Kickstarter has breathed life into numerous video games from the smallest of retro art projects of love to ambitious undertakings that hope to redefine storytelling. There is no doubt that people have been successful using the platform… cough cough… Tim Schafer… COUGH! But what if masses of people were not just donating money in return for cool swag? What if you could invest some of your hard earned money into a project you believe in and potentially get a bit of cash in return?
That’s exactly what Dutch company Gambitious plans to do. Essentially, they are launching a video game “stock market” where individuals can purchase shares in a project and in return will be able to get some moolah in return if the game is a commercial hit. According to CEO Korstiaan Zandvliet, “A developer decides what percentage of the required funding people can buy. Someone who invests money in a project, becomes a shareholder and is entitled to dividends.”
Gambitious will launch this June, just in time for E3 2012. Initially, it’ll only be available to European investors, but Zandvliet plans to take the company global as soon as the appropriate legal hurdles are… well, hurdled.
It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with this budding funding platform. It may be just what small developers need to pad their budget and make the game the way they see it in their heads. At the very least, it might cut down on production delays since a developer wouldn’t want 50,000 investors posting angry messages on their Facebook wall.
[Source: GamesIndustry International]
