Re: Kings of War Kickstarter
Posted by Vlad The Impala on May 29, 2012; 3:44pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Kings-of-War-Kickstarter-tp7577600p7578083.html
By industry standards Mantic IS a small company - they are less than 3 years old and have less than a dozen full time staff. Honestly, if Steve Jackson Games (who have been around for decades and are considerably larger) can do it for Ogre and Paizo (who are one of the BIGGEST RPG companies at the moment) can do it for their projects, then I don't see why people have a problem with Mantic doing it for Kings of War.
Their problem, as I understand it, is the cost of plastic tooling: the Kickstarter allows them to get preorders NOW for kits that were otherwise pencilled in for 2014 (or later), meaning they can finance tooling of a lot of kits at once, instead of a steady trickle over several months (or years) with metal-hybrid and resin kits taking up the slack because they're easier to produce. This means that they will be able to commission a LOT of plastic releases for Kings of War over the next year, instead of kits every 3-4 months with sales from each one being used to finance the next . We are already looking at werewolves for the undead army and a whole new ogre faction based on the concept art on the kickstarter page, and if they hit $50K they will be producing a multi-purpose plastic chariot/fight wagon kit for the Orcs - these would be far too big and expensive to release in metal, so they would be stuck at the back of the queue until 2015...
Besides, I want the exclusive Vampiress model based on the cover art from the new rulebook!
EDIT: also, a couple of points someone made on their facebook page:
1) By doing it as a Kickstarter allows them to reach a much wider audience than they would otherwise - they don't have (or want) GW's high street presence, so this gets them noticed - especially if it goes nuclear the way Zombiecide or Ogre have...
2) Banks are not lending to small businesses - especially in the creative arts or entertainment sectors. That leaves companies with only two alternatives if they want to raise a large amount of capital in a hurry: float shares on the stock market (which would see them going down the same route GW has in the end) or crowdsource using sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. A system that may have started out for "new, small companies" is being increasingly adopted by old(er) large(r) companies that cannot get finance any other way - have a look at some of the computer game kickstarts that are around at the moment.
3) By using the Kickstarter system of pledges and goals (many of which are being suggested by the fans themselves) Mantic get excellent market research data into what units and armies their fans would like to see supported.