So:- a) When is it due to launch; and Why do Wyrd - with a steady stream of income from Malifaux- need to use Kickstarter?
C
Not sure about the first one Chris but you're a savvy financial expert (or so I've been told) isn't there a truism in business? "Never spend your own money". Kickstarters for already well known companies always do well especially if the company has a successful game out in the wild so its just good business to defer risk and kickstarter is seriously low risk. They will probably make upwards of $500,000 interest free, wouldn't you go to kickstarter rather than fund it yourself?
Well, I looked at what's being offered to KS contributors and it looks like quite a lot of kit. Frankly it doesn't look like raising $500,000 of equity, more like making $500,000 of pre-sales at a discounted margin. If that's the case then they are cannibalising future profits for accelerated cashflow - not generally a smart idea.
It may be more of a loss leader than cannibalising sales. Looking at the various stretch goals etc what seems to be on offer is enough to get people able to play but not a full set. I suspect that even if you go for all the add-ons you wouldn't get everything that would be there at launch. The prices are also not that far off what you might actually expect to pay. Wyrd doesn't normally do discounts, but most stores sell the stuff at 10% to 20% off RRP. As they are getting the full value rather than just the wholesale element I doubt that they are losing too much, if anything, on the offers. The up sides for Wyrd are large though. They collect the money in January but the game is due to ship next December. They also ensure that they have a solid player base ready to go from day one (and indeed looking forward to getting the game). I know I've a few rule sets that I thought looked good but was never able to find enough people to play them regularly. They might have been able to generate more revenue without the kickstarter, but they would have received that revenue later (and so with a lower NPV), the revenue might have been lower (hard to know without details on wholesale prices/deals), they would have had money tied up in stock that they could not be sure would sell and they would be taking a risk that the game would prove to be as popular as Evil Baby Orphanage or Through the Breach (both probably do OK but they don't seem to be as strong as Malifaux).
Why do Wyrd - with a steady stream of income from Malifaux- need to use Kickstarter?