KickStarter Fig - a new equity-based crowdfunding platform - shut down, RIP

[Mustawd]

What? We have horse races and contemporary art here too. It's still shit. The art, the races are cool.

Do Brazilians eat horse?

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Like I mentioned in another post, I used to be an auditor, of which I had PE firms as my clients. And like people, companies run the gamut on how aggressive they are in their accounting. Regardless of the type of disclosure a setup like you described might have, I wouldn't entirely trust the financials they're putting out without them being audited or at least reviewed first. I mean compare the first campaign with the most recent. You seriously think the first campaign was 100% funded by the legit investors they're trying to attract rather than funds already held by the partnership from previous seed money?

But feargus looks so trustworthy not to mention tim schafer!!!

Yeah I think this is like borderline scam.

It's like their own personal funding thing for shit they were already going to do, and anyone who isn't in on it already is just a sucker who's going to bleed.

I mean, what money do game studios themselves even make? The whole point of publishers is they can provide a huge amount of cash required to get them into stores as well as leverage.

 

[Bubbles]

What's Next?
Posted: 11/21/2015
We want to extend our sincere thanks to the team at Fig, as well as everyone that supported us by backing and by sharing the campaign with friends. Despite not hitting the funding goal, the team remains hard at work readying the game for release. We look forward to inviting everyone into the Anchors Universe next Summer!

To keep up to date on the title, and what’s going on at 5TH Cell, you can follow us these sites:
Facebook: Facebook.com/5THCell
Twitter: @5THCell

http://anchorsinthedrift.com/

On behalf of everyone here at 5TH Cell, Thank you!

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/anchors-in-the-drift

 

[Mustawd]

Despite not hitting the funding goal, the team remains hard at work readying the game for release.

Translation: "Don't worry we didn't need the money anyways! r00fles!"

 

[Infinitron]

So the assumption that all Figs are guaranteed to succeed due to shady self-funding was wrong.

 

[Mustawd]

I don't even see it as shady. They can do whatever they want with their funds. It's just plain stupid and misleading really.

EDIT: I'd also not be surprised to see this whole platform just be forgotten about. No matter what Feargus says, Obsidian is probably not going to use Fig as a crowdfunding platform anytime soon.

I honestly don't think this was a terribly bad idea. They just kind of bungled it, really. I seriously think we're hitting a saturation point with games soon, and only the biggest of projects will be worth crowdfunding in the near future.

 

[LESS T_T]

Next campaign starts in December, and it will allow unaccredited investors (anyone) to invest: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...fans_to_invest_in_games_and_share_profits.php

Minimum investment for next campaign is $1,000 and maximum is $10,000.

And postmortem on the last campaign: http://venturebeat.com/2015/11/24/f...ts-from-fans-for-game-crowdfunding-campaigns/

But Fig’s own model has its own challenges. Fig’s first campaign was a success. It took about nine months to put all of the details together for the third campaign.

But 5th Cell, a game company that used Fig for a crowdfunding campaign, tried to raise money before this change (allowing unaccredited investors to contribute) went into effect. But the campaign failed. 5th Cell received $5,000 in pledges for reward-based fans while it was seeking $50,000. And on the investor side, 5th Cell was seeking as much as $1 million, but it received only $100,000 in pledges. Under the Fig model, a company has to hit its targets, or it doesn’t get to keep the money. 5th Cell tried to raise money for a free-to-play game dubbed Outer Wilds.

“We have a fixed time and fixed campaign goal,” Bailey said. “It’s all or nothing.”

Bailey said that Fig learned that free-to-play games aren’t good models for crowdfunding campaigns, and so Fig won’t do them in the future. The change in the law that enables unaccredited investors to participate in the future is also going to be a boost for future campaigns, Bailey said.

Hmm, the third campaign sounds like pretty big one.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Bailey said that Fig learned that free-to-play games aren’t good models for crowdfunding campaigns, and so Fig won’t do them in the future.

Who'd have thunk it.

 

[Bubbles]

5th Cell tried to raise money for a free-to-play game dubbed Outer Wilds.

 

[Perkel]

"Hey, let's raise money for game that will nickel and dime us when we play it !"

 

[LESS T_T]

"We're going to do our next campaign, it's going to be a big one, and we're going to utilise in that up to $1 million of unaccredited [investment]," Bailey explained.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-11-24-fig-opens-door-to-unaccredited-investors

Yeah, "big one". I wonder if it's from one of the advisory board. If then, I guess Double Fine has something to show.

Anyway, it will start in early December.

 

[Immortal]

So the assumption that all Figs are guaranteed to succeed due to shady self-funding was wrong.

So the assumption Infinitron pulled out of his ass was possibly wrong.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Eh, I remember seeing it argued by others in this very thread. I even thought this would happen. It's not a stupid assumption to make, since some of the people involved (Tim Schaefer) have a reputation of swindlers). So last of the minute self-funding continues to not be out of the table, even with this late failed shit project.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Eh, I remember seeing it argued by others in this very thread. I even thought this would happen. It's not a stupid assumption to make, since some of the people involved (Tim Schaefer) have a reputation of swindlers). So last of the minute self-funding continues to not be out of the table, even with this late failed shit project.

Looking at how the last project mysteriously got funded, the assumptions wasn't really that unfounded. That it can't work for every figstarter is logical, especially if the project is only 1/10th funded.

 

[Immortal]

Eh, I remember seeing it argued by others in this very thread. I even thought this would happen. It's not a stupid assumption to make, since some of the people involved (Tim Schaefer) have a reputation of swindlers). So last of the minute self-funding continues to not be out of the table, even with this late failed shit project.

Granted I haven't followed this thread much but I thought the opinion was that they were only floating the first fig project so their website didn't debut with a failure. After that I assumed it was just fair game with maybe some book cooking but otherwise little to no actual investment from them.

Why would they start a website and just fund everything that comes through? I doubt any of these companies have that kind of cash laying around.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Looking at how the last project mysteriously got funded, the assumptions wasn't really that unfounded. That it can't work for every figstarter is logical, especially if the project is only 1/10th funded.

Agreed. I remain unphased that this is a bad crowdfunding platform for backers but may work for big investors and obviously the developers themselves. Extra care with Double Fine, people. Remember Broken Age.

Eh, I remember seeing it argued by others in this very thread. I even thought this would happen. It's not a stupid assumption to make, since some of the people involved (Tim Schaefer) have a reputation of swindlers). So last of the minute self-funding continues to not be out of the table, even with this late failed shit project.

Granted I haven't followed this thread much but I thought the opinion was that they were only floating the first fig project so their website didn't debut with a failure. After that I assumed it was just fair game with maybe some book cooking but otherwise little to no actual investment from them.

Makes sense.

Why would they start a website and just fund everything that comes through? I doubt any of these companies have that kind of cash laying around.

Less costly funding? Some of these companies have enough from earlier projects and probably new investors, though I have really no idea without seeing their books.

 

[Ninjerk]

Could be bad for backers, but funding options for games definitely need improvement.

 

[Perkel]

"We're going to do our next campaign, it's going to be a big one, and we're going to utilise in that up to $1 million of unaccredited [investment]," Bailey explained.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-11-24-fig-opens-door-to-unaccredited-investors

Yeah, "big one". I wonder if it's from one of the advisory board. If then, I guess Double Fine has something to show.

Anyway, it will start in early December.

Nah. Pillars of Eternity 2. Game is almost a year old at this point and since preproduction started probably something like months before PoE release then they are in stage where they are finishing preprod.

 

[Bubbles]

Pillars of Eternity 2

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...t-project-is-stormlands-reincarnation.104691/

 

[Perkel]

Pillars of Eternity 2

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...t-project-is-stormlands-reincarnation.104691/

So ?

 

[Infinitron]

Obsidian are set to announce a game funded by a publishing partner very soon. That publisher probably wouldn't agree with them campaigning for their own game within the same timeframe.

 

[vonAchdorf]

They also have a Harmonix game in the pipeline, don't they?

 

[Morality Games]

It would be an odd thing if a culture of investing and financing takes root in the core fanbases of these genres.

 

[Mustawd]

I'm doubtful they can pry enough people away from Kickstarter. I imagine they'll have to build a good amount of hype to get this thing started. But their biggest obstacle, use of only accredited investors, is now gone, so if they do this right it might work.

Still hard to see a really big project (ala Obsidian or inXile) coming in the pipeline.

 

[Morality Games]

I'm reasonably confident 600,000 sales Pillars of Eternity can get a couple million dollars in preorders regardless if its on Kickstarter or not.