Obsidian accuses publishers of abusing Kickstarter

Some publishers are using Kickstarter to develop new brands and generate money without investment, Obsidian’s CEO has claimed.

Speaking on the studio’s recently launched Project Eternity Kickstarter page, Feargus Urquhart said the Fallout: New Vegas developer had been contacted by publishers over the last few months that wanted to use the studio to launch a crowdfunding project.

He said that some companies had suggested Obsidian would not keep the brand name and only a portion of the profits would go to the developer.

Urquhart did not name the publishers in question.

“We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a Kickstarter,” he said.

“I said to them ‘So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don’t get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits’ They said, ‘Yes’.”

Obsidian’s Kickstarter campaign for Project Eternity has so far garnered more than $1.6m from 40,000 backers.