Brian Fargo - Gaming Insiders Summit Speech

Brian Fargo gave a speech at the Gaming Insiders Summit on why crowdfunding trumps the traditional publishing model. Gamezebo has a new article of what he said if you're interested.

Fargo came out with ten key benefits to utilize crowdsourcing as a developer. One of the recurring themes among these points was the benefits of the freedom obtained by functioning as an independent game. Fargo explained that working with a publisher means that every few weeks, he and his team needed to show progress and defend their product. This process takes time away from the actual development. He also explained how crowdsourcing lets the team treat the game as it should be: A passion project. Without a publisher able to push the team in a certain direction, developers have a broader range of creativity.

Of course, the other big benefit to crowdsourcing is the crowd. Running a campaign on Kickstarter (or a similar service) is an excellent way to generate buzz and excitement for a product, even long before it launches. More important than that, the simple act of running a crowdfunding campaign will provide feedback when it matters most. One of the points Fargo kept returning to was that if the crowd wanted something, they’d support it, regardless of how publishers and other entities feel. This was proven by inXile’s wildly successful Wasteland 2 campaign, which began a whole new strategy of development for the company.