But that all ignores the nature of Kickstarter. This isn't some best case scenario where Obsidian has set their dream budget and their dream schedule and is going to get every opportunity to succeed: they're going to be working on a limited budget (even if they hit the $3+ million mark), with the limited schedule that implies, with zero safety net and virtually zero obligation to the backers. Kickstarter is investing, not pre-ordering: the worst case scenario isn't you end up with an Alpha Protocol-tier game, it's that you end up with a pre-alpha version of an Alpha Protocol-tier game.

As for the whole no excuses thing, it certainly raises the question of why Obsidian so consistently agrees to projects with such unreasonable schedules and/or budgets. I mean, sure, they were screwed over on KOTOR2, but you'd think they'd learn their lesson after that? Like the old saying goes: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me four times, maybe I need to take a good hard look at my business practices and consider hiring new management?

Slow_Show

Your last point comes down to DSIII and the South Park RPG. DS III is the first time we didn't hear of any problems of Obsidian being rushed and the game came out bug free, THQ is giving Obsidian plenty of time to work on SoT and so far there's been nothing but praise. You keep bringing up the bug issue but you keep ignoring that their last game and last DLC was damn near perfect quality wise, not to mention based on an engine created in house and that the newest game their working on has been said to look just like the cartoon its based on and plays like Super Mario RPG.

So your question, "Why does Obsidian consistently agree to projects with such unreasonable schedules and/or budgets?" When the last 3 games they've known to work on doesn't have this issue you're raising.