EA Origin wants crowd-funded games

@chikahiro94

Oh i do blame Fargo, he has in spirit, lied to his donors. Sure there might be an argument for me being petty but i can see where this will go and for Kickstarter to revolutionise the attitude toward game development back to a healthy path of delivering true quality and a financially sustainable future vs a publisher's desire for immediate financial satisfaction by delivering a bastardized version of a game that will appear (to its marketing team) to appeal to a broader audience by aggressive advertising but disenfranchise experienced gamers (who by definition are growing every year) EA and other publishers like them need to go the way of the dodo and not latch onto thier evolving betters.

@Banefire76 Then blame Fargo for making a business decision. I don't think EA twisted his arm here.

@Whitebloodsun It is, but having to go back and forth to find replies is bad too. Neither is perfect, but at least now when you do find it, its got all the replies right there.

@chikahiro94

Isn't it tedious to click the "Show 50+more"...then wait, then click another "show 50+more"..."show 50+more".."show 50+more".....just to reply to yesterday conversation?

@Whitebloodsun Pretty much. Each distributor has their own strengths, and the more exposure a game can get, the more places that sell the games, the better IMO.

One of the reasons I stopped coming to Gamespot for a while is many times going against popular opinion is a guarantee of getting dogpiled with "shill," "fanboy," and other comments. The only reason I started commenting again is the new commenting system makes it easier to have conversations without jumping back and forth between a dozen or more pages.

@GinsuVictim You're in for a treat ginsu, pandora directive is a masterpiece :)

@PIGNIN I bought Under a Killing Moon the day it came out, but I only recently got my hands on Pandora Directive and Overseer. I need to play all five while waiting for this new one.

@erised2323 The only industry that's really hurting that I'll miss is the book industry. I loved walking through Borders (RIP), browsing, talking to the folks working there, getting recommendations, etc. The only bookstore left on island is a good hour drive away, and with gas getting close to $5/gal, well, obviously I don't go very often :(

Our only friendly local comic store closed years ago, and the only friendly local game store did too as they couldn't compete with Wal-Mart, Gamestop, etc. Pity, especially since he had old games (8-, 16-, 32-bit and last gen titles), plus Japanese imports, rare/odd systems, etc.

@chikahiro94

I agree completely. Many examples of those industries clinging for dear life to the way things used to work.

@BludshedX Basically, anyone not wanting to go through EA has no shortage of options with major distributors, and if they include smaller ones? Oh, jeez... TONS of options.

@BludshedX Well, again, they need to shoot straight on this one simply because they're not the only game in town. Not having these games will hurt them, as their library is still one of, if not the smallest of the major online distributors (not sure how they compare to GFW who has a depressingly small collection of games).

@chikahiro94 That would be the best way of them to go about it. We'll have to wait and see though.

The thought of EA get itself involved with the indie community makes me sick to my stomach though. Fingers crossed they don't f@#$ up another good thing we've got going on.

@BludshedX Blah - didn't phrase that right. Hopefully they'll be like the Humble Bundle folks and offer codes so you can get it from your company of choice, or offer the downloads themselves.

@BludshedX That's a good question. Brian Fargo already said via Twitter that you will be able to get WL2 from a variety of other places - no exclusitivity. They also said (on the kickstarter) that folks who donated $15 or more will be able to get the game for WIndows (lots of competition), Mac (no Origin), and Linux (no Origin).

I would imagine that Inexile will sell through all the various sellers, and possibly offer it themselves directly. The Humble Bundle folks offer codes so you can download via Steam or Desura (they sell Win, Mac and Linux games). Hopefully more details in the future, although it is a while before the game is expected to be done.

@Hakkology Oh, and I forgot Gamefly bought Direct2Drive. Again, another good potential partner, and one that could use a bit more diversity in their lineup. Be it parents who subscribe to keep the cost of gaming down (and are old enough to remember these older games), or console gamers looking for more to play and possibly expand into PC gaming, they do have their own audience.

Bottom line is the more exposure the game can get, the better, IMO. And this is all before you get into sites and services that sell Mac or Linux games.

@Hakkology Biggest reason to like crowdfunding is control. Developers will be more able to be fairly compensated for their work. For instance, independent studio Obsidian received no royalties for Fallout: New Vegas because they failed to meet the Metacritic rating stipulated in their contract, even though F:NV sold incredibly well. Some companies started placing that stipulation into contracts to make sure their IPs weren't poorly treated (look at how much licensed crap has come out using someone else's IP). Sadly, Metacritic is nearly as good a measure of quality or success as its made out to be.

With crowdfunding, Obsidian could make a great game and be assured that they won't miss out on the fruits of their labor. Additionally, the game will stand on its own merits rather than some artificial measurement. If they make a good game and players make sure everyone knows its awesome, sales will hopefully reflect that. I'm not naive enough to think good games automatically get good sales (sadly, that's so far from the truth its sad), but its better than what we're seeing now.

@Hakkology Not quite. Fans fund a game they want to see. When the game is finished, the company (Double Fine, Inexile, Pinkerton, etc) will then sell the final product wherever they want, in as many places as they want, of which Valve is just one.

Gamestop's Impulse service will be another great place to sell, for example, since they can market it in their stores. There's a vast market of people who don't come to game sites, read game magazines, etc., so seeing it in Gamestop might be the first and only time they'll hear about it. Gamestop also sells Steam cards now, so that's another plus.

Amazon has a ton of customers, and any time you look at something they'll have their recommendations that go along. So, someone looking at a game, book, TV show, etc., (basically, whatever triggers it in the system) might have a chance to see Double Fine's creation when its out. I'm sure this will work even better for Jane Jenson's game, since it will likely have more things it could be associated with than Double Fine and InExile's titles.

EA has their own gaming portal, but as a publisher themselves can make retail-friendly boxes so people can buy the game in Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. I don't know if they'd do purely download code-cards or have a disc as well, but either way its more promotion for the game.

Robert Garriott (brother of Richard Garriott) noted that retail boxes are a form of advertising, and for the general public the only real gaming advertising they'll see for the vast majority of titles (ie, ones without multimillion dollar advertising campaigns behind them).