Consumer Funded Development

[Superrock]

An interesting take on game development by Gabe Newell is moving towards consumer invested game development. Basically it sorta sounds like a stock investment where thousands of investors invest into the development of a title. So if 50,000 investors invest 1000 dollars or 10,000 invest $5000 they can get the game for free as well as a take in the profits.

Personally, I don't think this idea will ever work for small time developers without first making a name for themselves with a larger title. I think most people would be wary about making such investments after the colossal flops of some of the most anticipated MMORPGs like Age ofConan, Warhammer Online, or even Hellgate London. On the other hand, I have no trouble envisioning 100,000+ people who would love to invest in surefire hits like L4D2, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Bioshock 2. Smaller investments may yield large profits and more polished games for smaller studios like TripWire Interactive or PopCap who create great games given the limited resources they have to work with. I woudlve love to see Killing Floor with better graphics and animations.

Like the Steam game distribution system, if this idea were to ever take off, Valve has to be the one to show that it can work.

 

[Modelworks]

It could get really complicated for large budget titles. I could see this working for small projects, say $50K total budget. Where 1000 people pay $50. $50K may not sound like a budget that could produce a game, but it could help get a game made by a group of 10 people in their spare time, that otherwise would not be created.

When you start talking about things like investors paying $5K, $10K and up it starts getting really complicated with the lawyers. You would have more money spent on lawyers doing the paperwork than you would in the games development. With small amounts of money people are likely to forgo contracts and such but when people start investing large sums they want proof they get a payoff should it be successful.

I worked on an free expansion for neverwinter nights that would have never been completed had it not been for donations from the public. We only had about 7 people and many of us were giving up all our free time to finish it. The money wasn't much , but it was at least some incentive that our work was being appreciated. There were several times when we considered quitting the project, but when someone sends you $20 with a note, I know it isn't much, but maybe you guys can get a pizza. It makes you keep going.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Donations to support fan sites and mods makes sense, but someone like EA is unlikely to offer investor shares in Mass Effect 3.

If they did it would probably be an awful investment similar to sharing in the net profits for a movie -- with Hollywood accounting movies never turn a net profit. EA would bill all kinds of costs to ME 3 until all the profit was soaked up.

My take is you should play games for fun, then buy and hold stock index mutual funds for your investments.

 

[BladeVenom]

I could see this working for a smaller budget niche game, but not for the type of games Valve makes.

 

[Zenoth]

Pay-to-play games are pretty much just that.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I could not think of a stupider way to "invest" you own nothing except a word that something will get made at some point. What if the CEO of the game company decides he needs a diamond collection to finish his game? You can't vote him out because you don't own any stock. On a related note I need 5000 people to send me $50.00 to develop a game I have been thinking of. I promise it will be the coolest best game ever and everyone who starts on the ground floor will be able to share the profits! Now go out and get your friends and family to send me money. Bah fools....