The Banner Saga Series Didn't Pay off
The indie team Stoic is planning to release the third part of the series The Banner Saga. Where to get money for its development is an open question: sales of the first two series of invested money were not repulsed.
According to Games Industry, the founders of Stoic planned to develop the original The Banner Saga in one year and mainly on their own savings. A super-successful Kickstarter campaign changed plans (the game raised more than $700 thousand instead of $ 100 thousand). The game was made bigger and better than the authors originally intended.
But when they took up the second part, they decided not to resort to crowdfunding. The developers were exhausted working with the community when creating the first series: fundraising requires constant communication with users and updates. There was no separate person for this in the team at that time.
Stoic plunged headlong exclusively into development, counting on the fact that the audience – without constant support – the game will remain. They were wrong.
The second part in the first months of sales earned a third of the amount that the first part earned during the same time (now the number of owners of The Banner Saga, according to SteamSpy, is approaching 800 thousand, and The Banner Saga 2 has slightly less than 120 thousand).
The second reason that caused the drop in sales, Stoic today calls the changed situation in the market. In January 2014, in addition to The Banner Saga, only 70 projects were released on Steam. The second part in April 2016 competed with 400 products already.
According to John Watson, the co-founder of Stoic, the unfortunate balance of the final fight in the first part could also play a role. Only half of the players who reached it passed it. At the same time, 75% of The Banner Saga 2 players imported their saves from The Banner Saga during the launch week.
For what money to develop the third part – the founders are still discussing.
During the four years of development of both parts, Watson and Arnie Jorgensen, Stoic’s art director, spent all their retirement savings. And this money has not yet been returned in full.
“We both have kids, they have to go to college, and we can’t take risks all the time – developing entertainment is the riskiest thing,” Watson laments.
The developers estimate the creation of the third part at $ 2 million. They do not believe that today they will be able to collect the required amount on Kickstarter. They may be looking for a private investor. In any case, the team plans to complete the saga.
Source: Games Industry
