Publishers Contacted Obsidian in Attempt to Exploit Kickstarter

The whole point of Kickstarter, and crowdfunding in general, is to avoid the typical pitfalls associated with dealing with publishers and similar lending institutions. For video games, being funded by a publisher often means that said publisher actually owns the rights to your games, among other unfortunate side effects. So, a publisher attempting to manipulate a developer into launching a Kickstarter only to have all the unfortunate side effects attached is just about the worst thing, and exactly what Obsidian Entertainment is claiming happened to them.

Specifically, here’s what Obsidian had to say in the comments on their Project Eternity, er, project:

We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a Kickstarter. I said to them “So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don’t get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits” They said, “Yes”.

That’s just depressing. “Why, sure, do all the work — and we won’t bother funding the project — but we do want the rights to the game. I guess we’ll, uh, do marketing or something.”

(Kickstarter via Destructoid, image via striatic)

Relevant to your interests

• Obsidian’s Kickstarter is doing rather well, but could use all the help it can get
• Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive for some reason
• Steam gives green light to first batch of Greenlight games