Symmetric-XBA
07-21-2009, 02:27 PM
The trend of community driven, user-generated content continues to grow each and every year. Developers and publishers have identified the tool as a great way for customers to hang onto their copy of the game longer instead of selling or trading it in.
But what about community financed games?
In a video interview with Good Game (via Kotaku), Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell posed this very idea, and says it would be "better" if the community could chip in some money to help finance projects.
"One of the areas that I am super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget - it needs to be huge, it has to be $10m - $30m, and it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. There's a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars and decisions have to be incredibly conservative," Newell said.
"What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, 'Hey, I really like this idea you have. I'll be an early investor in that and, as a result, at a later point I may make a return on that product, but I'll also get a copy of that game."
Newell would continue on to say this would help get rid of the middleman (i.e. the publisher) in video game sales.
"So move financing from something that occurs between a publisher and a developer… Instead have it be something where funding is coming out of community for games and game concepts they really like."
This idea sounds silly at first, but I bet there are a number of fans that would love to invest in Bungie's newest Halo project.
But what about community financed games?
In a video interview with Good Game (via Kotaku), Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell posed this very idea, and says it would be "better" if the community could chip in some money to help finance projects.
"One of the areas that I am super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget - it needs to be huge, it has to be $10m - $30m, and it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. There's a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars and decisions have to be incredibly conservative," Newell said.
"What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, 'Hey, I really like this idea you have. I'll be an early investor in that and, as a result, at a later point I may make a return on that product, but I'll also get a copy of that game."
Newell would continue on to say this would help get rid of the middleman (i.e. the publisher) in video game sales.
"So move financing from something that occurs between a publisher and a developer… Instead have it be something where funding is coming out of community for games and game concepts they really like."
This idea sounds silly at first, but I bet there are a number of fans that would love to invest in Bungie's newest Halo project.