In a recent blog post on Kickstarter, David Gallagher announced that the games slice of the proverbial pie has finally breached half a billion dollars in pledges. Which is actually pretty impressive considering the platform has only been in existence for a handful of years. But, even with this milestone reached they’ve even delved a bit deeper and, as Gamasutra gleaned from the information, video games aren’t the top sub-category as you would probably expect.
While video games are quite popular on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, the segment of gamers that have given the most money has been in tabletop gaming. Which, in my opinion isn’t that shocking. As an avid tabletop gamer myself I’ve come to notice a few things that make this less than surprising. For one thing, it’s a lot easier to pump out a set of cards or write up a roleplaying system than it is to code a video game. Which means quicker turnaround time.
Another thing to consider here is that tabletop games also have a higher success rate and more positive feedback than even a high profile video game. I myself have backed several roleplaying games and most of those have received a huge sum, especially the established series like 7th Sea and Savage Rifts to name a couple recent huge successes. Another theory that could explain this discrepancy is the growing lack of faith in crowdfunded video games as evidenced by some comments that I’ve seen floating around.
Of the half billion bucks floating around in Kickstarter land, only $186m have been for video games while a whopping $265m went towards card games, board games, roleplaying games, and the like. That’s a nearly $100m difference there. And, honestly, lately I’ve found myself gravitating more towards roleplaying books than actual games that I can play on the computer. With the exception of adventure games, that is.
