Schafer: Publishers don’t fear Kickstarter

Despite claims that kickstarter has changed the game for publishers, Double Fine’s Tim Schafer says they aren’t exactly "quaking in their boots".

Double Fine’s Kickstarter adventure has raised over two million dollars, leading many to suggest the game has changed for big publishers.

"We’re still out pitching our other games," Schafer told Rock Paper Shotgun.

"We have four teams here. Those other teams are still out there pitching new games to publishers, and their response has always been, ‘Oh that’s great – congratulations on that. Now let’s talk about games like we always have.’"

Two million dollars is a big number for a small studio, but with AAA game budgets often in excess of $100m, Schafer says it isn’t enough for mainstream publishers to start worrying about competition from kickstarter.

"I don’t think any publishers are quaking in their boots," Schafer continued.

"They’re like, ‘Oh, two million dollars, that’s cute! That’s the marketing budget for the little game I’m working on.’ It’s not a big amount of money for them. It’s a big amount of money for us though."