Interview Feargus Urquhart talks about new crowdfunding platform Fig and Obsidian's future

[Curious_Tongue]

On the eve of their new publishing empire cooperative with Double Fine and InXile, Obsidian co-founder Chris Avellone jumps ship.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I just want to see stable funding platforms for niche developers.

 

[Kz3r0]

Looks to me they're trying to snag whales KS high-roller millionaires/billionaires like Notch and Dracogen to create their own 'publishing platform'... and for all we know, it may even work out for them in the end.

Nope, if this is the case they misunderstood Kickstarter and 'whales' big time.
Let's make a real life example, Arab Sheiks are notorious for wasting huge(not for them) amounts of money on dumb shit, but when comes to business(investement) they are the most ruthless motherfuckers there are.
Kickstarter is a casual paradise, some people just happen to have more money than others and are more willing to throw big bucks at the projects they like, Fig instead enphasize the investement part, this will cause a switch in the mindset, people with real money are not going to give real money without a fuck-a-ton of guarantees.
Fig is just for peons that want to feel like millionaries because they have a stake in their beloved videogames, except that Kickstarter worked because was sold like a dream, people give money there because they feel that are helping something awesome to happen not because they hope to be the shareholders of the new Beatles.
Thsese guys forgot the first rule in sales, never talk about the money until the contract is signed.

 

[aratuk]

I don't know if mixing kickstarter with a serious investment platform is such a good idea. You're likelier to get people do things for you for free than for little money. The thing is, when you just asking somebody to help you out, you appeal to his social sensibilities. A helpful person will (within reason) help another person in need. But when you offering money you offering a deal, a contract and appeal to person's financial sensibilities. And if deal is bad that very same person that was inclined to help you as a fellow human will refuse, because financially speaking your deal is bad. Simply put asking a person to help you carry a box is much likelier to succeed than asking the same person do this for 50 cents.

I don't see how this new platform is going to make particularly enticing investment deal for most kickstarter tier pledgers. It will however make those same pledgers no longer consider their pledge as a token of good will.

This is an interesting consideration. However, though, Fig is going to operate "reward"-oriented Kickstarter-esque campaigns in parallel with the cattle call for investors. Maybe it actually would be a good idea not to remove the supposedly temporary requirement for "accreditation" for investors, lest they create hundreds or thousands of angry first-time-investor gaming enthusiasts who will dive in head-first with their savings and discover the pool is really kind of shallow, usually.

 

[Duraframe300]

On the eve of their new publishing empire cooperative with Double Fine and InXile, Obsidian co-founder Chris Avellone jumps ship.

As mentioned in the other thread to InXile (at least temporarly). So, I'm not quite sure this is the reason either.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

As mentioned in the other thread to InXile (at least temporarly). So, I'm not quite sure this is the reason either.

Could explain the perceived icy relationship between Obsidian and Avellone. He may not have left for any business reason, but it doesn't look good to outsiders.

 

[Aoyagi]

Well, making their own thing worked pretty well for CD Projekt. If these three companies keep Schafer away from ... well everything, and don't manage to screw up in some other way, it could be a nice new alternative without all the bloat that's around KS and IGG. Good luck to them.

On the best of worlds, disgruntled mid-size companies would pool their ressources and get behind, well, an Obsidian project. But even then Urquhart & co would have some serious managerial changes to make.
I still see Obsidian staff as somewhat lax people, even with F:NV in the rearview and the fact that DS3/PoE were relatively bug-free.

During DS3 development, Obsidian has changed their bug-hunting system from post-it notes to an actual debugging software.

 

[J_C]

That's a really bad analogy. The former has a long recent history of mismanaging his own products into ruin, and the latter admittedly just wants to make mediocre games aimed at a more casual audience to make money. A wannabe AAA developer. Why the fuck would you throw cash at them if you already know their products are going to be shit?

But Schafer is not developing the games on Fig for fucks sake! How difficult is this to understand? All he does is running the platform, he has no saying in the development of these games. The worst thing he can do is to not let a specific game to Fig.

It is mind blowing how people here can't seperate their negative feelings towards Schafer from the facts. You are not throwing money to Schafer or Fargo, Double Fine or Inxile. You are giving it to the developers, just as in KS. If a good RPG gets its money and gets made, does it make a difference if that money was collected on KS or Fig?

I don't have high hopes about this platform, but not because it is a bad platform, but because KS has a higher popularity. But what makes Fig so bad? It offers the same as KS, pledges, tiers, and even more, because some rich fucks might see it lucrative if they can invest in a game and get some return from it.

 

[Infinitron]

Another thing that needs to be considered is that it's become very difficult to get game journalists to report on Kickstarters. RPS actually felt that they had to apologize to their readers for reporting on the upcoming D:OS 2 Kickstarter, which is crazy.

By being more curated, with only one project running at a time, Fig might be able to overcome that aversion.

 

[Morality Games]

Another thing that needs to be considered is that it's become very difficult to get game journalists to report on Kickstarters. RPS actually felt that they had to apologize to their readers for reporting on the upcoming D:OS 2 Kickstarter, which is crazy.

By being more curated, with only one project running at a time, Fig might be able to overcome that aversion.

I can't find it. Apologize over what?

 

[Zeriel]

Why the fuck is it called "Fig"? That's all I want to know.

Also, "Figstart" sounds obscene. I kind of like it.

 

[Infinitron]

I can't find it. Apologize over what?

They've only done one post about it. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/12/divinity-original-sin-ii-announcement-kickstarter/

 

[J_C]

Why the fuck is it called "Fig"? That's all I want to know.


.

Bailey tells Polygon that Fig's name was inspired by Hotel FIGueroa, whose Moroccan-themed bar and pool area has become the social hub for the games industry at E3

Also, those who think this has some legal problems:

The main reason Fig is able to allow for the sale of equity is because of the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, also known as the JOBS Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in April of 2012.

 

[Morality Games]

They've only done one post about it. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/12/divinity-original-sin-ii-announcement-kickstarter/

I see.

 

[Zeriel]

Also, those who think this has some legal problems:

Guess I should have read the article! Huh, you'd think they would come up with a better name for the thing they are staking their financial livelihood on than "lol this hotel we stayed at YOLO".

 

[J_C]

! Huh, you'd think they would come up with a better name for the thing they are staking their financial livelihood on than "lol this hotel we stayed at YOLO".

Pretty much this.

 

[Irenaeus II]

According to theit "About"-page they allow women on their team.

Have you ever read anything about Tim Shafer company? Boy, you are in for a surprise

 

[aratuk]

The investment aspect seems very odd to me... Wasn't the original impetus for kickstarting a game that it wasn't expected to be commercially successful enough to attract conventional investment from publishers?

From their explanation, it seems that publishers aren't much interested in smaller games. In terms of getting them to front development funds, it's go big or go home. So there's just a gap in the market between the very tiny devs who don't have offices and bootstrap themselves, and the gargantuan projects that get released on every console and out of every orifice.

Feargus made an analogy in one of those interviews to trying to make 'Clerks' when all the companies want to talk about is the next Star Wars.

 

[Ash_Firelord]

I don't know if mixing kickstarter with a serious investment platform is such a good idea. You're likelier to get people do things for you for free than for little money. The thing is, when you just asking somebody to help you out, you appeal to his social sensibilities. A helpful person will (within reason) help another person in need. But when you offering money you offering a deal, a contract and appeal to person's financial sensibilities. And if deal is bad that very same person that was inclined to help you as a fellow human will refuse, because financially speaking your deal is bad. Simply put asking a person to help you carry a box is much likelier to succeed than asking the same person do this for 50 cents.

I don't see how this new platform is going to make particularly enticing investment deal for most kickstarter tier pledgers. It will however make those same pledgers no longer consider their pledge as a token of good will.

As long as ppl still get a chance at exclusive loot, will they care?

 

[DeepOcean]

If this thing end generating good games, I don't give a fuck who runs the Figstarter, the developers and the projects are the ones that matter. I don't like Obsidian braindead with a pulse demographic pandering business strategy or Double Fine planning (or pants in the head, lack of planning to be more precise.) or Fargo's Snake Oil salesmanship but who knows? Maybe hidden among the moustache fag hipsters, SJW pandering Bioware rejects, Pie in the sky peddlers there is a hidden decent studio in there.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Those of you who read our forums probably already heard about Fig yesterday. If you haven't, well, in short, it's a new, highly curated, video game-specific crowdfunding platform created by former Double Fine COO Justin Bailey, which aims to combine traditional rewards-based crowdfunding with equity-based investment to achieve larger budgets for game development.

 

[Maelflux]

I wonder how much they are using on marketing. I am seeing advertisements on this pretty much everywhere I go..

 

[Fairfax]

“What I’m trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC – forget console for now – with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity? Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?”

Mission accomplished, I guess.

 

[Fenix]

Don't get it about investment.
Given what huge and passionate gamer I am, and business abilities I have (double zero), I consider investment in games as well as risky as "investment" in roulette, not even in blackjack.
If we look at gamedev company's history - it's a continuous chain of falls and bankruptcies.
Just a few bad bad games, or even good, but badly marketed games - and look! it was a colossus with feet of clay!
If I had a million, I would never have become invested in PC games - donate? sure, investment? no way, get lost beggar.
Invest in real estate, a cafe, asphalt plant, anywhere but not in games.
Investing in games is the same as giving your money to Gypsies - you should understand that 99:1 you you would never see them again.

So, I was wrong in something?

 

[Fairfax]

Apparently investors have to give at least $1000. Some people give 3, 5, 10 thousand to meet the devs, put their portrait in the game or whatever. If they could do that and still have the chance of getting their money back, it's a win-win for them.
If I were an investor myself, I'd definitely invest in some projects like Divinity: Original Sin II. I don't doubt that game will be very profitable, and also a great game.

In fact, I'd probably fund the whole game if I had that kind of money. I work for an investment fund and I see/help my bosses make a shitload of money on much less reliable projects and companies every single day. Larian and D:OS2 are better options than most of the stuff I deal with on daily basis, and the investors laugh all the way to the bank.