Steamforged Games and Kickstarter’s partnership is potentially dangerous and potentially good

Steamforged Games of Dark Souls, Horizon Zero Dawn and Monster Hunter: World board games have just signed their next four games to Kickstarter as an exclusive.

Kickstarter will be pleased as Steamforged’s latest projects have taken in more than £20 million in pledges.

In fact, Kickstarter and Steamforged are entering into a partnership. In exchange for that exclusive deal, the two companies will collaborate on educational content for emerging game creators.

That should be a good thing, and the two companies say it’ll support the next generation of tabletop game publishers.

Rich Loxam, Steamforged Games’ CEO and Co-founder, said in a statement;

We’re excited to partner exclusively with Kickstarter for our upcoming crowdfunding campaigns. Kickstarter has been key to the making of Steamforged and is a big part of how we’ve gotten where we are today. We believe it’s the best platform for creators to bring their ideas to life and reach their audience. It’s an incredible way to build passionate communities, and it provides a fantastic space where those communities can engage with us directly and even influence the final game.”

Kickstarter’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jo Leland, added;

There’s a common misconception that creators need to ‘graduate’ from Kickstarter but, especially in the tabletop industry, that isn’t the case. This partnership with one of our biggest tabletop games publishers is a testament to the fact that Kickstarter can be part of an ongoing business model that works beyond initial success. This is one example of how we hope to continue finding impactful and creative ways to deepen our relationships with creators of all sizes, across all categories.”

Kickstarter even has evidence to support that big projects support smaller creators. They say there’s a halo effect and note that 30,000 first-time Steamforged backers have gone on to make an additional 230K of pledges worth more than $18.5 million to more than 30K campaigns on Kickstarter.

Yay, trickle-down economics comes to Kickstarter.

You can see how tabletop board games are big business on Kickstarter. That suggests an average pledge of $80.

I think it’s great we’ll get more educational content so why do I think this is potentially dangerous?

Isn’t Kickstarter supposed to be neutral?

Does this research mean Kickstarter will start justifying promoting bigger campaigns more likely to attract first-time users? Perhaps they do that already. Will Kickstarter work harder for Steamforged than other tabletop publishers?

What if you’re a tabletop games company competing for the same $80 pledge-giving audience as Steamforged Games has, and Kickstarter don’t approve your campaign or doesn’t do it promptly? You might be suspicious.

There’s a balancing act that Kickstarter may have to walk here.

Educational content seems like a project Kickstarter could have started without Steamforged Games’ support? Steamforged will have to offer its best advice to potential competitors too.

It’s all possible, but I suspect the way forward might be more troublesome than the announcement suggests. I hope both companies work and that the halo effect grows as a result.

Via Kickstarter.