project makes it or it doesn't and in this regard I prefer P500 where you build on numbers and those are never lost.