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Kickstarter games had over $83 million pledged to them throughout 2012

Discuss
9 Jan 2013

As Kickstarter reveal the figures on a lucrative year for gaming, we take a look back at some of the biggest crowdfunding successes of 2012…

Kickstarter games had over $83 million pledged to them throughout 2012

Not only was 2012 a fantastic year for gaming all-around, it also proved to be the breakout year for Kickstarter. In it’s end-of-year round-up, the crowddfunding service revealed backers pledged $83,133,565 towards game related projects.

That’s no small figure, and according to the website pledges were made by 561,574 backers to over 2,796 potential projects. Gaming became the second most lucrative category, it fell short of Art – which racked up an impressive 647, 361 over the year.

The crowdfunding website highlighted the success of Double Fine Adventure, which helped surge interest in game-based Kickstarter projects following its incredibly impressive campaign, which finished on $3,335,371 after asking for just $400,000 to reach its goal  in March 2012.

Other notable highlights include Obsidian’s Project Eternity, which closed at $3,986,929 after asking for the lofty sum of $1,100,000 from fans of the classic RPG.

Hardware also saw great success on the service over the year. Ouya proved to be the most lucrative, with the Android console’s campaign ending on the crazy sum  $8,596,474. That’s a 904% increase on the original goal of $950,00. Virtual Reality headset Oculus Rift also did incredibly well, with the interesting new technology soaring past its $250,000 goal, finishing on $2,437,429.

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Kickstarter also opened its virtual doors to UK projects in 2012, though the same level of success didn’t find its way to our shores. Peter Molyneux’s Project Godus managed to reach its funding goal at the 20th hour, while gamer’s spoke with their wallets as Dizzy tried a valiant revival, not even coming close to its goal as the minutes ticked over.Overall it’s been a fantastic showing from Kickstarter, and as the games we’ve been backing finally start releasing over 2013, the service is only likely to grow. If all the games can replicate the success of FTL: Faster Than Light, which was successfully funded in April 2012 and picked up its fair share of accolades, we can’t see the wave of developers jumping onto the pledge drive ending any time soon.Of course, not everyone could find success, and pulling together a campaign doesn’t guarantee success. While 2,796 games projects launched throughout the year, Kickstarter confirms that just 911 were successful.We can’t predict exactly what 2013 will bring for gaming, but we are certain Kickstarter will play a big part of it.

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  • http://www.911freegames.com/ Robert Costy

    I’ve supported two Kickstarter projects: an indie documentary which is nearly completed, and a successfully completed project which makes “seed money” out of paper and herb or wildflower seeds. Each project was well managed and compelling – and I’ve loved my small part in each of them. I look forward to helping more projects.

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