TGO Daily | January 26, 2021 | Kickstarter & Video Games
January 26, 2021
Today’s newsletter is fairly sparse because there wasn’t a whole lot that happened today! Something I haven’t really touched on in-depth is the whole GameStop stock situation — if you’re interested in reading about it, there’s a great article from Wired here.
—Adrian
In The News
Kickstarter & Video Games
2020 was a great year for development studios who funded their game through Kickstarter. A total of $23 million was raised for a total of 408 successful projects — the highest amount of revenue generated since 2015, and the most amount of projects since 2014.
It appears as though the better performance in 2020 was largely supported by the top six projects on Kickstarter which raised more than $500,000. The top two are Japanese games Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and The Wonderful 101: Remastered.
It’s not just video games — tabletop games have found real success on Kickstarter. 2020 brought in $236 million in money raised (highest ever) and 3163 projects funded (also highest ever).
Epic Games Giveaways
EA announced on Twitter than when they gave away Star Wars Battlefront II on the Epic Games Store, over 19 million people claimed the game!
That’s one way to flush a whole new player base into your game. Upfront, it may seem silly to give away so many copies of a game that could have been potential sales, but I imagine what they make off of cosmetics will more than make up for it. It also speaks to the effectiveness of giving your game away on the Epic Games Store.
If you head over right now, you can pick up Galactic Civilizations III (4X Strategy) for free, and then Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition (indie 2D platformer) on Thursday. I haven’t played either of those but they look neat.
Pokémon Issues Warning
The Pokemon Company has issued warnings to anybody who is hacking their save file of Pokemon Sword and Shield. This is an issue that is probably familiar to Pokemon fans, but the company has always run into issues with this sort of thing. People will hack the game to have overpowered Pokemon, and then trade them on the online built-in market.
Thus the warning: if you get caught, they’ll restrict your use of online functions, with no opportunity for refunds or appeals. Hackers beware!
Say Hello!
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