Game Developers Bypassing Publishers

May 11, 2012

For a couple of years, I have been a member of an online community for an in-development video game. That game is called Interstellar Marines. In short, Interstellar Marines is a trilogy taking place in the 22nd century. It is a co-op first person shooter with role-playing elements. It has a heavy focus on realism, immersion, and replay value, taking place in a believable and realistic future where mankind first comes into contact with alien life forms.

What makes Interstellar Marines and its developer, Zero Point Software, so unique is that they are not funded by a game publisher such as EA Games, Activision, or Ubisoft. Instead, they rely on a different strategy of independent development. They are funded by people that preorder the game through their website, effectively eliminating the need for a major publisher. They are a small studio, so development will take them a while, but these developers are not alone. Their strategy is actually part of a growing trend in gaming, music, and print media.

Kickstarter.com is a website for people to fund projects. They post a project with different rewards based on the amount a person donates. Game developers have started taking their projects to such websites. For example, Wasteland is an old video game on which the Fallout series is based. The original developers posted a project for Wasteland 2 with a goal of $900,000. When the funding period ended recently, they had raised nearly $3 million. This proves that video games can be developed and released without a major publisher demanding a carbon copy of games that are guaranteed to sell. With developers having free reign over content and creativity in their games, great changes in video games are on the horizon.

Matthew W.
Oak Grove Branch