Game News Time to Conquer the Cold: Wasteland 3 Fig Campaign is Live

[Bubbles]

Pledges are almost static now, but the final push is happening through investments. As soon as somebody parts with $30k they'll be funded.

 

[Darkzone]

I'm an example of someone who doesn't want a 4th campaign without at least 2 delivered products and one in the production phase.

We all have our preferences but I doubt that yours represent a significant %. The main question is why the vast majority of people backed WL2 and Torment (or why KS has become such a successful new thing in the first place). It's not a form of traditional investment with reason, accountability, and due diligence. It's because it's an exciting thing to do for most KS members and Fargo does a good job entertaining them with his videos. They don't do it to help him out, they do it because it's "fun" and they want to be part of it.

I agree with eveything you said especially about the entertaining videos. But..
WL2 was a mediocre game especially in the beginning and since most players do not play a game entirely through this could have had an impact of the InXile kickstarters, by leaving a bitter taste. T:ToN was spared by this due to the fact that the KS was before the release of WL2. The BTIV KS campaign was handled very bad and the very few updates in both KS (T:ToN and BTIV) have also displeased some backers (less "fun" in beeing a part of it). And now they want money for a another game and they got only a mediocre game in their reference portfolio, while the two other are in some "unknown" stage in the production pipeline.
Under normal conditions one would demand at least the release of T:ToN to have an additional point to draw a line where this project is heading to.

 

[an Administrator]

As soon as somebody parts with $30k they'll be funded.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Are so many people investing instead of pledging?

Can anybody invest?

Weird.

Edit: I figure they must have expected more than 600k in pledges by now, though.

 

[Bubbles]

 

[Suicidal]

Is it me or does this screenshot looks like it belongs in a magical fantasy game rather than an ITZ post apocalyptic one?

 

[Blackstaff]

Also I don't think that Fargo and co are very happy with the results. The plan for them was always to keep their free part (the KS one) and to add to that private investments. If the KS part goes belly up, it's not doing great at all.

That's probably not true. If Fargo and Co wouldn't care about the investment part and only cared about the pledges, chances are they wouldn't have established Fig. Fargo is a business man, I'm sure he knew that all of their backers won't migrate to this knew platform. The sole existence of fig means that they want the investments of rich people and they reached this with flying colors. They are getting funded in a few hours. And seeing that the pledges are only at 600K, it means they did great with Fig. Even though KS is more popular, they would have only gotten around 700K on it by this time. With FIG, they are funded. I'm sure they are happy with this and they will collect more money this way than they would have on KS.

Selective reading.
Investment is money they have to return at one point. Of course they are looking for that money, they are doing this scheme after all, but you won't tell me he's happy that his free KS money is evaporating at the same time. It's too soon to judge, but if the number of pledgers is inferior to 30 000 backers, he has lost more than half of its support and that is not a good result at all.

 

[Bubbles]

Are so many people investing instead of pledging?

Can anybody invest?

Weird.

Edit: I figure they must have expected more than 600k in pledges by now, though.

You must have an annual income of at least $200,000 or have a net worth in excess of $1 million to be able to invest in this round of funding; any member of the "middle class" should meet those requirements pretty easily.

People who don't qualify will be able to reserve at most $3,000 in shares, but they won't be able to buy them until the campaign is over. I assume these reservations are already being counted as part of the total right now, since there's a hard investment cap.

 

[felipepepe]

My impression is that Inxile likes the 'Wild Wasteland' anything goes style of worldbuilding.

I wish... W1 was wacky, Gamma World was wacky... W2 is just a bunch of regurgitated genre cliches. If you take all post-apoc games/movies out there and chart the most tired tropes, you get W2.

 

[J_C]

Also I don't think that Fargo and co are very happy with the results. The plan for them was always to keep their free part (the KS one) and to add to that private investments. If the KS part goes belly up, it's not doing great at all.

That's probably not true. If Fargo and Co wouldn't care about the investment part and only cared about the pledges, chances are they wouldn't have established Fig. Fargo is a business man, I'm sure he knew that all of their backers won't migrate to this knew platform. The sole existence of fig means that they want the investments of rich people and they reached this with flying colors. They are getting funded in a few hours. And seeing that the pledges are only at 600K, it means they did great with Fig. Even though KS is more popular, they would have only gotten around 700K on it by this time. With FIG, they are funded. I'm sure they are happy with this and they will collect more money this way than they would have on KS.

Selective reading.
Investment is money they have to return at one point. Of course they are looking for that money, they are doing this scheme after all, but you won't tell me he's happy that his free KS money is evaporating at the same time. It's too soon to judge, but if the number of pledgers is inferior to 30 000 backers, he has lost more than half of its support and that is not a good result at all.

Of course they would be happier if every time they got 3,5 million on pledges. But Fargo is smart enough to notice that the big kickstarter projects dried up, he probably couldn't get that kind of money now. So he and his partners found a way to get some funding in another way. Even if that means that in the future he has to pay back some dividents for the investors.

 

[Mustawd]

The sole existence of fig means that they want the investments of rich people and they reached this with flying colors.

Agree with this 100%. I always assumed the whole point of Fig is to tap into people who have enough disposable income to make up for crazy rabid fanboys that will pledge $25 and make your life miserable while developing the game.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Pretty much. Fargo isn't dumb, he can see money on Kickstarter isn't what it is. Even if WL2 was a 10/10 GAOT, WL3 would probably still have problem matching WL2's pledges. This way they are well on route for making more, and it's 27 days to go.

 

[FeelTheRads]

You must have an annual income of at least $200,000 or have a net worth in excess of $1 million to be able to invest in this round of funding; any member of the "middle class" should meet those requirements pretty easily.

People who don't qualify will be able to reserve at most $3,000 in shares, but they won't be able to buy them until the campaign is over. I assume these reservations are already being counted as part of the total right now, since there's a hard investment cap.

Right, right, so most people who pledged to W2 can't invest and didn't pledge to this either. Is that a fair assumption to make?

 

[Mustawd]

^did you see the last paragraph of bubbles's post?

 

[Kev Inkline]

Are so many people investing instead of pledging?

Can anybody invest?

Weird.

Edit: I figure they must have expected more than 600k in pledges by now, though.

You must have an annual income of at least $200,000 or have a net worth in excess of $1 million to be able to invest in this round of funding; any member of the "middle class" should meet those requirements pretty easily.

That's sarcasm right? According to census bureau there are about 3.7M people that make 200k or more per year, so it's not that common. Likewise, share of households (not individuals) having net worth over 500k is 13.5%.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Bubbles sarcastic? Never.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Bubbles sarcastic? Never.

Well, he's German, so I have reasonable doubt that everything should be taken at face value.

 

[Bubbles]

 

[DeepOcean]

Hmmmm, Wasteland 2 sold 600.000 copies, if only 10% of the buyers pledged for Wasteland 3, that would be 60.000 backers but only 13.000 so far on the strong initial push... maybe it is the Fig effect but I dunno, D:OS sold 1 million and only 40.000 pledged for D:OS 2, that would mean that less than 5% of the people that bought your game were willing to give you money upfront.

I know people are many times moved by fads and at first glance kickstarter seems to be drying off and getting forgotten as a fad but common... for more than most people were mindless moment to moment fad seeking faggots, not even fucking 5% of your fan base is willing to give you money for your project? Not even 5% of your "fan base" is so fucking pumped up that they rush to pledge on the news? I mean, the fucking codex has 10000 subscribed users. It is funny that I used to be all wyped up on 2012 but from some time to now... I just stopped caring about kickstarter projects entirely and when D:OS 2 was announced, I reacted with a huge meh.

I dunno but I think the feeling of disappointment isn't only a cynical codexian feeling as some are willing to believe. Okay, you have a game like Wasteland 2 and D:OS, right? Many think they aren't absolute shit and even think they are okay but are you truly pumped up enough to give your money on advance and wait for 03 fucking long years for what will be just okayish run of the mill RPG games?

Boy, Imagine if Tim Cain said, "Hey guys, I'm refounding Troika and will make a Bloodlines 2 or an Arcanum 2 using kickstarter/fig." the levels of insanity here on the codex would go through the roof and we will be reduced to EVE Online bitches level of crazy but right now... we only have this lukewarm campaign for a sequel of lukewarm game full of buzzwords... a frosty reception indeed. InXile fucked up their shot at making a lasting impression with Wasteland 2, mediocrity doesn't keep you on the spotlights, Fargo was clever enough to have investment money coming or they would pay for Wasteland 2 right now... InXile can't really afford to keep pumping out mediocre shit because if the sales at Steam are disappointing, the investors won't be there next time for the rescue.

 

[Bubbles]

Paypal counts towards the base goal? Fig is gracious, Fig is good!

 

[Infinitron]

I'm not sure that's what he meant by "total".

 

[Bubbles]

If he meant "Paypal works the way it always does", that would hardly merit a tweet, would it?

 

[Infinitron]

If he meant "Paypal works the way it always does", that would hardly merit a tweet, would it?

It's a new campaign, new platform, can't assume everybody knows the rules of how crowdfunding works.

It does make more sense if you assume he already has the list of stretch goals in front of him.

 

[Bubbles]

I wonder if they're going to allow investments through Paypal. Would be helpful for our fundraiser.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

I immediately pledged 60 dollars upon hearing about WL2, now... not so much. I enjoyed WL2 well enough, but I think the fantastical ideas I had for what sort of game this would be have been tempered a bit. Also, the luster of crowd funding grass roots development is a bit less appealing when you're are now a company with millions.

Happy for their success and will likely play it when it's out on sale or something, despite the cinematic view and fancy looking explosions. (Y'all crazy.)