Harmonix, the independent developer that you are probably most familiar with for their work on Rock Band, has announced that their CCO, Alex Rigopulos, will be joining the advisory board for Fig. As well, they will be using the Fig platform themselves to launch a campaign for a currently unannounced title. What is Fig, you might be asking?
Fig is a new crowdfunding platform made exclusively for video games. Their goal is to support a system that supplies both reward-based crowdfunding, as well as investment crowdfunding so that they can grow the games ecosystem with a balanced and sustainable approach to game development.
The Fig advisory board already includes people including Tim Schafer, President and CEO of Double Fine Productions, Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment, and now Alex Rigopulos, Co-founder and CCO of Harmonix. Other advisory board members include Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, and Aaron Isaken, Co-founder of Indie Fund.
In regards to the choice for Harmonix to utilize Fig, Alex Rigopulos had this to say:
Harmonix has successfully gone the traditional crowdfunding route before, and now we are looking to explore offering both rewards as well as investment opportunities to the community when we launch our next title via Fig in Q4 of 2015. I’m looking forward to sharing more information with everyone very soon.
Companies from those on the advisory board, including Double Fine Productions, inXile Entertainment, and Obsidian Entertainment, plan to launch their own Fig campaigns in the future for currently unannounced titles.
Whether or not Fig will be successful or if it will simply be another crowdfunding platform has yet to be seen. It is off to a good start at least with their first campaign, Outer Wilds, having already raised over $106,000 of its $125,000 goal with 14 days left to go.
Be sure to keep an eye on Fig to see if it becomes the crowdfunding platform for video games that you’ve been waiting for.
