Login
The crowd-source funding site Kickstarter has been doing remarkably well recently, giving thousands of entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring their projects to life. It also just hit a major milestone: the service has now funded two million-dollar projects, both on the same day. First up was the Elevation Dock for the iPhone, which takes design cues from Apple's own aluminum unibody products. It hit $1 million in donations sometime around 1:30PM Eastern today. Following it was Tim Schafer's Double Fine Adventure, which hit its initial goal of $400,000 in approximately eight hours, and crossed the million-dollar mark just a short time ago. As of the writing of this post, the Elevation Dock has collected $1,052,953 in donations, with Double Fine racking up $1,028,739. While the projects were assisted by coverage from many technology sites — The Verge included — it's nevertheless an impressive indicator of the enormous collective power internet users can have when they pool their resources.
About to hit our second $1 million project ever within 5 hours of each other. twitter.com/nicolehe/statu…
— Nicole He (@nicolehe) February 9, 2012
Comments
This is such a cool development.
I put my own money into the Double Fine Adventure game, and I was going to put my money into an elevation dock, but I don’t have an Iphone/Ipod Touch.
Overall, great for kickstarter and for creators worldwide.
monkeychef - February 9, 2012
that dock is pretty awesome….. he’ll get to do it all over again with iP5 assuming a new design
Colonel Sassy - February 9, 2012
Considering how expensive it is, it would be cool if there were like an upgrade discount or something.
soulinether - February 9, 2012 via mobile
the way the dock has a little room, might work with the future iPhone 5
sting2kx - February 9, 2012
true… was just picturing IF its tapered/shaped like the ipad the dimensions might be off.
Colonel Sassy - February 9, 2012
the types of investors on the dock definitely show the deep pockets of iPhone users.
thegreatino - February 9, 2012
While it’s not going to make much of a dent against the giants like EA and Activision, hopefully Kickstarter gives smaller developers the funds to make original games that aren’t cookie-cutter clones and sequels like most of the stuff the big companies tend to focus on.
Disgustoid - February 9, 2012
it might kill EA.
By using Kickstarter you can bypass the filter that waters down everything – literature, film, photography, games – and talk directly to your audience. Most likely your audience isn’t going to be a 50 y/o executive, he’s not going to get your idea.
For EA to counter this, they need to use the same typ of model as these new indie developers are, but there’s so many vested interests in the industry and within EA that they’re not going to be able to turn around like that.
This will also mean that EA is going to keep churning out watered-down sequels, which we’re not really going to want any more.
I mean, Zynga and Angry Birds started out pretty small, right? But they captured a huge part of the market and are a threat to EA today and tomorrow.
Anybody that creates content knows how much it means to be able to self-publish or sidestep the regular distribution channels. Ideas are actually really hard to explain and most people are not receptive to things that are new.
So I think even the next 2 years this is going to hear EA.
Erik Bernhardsson - February 10, 2012
Really? They have to do something, but I think their bread-and-butter titles, across current, future and different gaming platforms will keep them going for some time yet. FIFA, Battlefield, Tiger Woods etc.
Everyone seems to be down on yearly releases of the same format, but they sustain parts of the industry and are what the majority of the game purchasing public want.
EA are sort of going D2C with (the apparently badly implemented) Origin and Free-To-Play services, and they’ve bought some key social and casual game developers who have the capacity to play with and develop, low-cost, new IP.
Yes, indie games will get bigger as they can cater to the needs of their niche much easier, and the emergence of lots of new platforms which can run games will mean more chance for small developers to hit gold, but with such large companies, listening to their customer base isn’t what’s needed. I want industry experts making design decisions on AAA titles, not some guy on a forum.
stevefarnworth - February 10, 2012
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about, people who’re great at making games make the decisions, not some guy in a suit with lots of $.
Is EA good at making tablet or smartphone games? Social games? Nope. That’s why they’ll lose.
No matter if EA buy developers or not, they’ll remain corporate and essentially a middle man between developers and customers, even if they own the developers.
Erik Bernhardsson - February 10, 2012
Again, really? EA make pretty good mobile games (FIFA, Tiger Woods, The Sims), they own Playfish which is doing pretty well in the social space, they own PopCap who are one of the dominant players in casual titles. These people know how to make games.
EA remaining corporate is a given, because, well, they are a corporation – but that doesn’t preclude their business units being successful, and I highly doubt (even with a more educated audience) people will say they’re not buying EA games as they’re “the man”.
stevefarnworth - February 10, 2012
It’s so cool, and especially exciting for the games industry. Independent game development!
Qassim - February 9, 2012
Is it me or has 2012 been an AMAZING year so far for the intnernet?
Addison Ryan - February 9, 2012
In 8 hours these guys have made over $500,000….
In 8 hours I made $80….
Hmmm, yup, fml…
Plazmic Flame - February 9, 2012
Hey, YMMV, my 8 hours only get me $4, so your FML is invalid.
I.Am.Celestz - February 9, 2012
Seems to me that a lot of people really want this game.
MiserableLittlePileOfSecrets - February 9, 2012
I really like the idea behind kickstarter, and the projects realized thanks to donations, but it’s sad to see that people are willing to donate so much ($2 millions) in very little time for a game and a iPhone dock, while humanitarian donations are not very so successful :(
Those two project got much more what they pledged for, in my opinion they should donate some to other projects or for some good causes, not just Gaming…..
tech_engineer - February 10, 2012
I don’t want to be a downer but am I the only person that thinks kickstarter seem to get a lot of credit for a lot of work done by the project owners?
I am a huge supporter of crowdfunding and I have a lot of respect for kickstater but I feel like they are not driving innovation, they are a tool used by innovators. Maybe in the US they do a lot of marketing driving innovation but all iv seen is a platform that doen’t do much.
Sorry guys.
Seth Malcolm - February 10, 2012
It allows funding for innovation that might not have happened otherwise? Christ, I’ll take “get a lot of credit” over “we own your franchise and have complete creative control over it” any day.
bradgreg - February 10, 2012
You must log in with your Verge account to post a comment.
If you do not yet have a Verge account, please sign up for one!