Joystiq’s monthy Crowdfund Bookie report is out for March, and – much like the first two months of the year – the results are less than great. The report tallies up crowdfunding statistics from Kickstarter & Indiegogo and in the video game space specifically. The quick hits…
- $991,113 was raised in total
- 22 projects were funded
- 28,460 backers participated
- The average pledge was $34.62
The accompanying infographic is embedded at the bottom of the page.
So what gives? Why do contributions seem to be tailing off? A couple of comments on the Joystiq article provide some interesting theories…
Here’s the reason; It’s so close after the holidays that funds are tight, and not yet far enough out for everyone to have received their tax return. Lets see how it goes in may-july.
Most of us are sitting on a few projects now that we’re waiting to see our return on. Granted, the guys at Pathea have already released the multiple stages of the Alpha of Planet Explorers for me to enjoy and now it’s on Steam as well. But Project Eternity, while ramping up, is still some ways off and I just want to get my games in my hand before I go throwing out extra cash to anybody. Heck, people are still waiting on Wasteland 2, and that was like one of the first big titles in Kickstarter. Yes, obviously games take time, but we’re still sitting on the cash we dished out and are trying to be as patient as possible about it.
I think it’s getting to the point where people are growing wary of backing games. 5 percent of successfully funded games have been outright cancelled or placed on hiatus, and the delivery rate for successful games which give what they promised (the full game instead of half as was the case with The Broken Age, etc) when they promised it is south of 50 percent. Think about that. Half of all successful game Kickstarters have missed their launch date, and some are indefinitely delayed. God knows I’m not about to start tossing money into that pit unless I’m confident of a project’s completion.
Naturally, it is impossible to say for sure what factors are at play. What do you think is contributing to this downward trend? Let us know in the comments.
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