Class of Heroes 2 the latest to join the KS craze

[FerretGamer]

Horrible Kickstarter. They should've given the game to people who pledged 15-20 dollars. Fuck paying $60 to get the game. The reward tiering is so ridiculous that they're getting money very sluggishly. I doubt they'll make it.

Their pitch is good, though.

But the kickstarter is ONLY for the physical release. The digital release is coming out regardless. It doesn't make financial sense for them to give away digital copies at lower reward tiers, as those digital copies need to pay for the localization of the digital version.

Why not? It would help them get the money they need for the physical release. If the digital version is coming out regardless, all the more reason to give it away to people who are pledging.

Like MrPopo said, they can't monopolize their digital sales for this kickstarter. They still have to cover costs associated with licensing and localizing Class of Heroes 2 as a digital release.

[MrPopo]

.32

Horrible Kickstarter. They should've given the game to people who pledged 15-20 dollars. Fuck paying $60 to get the game. The reward tiering is so ridiculous that they're getting money very sluggishly. I doubt they'll make it.

Their pitch is good, though.

But the kickstarter is ONLY for the physical release. The digital release is coming out regardless. It doesn't make financial sense for them to give away digital copies at lower reward tiers, as those digital copies need to pay for the localization of the digital version.

Why not? It would help them get the money they need for the physical release. If the digital version is coming out regardless, all the more reason to give it away to people who are pledging.

Let me try and break it down. I'm going to pull numbers out of my ass but the focus is on the process.

So to start with, they float $1,000,000 in order to license the game, pay for the localization efforts, and pay for the distribution rights on the PSN. The digital sales will pay back this $1,000,000 and everything above that is profit.

Now this Kickstarter is for the physical release. This involves paying for the prototyping of the includes, production of the packaging and includes, and shipping of the game. Additionally, Kickstarter is the only release venue for the collectors edition, as trying to sell it in stores is a nightmare, and they don't want to maintain a warehouse with extra copies to sell on their website (not to mention hooking in a store system). So the whole purpose of the Kickstarter is to pre-sell all their copies of the collector's edition. Now, the various tiers gives them some fudge factor with regards to how many copies of the collector's edition they print (and it wouldn't shock me if they did have some copies left over and used them for give-aways and prizes in contests). But that is why there is no $30 tier that gives you the digital release of the game. They need the revenue of the digital release to pay back the initial investment.

[Erik_Twice]

The problem is that they are dividing the physical and digital releases. The digital releases should support the physical one to minimize risks and avoid segregating the audience of the marketing campaign. Right now many people out there have absolutedly no interest in buying a 60$ deluxe release but they can't preorder their digital copies. This is a mistake because when the digital release sees the light of the day later, most of the interest will be gone. (Note how all other Kickstarter campaigns have both digital and physical deluxe in the same place)

This project is supposed to be a first attempt and a lot of reputation is in play. If the deluxe game is never made, which probably won't, it will hurt them. I don't think they expect to take a big margin on this, they are looking to get themselves a position in the industry and subsidizing the deluxe release with digital downloads would be a good way to do it.



Anyways, even considering that the campaign for a physical release only is a good idea, there are huge flaws. It simply gives the backer too little for so much money.

1) Why not give credit in-game for the low tiers? It costs you nothing, just put them together in the end. They expect people to pay 250$ for a total of 500$ just to be in the credits, which is dumb! They would make more money by giving credit to the lower tiers.
2) 4000$ of difference for a Music Box is insane, really.
3) 10K$ for a dinner with a small team is kind of preposterous. They are not Tim Schafer.
4) If you want to access the discussion community you have to pay an insane amount. Compare this with Schafer's campaign, where even the lowliest backer has access to it.
5) They are asking half a million dollars to license a game with a spotty reputation compared to the money other people are asking to make a game, this is a bad thing.

[sabrage]

Why would you need to pre-order a digital release? What a ridiculous concept. The entire purpose of a pre-order is to ensure that you get your goods day one in case of scarcity. It's not like throwing down money now is going to ensure PSN won't be down the day it's released. The type of person who is going to buy Class of Heroes 2 is one who is desperate for a new game for their slowly dying PSP, so I doubt they're just going to forget one of maybe 5 games on the horizon for the system.

And the upper tiers aren't really meant to be "here's $10,000 in goods for your purchase!" It's more of a thank-you gift to the guy that really wants this Kickstarter to reach its goal.

[Erik_Twice]

Why would you need to pre-order a digital release? What a ridiculous concept. The entire purpose of a pre-order is to ensure that you get your goods day one in case of scarcity.

I have never seen anyone preorder something so as to avoid scarcity, it looks more like a marketing ploy than anything else. And I'm sure there have been preorders on many digital releases!

I do not think it makes sense for a costumer to preorder anything. But people do preorder so why turn their money down RIGHT NOW? There's no reason to!

And the upper tiers aren't really meant to be "here's $10,000 in goods for your purchase!" It's more of a thank-you gift to the guy that really wants this Kickstarter to reach its goal.

There's very few people willing to give out money for free, specially for this project, why not incentivize them? You are trying to collect money, why not really try to make everything worthwile?

[ZenErik]

Received an e-mail update about the goals for the Kickstarter.

We've received feedback from a LOT of helpful fans evangelizing this product on our behalf asking that we clarify the goals of the Kickstarter so it's clear that funding the Kickstarter will benefit both Digital Download Vita and PSP fans as well as those that want the physical Deluxe Pack. So we're adding the following bullet-pointed list to the beginning main Kickstarter page:

Meeting the Kickstarter funding will allow:

* A Physical Deluxe Pack to be made
* English Voice Acting in the Digital and Physical releases
* English Opening Song and Video in both releases
* Extended game fixes and features (extra save slots, better controls, etc)
* Translation and release of Class of Heroes II webcomic series

Exceeding the funding limit by 15% will allow:

* Additional language localizations
* Clear license to retain Japanese audio option

As fans of the game as well as of the work we did as Working Designs, your feedback has been great. We're listening and implementing those we can in the project to help make it the success we all want. The next update should be the video of gameplay in action as well as showing our work at Working Designs that many of you have suggested will help.

Thanks, and keep spreading the word so this can be the beginning of something great for English JRPGs!

[Jmustang1968]

RPGamer did an interview with Victor Ireland explaining some of the thought process behind the program:

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/classheroe ... s2int.html

[MrPopo]

RPGamer did an interview with Steve Ireland explaining some of the thought process behind the program:

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/classheroe ... s2int.html

Steve?

[Jmustang1968]

RPGamer did an interview with Steve Ireland explaining some of the thought process behind the program:

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/classheroe ... s2int.html

Steve?

Lol Victor, I was chatting with my friend Steve when I posted it haha

[BoneSnapDeez]

So uh.......... what was Class of Heroes 1 like?