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Kickstarter Games Saw A 64 Percent Jump In Dollars Pledged In 2015
While many gamers claim that they are falling victim to Kickstarter fatigue, that condition didn’t manifest itself quite how we anticipated in 2015. The crowdfunding platform reports that number of funded projects and total dollars pledged increased in 2015.
Kickstarter reports total pledges made, including those for projects that didn’t meet success, significantly expanded last year. An increase of 64 percent to $144.4 million and a jump in the number of backers by 67 percent to 978,000 indicates that interest is becoming more widespread.
Project managers pitching board games, video games, and a number of ancillary puzzle, playing card, mobile game, live game, and hardware projects increased in 2015. Key metrics across the categories were up, with the exception of the number of successful video game projects. That number dropped by 11 percent to 374.
Of the total $46.2 million in video game funding pledges, four games represented 38.3 percent of the load. Shenmue III, Bloodstained, Yooka-Laylee, and Battletech were the heavy hitters in 2015, also accounting for 11 percent of video game pledges.
[Source: Kickstarter, pictured: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night]
Our Take
It turns out that backer fatigue isn’t about volume. Kickstarter is clearly growing in all relevant categories, but it seems that at least in the video game area, interest is crystalizing around big names like Yu Suzuki and Koji Igarashi. This indicates that there may be a growing weariness with small and unproven pitches, with backers more willing to put funds behind projects that seem less risky.
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