Ravensburger Invest To Develop The Future Of Gamefound
February 16, 2022 by fcostin
There is something that has got a lot of us tabletop gamers wondering... what's going on with Crowd Funding Platforms? We have been comfortable with Kickstarter for a few years now, and it is becoming saturated with an abundance of different tabletop titles. Whether it be board games from high profile publishers, miniatures from 3D artists, or RPG supplements to add to your ongoing campaigns.
Gamefound & Ravensburger Partnership
I will certainly never complain about having too much content in our industry to tap into, however, with recent developments over at Gamefound, it does make me question the future of Crowd Funding platforms and where our industry is headed.
We here at OTT have been spending more and more time on Gamefound, with releases such as Purple Haze and Tindaya debuting on the platform - the 'Kickstarter' section of the Weekender has been spread across two different sites. As we see more and more creators gravitate towards Gamefound, the crowdfunding platform dedicated to tabletop games only, as opposed to everything and anything on Kickstarter.
There becomes more and more of a divide between the two, however, it seems that Ravensburger has a keen interest in the development and evolution of Gamefound.
Unless you have had your head buried in a hole, Ravensburger has been dominating the board game sector for some time now across the world. Producing board games, puzzles, arts and crafts - you name it. All tied together with our favourite IPs.
This industry leader has made some moves towards Gamefound, as confirmed in their blog; bringing Ravensburger in as both a key investor and a partner to develop the crowd-funding platform. Ravensburger already releases thousands of tabletop titles to retail in a year, however, being embedded into Gamefound will help a wide range of concepts and dreams come alive. Providing support to the platform, and pushing to bring more experiences to the tabletop with their new initiative, Next Ventures.
It seems like fantastic news for the tabletop industry, in my opinion, more support for the little guy is what I am always preaching! A lot seems to be getting drowned and lost in Kickstarter. I am certainly looking forward to a central and focussed crowd-funding platform, that places creators in a more comfortable opportunity to develop their title hand-held and overseen by tabletop giant Ravensburger.
What do you think this means for Gamefound and Kickstarter?
"Being embedded into Gamefound will help a wide range of concepts and dreams come alive..."
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The irony is that the sort of boardgames Ravensburger publishes are the least likely to ever “need” a Kickstarter. So I presume this marriage is more about funding and distribution avenues. And the reason Gamefound is leagues better than KS is that GF straight up admits to being a pre-order system. No lies about “crowdfunding an idea” and the accompanying fake “stretch goal” nonsense. Just a good vehicle for obtaining games that you pay for. I think a lot of boardgamers are beyond sick of the artificial hype & empty promises of KS, and they just want to pre-order a… Read more »
I’ve always considered crowdfunding as being a tad dodgy an got anything when its out in the shops.
I suppose time will tell but I am cautiously optimistic. I just hope this remains a venture in supporting the platform’s development for the benefit of the industry that Ravensburg can ultimately benefit form, which to be fair, is what their pitch sounds like. There are companies that would turn this into an exercise in wringing every last scrap of profit out of Gamefound until its a lifeless husk but feels like this isn’t likely to be that. Anyone know enough about public company info to work out how much control Ravensburg gets as a part of the deal? I… Read more »
I think Gamefound is the future for boardgame crowdfunding, it is a better platform with built in pledge manager support. And it is run by boardgamers.
I’m surprised that Awaken Realms have brought in another company, I thought they would be keen to keep it in house now that they have got this far. In PC land Valve kept total control of Steam and have dominated the PC gaming market for 15 years or so. I was expecting a similar path.