Topic: Shadow of the Eternals Campaign Halted and Slated for Re-Launch, Refunds Incoming

[bluelander]

Warning: More drama incoming.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34446

The crowdfunding campaigns for Shadow of the Eternals, the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, are being taken down by developer Precursor Games on June 6.

According to a statement from Precursor Games, the money people have pledged on Kickstarter will not be charged, and those who donated through their own crowdfunding on their site will also be refunded. They also state that they will be re-launching the campaign in "a few short weeks."

Many people were confused by the fact that they have been running two simultaneous crowdfunding campaigns, one on their site and one on Kickstarter, and this news will likely only serve to further raise eyebrows and confuse fans. Hopefully there is some good news coming soon.

[broodwars]

I can't wait for Precursor to follow Penny Arcade's illustrious example and set the goal at $10 (or something similarly low) just so they don't have to return the money this time when they fail to acquire the funds it would actually take to make a game like this.

[alegoicoe]

maybe they struck a deal with Nintendo, who knows

[Ian Sane]

Wow, this all fell apart a lot quicker than I thought it would.  I figured it would take at least a year before we would hear about this again.

[AV]

maybe they struck a deal with Nintendo, who knows

now that would be a killer E3 surprise.


i was going to donate, but I wasn't sure if it would be a wise decision.

[Shaymin]

A similar effect to giving Mister Dyack money would be to take out the cash, light it on fire, and whizz on the flames.

[Adrock]

maybe they struck a deal with Nintendo, who knows

I find it odd that they continue to bring up how supportive Nintendo is. This could just be for the use of the sanity meter which Nintendo owns the rights to. I'd prefer Nintendo pick up the game because we would get a better game out of it and Shadow of the Eternals would likely come out as a whole much, much sooner (instead of if at all). Nintendo would have to send a manager to Canada to keep the project focused, but a 2015 launch would be possible. I'm not confident that it's going to happen, but if the game is to ever come out, this is the most likely scenario.

Nintendo also recently extended the ownership of the Eternal Darkness trademark if that means anything. It could just be standard operating procedure or it could mean something for the future of the IP.

[lolmonade]

The more news that comes of this project, the more it seems like this development team is horribly mis-managed.  I'd like to hope for this to not be the case, as I'd happily sink my teeth into a game like this, but them cancelling and re-trying their crowd-funding campaign for a 3rd time doesn't exactly instill confidence in me.
 
I wonder how this affects their ability to get get people to donate.  I certainly would be reconsidering my donation if I had to wait for a 2nd re-launch of the project.

[Shaymin]

Silicon Knights people involved in a badly mismanaged project?

I am shocked - SHOCKED - to hear that.

[Adrock]

I wouldn't say the development team is necessarily mismanaged. They might be, just not from what I've seen and read about the project. The problem they've encountered is funding development as opposed to development itself at least thus far. Look at what they're asking: "Can we have $1.5 million to fund 1/12 of a game? Plz." What the whuck? They've said that subsequent episodes will cost much less. Even if that's true, they're probably still looking at $7-$9 million when all is said and done and that's being generous. As far as development goes, the game seems pretty far along given how small the team is and they're pretty enthused to be using CryEngine 3.

I count the Kickstarter campaign as part of the original crowd funding effort because the Kickstarter was launched mainly because people felt it was safer. Kickstarter is only available in the US and UK so Precursor Games had to set up an employee in one of those regions in order to launch the campaign. It's a subtle difference, but an important one. Restructuring for the first time is better than the third. That's just my opinion. I can definitely see why people would consider the upcoming relaunch their third effort.

As much as I enjoyed Eternal Darkness and want Shadow of the Eternals to be made, I was never going to contribute to this project. I'm weary of any episodic game. They tend to lose their audience. What if they don't finish? I'm also weary of contributing to a project so big. It seemed like Precursor Games was planning to crowd fund each episode. That never sat well with me. I would gladly give them money once all the episodes are released or if the game was picked up by a publisher and released as a single product. Unless one of those scenarios happens, I'm comfortable standing on the sidelines, observing the game's progress.

[ThePerm]

I don't think it would have fallen apart if anyone had funded it. I also think it would have made its goal if they had set it up for 3-4 months. Also, if you paid attention to the rewards system. You only get part of the game if you donate part of what a game would cost. If you donated the full amount you would get the entire game. So, the entire game is worked out into the original budget.  Having such a short time frame, was naiive and over-optomistic. They should have had a $1 dollar pledge as well.

[Adrock]

Setting up the Kickstarter for a longer period wouldn't have made a difference because crowd funding is typically front loaded. They get most donations in the beginning. If you're not close to meeting your goal in the first week, you're mostly likely not getting your project funded. Didn't the Veronica Mars movie get funded in like 37 seconds? If people want something enough, the creators won't need very long to fund it.

And I paid attention to the reward system. $5 got you the first episode, $25 got you six episodes, and $50 or more got you all 12. My issue isn't with what the rewards they say you get. Precursor Games was having trouble funding the first episode. Their intention is to complete all 12 episodes. I don't recall reading a plan for what happens if they can't fund additional episodes. What happens to all the people who pledged $25 or more? Do they just get a prorated refund? Not exactly reassuring. I would never pay for more than one episode if I were to pay anything at all.

More importantly, I'm not interested in episodic games so I would never fund or buy one episode at a time. I want the whole game (assuming, of course, it didn't get crushed through terrible word of mouth) because I like playing games through to the end. With Shadow of the Eternals, there's no assurance other than their word that the game would ever be seen to completion. No thanks.

[ThePerm]

they were making 50k a day, and then it went down to 4k a day. I wasn't speaking specifically to you either. I'm just saying that they would have slowly reached their goal given some time.

[Razorkid]

I have confidence that this game will get made...but I have nothing to back that up.

[pokepal148]

oh yee of little faith...