You accuse Fig of trying to lure small hobbyists with the promise of get-rich-quick, when that's patently false. Most of the projects on Fig are by well-known developers and/or part of well-known franchises.
You seem concerned that Fig investments are a scam, when so far there's been literally 0 evidence of that ever happening and nothing in their corporate structure is unusual for a company that needs to divvy up shares in individual games that they're publishing.
Most of their 12, huh? Their corporate structure has fuck all to do with divvying shares, and everything to do with insulating Fig CEO and board members from the potential fallout if something goes catastrophically wrong, with the money they've sourced from average people.
Most of these aren't even "indie" games. They are games by established developers or part of established franchises that have been published before, like Pillars of Eternity 2 or Rock Band 4. Fig is not some place where you get to gamble on indie developers.
Again, you seem pretty confident for a platform with 12 projects. Knock Kickstarter but at least they had the numbers early than Fig so we didn't have to guess how things worked. Also they didn't have complicated investment scheme (by the lay person's understanding) murking it up.
The "terms of the deal" has nothing to do with Fig's corporate structure.
We're just going to disagree on this. Fig pays itself through it subsidiaries that also carry the risk should anything go wrong. They are protecting themselves and while that's not unusual, combined with the success rate of the thing they say they're trying to sell, it seems fairly suspicious to me.
We're talking about launching a discrete product, which will have a sales arc and product lifespan. You can buy shares in the launching of that product.
You're not buying shares. You're funding the product and asking for a return on your investment. There is a difference.
If you think Fig is a pyramid scheme then every stock IPO in the world is a "pyramid scheme."
I've addressed this already. I've got my biases. But regular stock IPOs don't pretend to be your friend and buddy in your hobby.
Your link isn't helpful, though, because average doesn't tell you anything about distribution. Also, income is only one way to become an accredited investor.
There's a heat map, right there. Use it. Look where it stops on the chart.
What do you think you're investing in when you buy stock in EA? Do you think they engage in any other business besides developing and publishing games?
People don't buy stock to fund the creation of something. They buy stock to cash in on the ongoing success of a company and their rising stock price, for things they already do, or are going to do. They are not footing the bill for EA's dev houses to work.
IT LITERALLY DOES NOT DO THAT
Nothing is stopping you from gambling every dollar you have or can borrow on the stock market, whether you're accredited or unaccredited. That is NOT what accredited investor status does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investorI'm just gonna leave it there. You can all caps YOU'RE WRONG until your fingers snap.
all publishers needs developers, genius. all publishers need funding. publishers don't just pop up in the middle of nowhere, fully funded, ready to spend money developing games. publishers get their money from somewhere, and it's usually equity investment firms or parent media corporations (like Warner Brothers) that have exactly the same funding setups that fig have. all fig has done is replaced the source of the money with crowdfunding. Instead of Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. being the money behind WB Games Inc. who then publishes a game on behalf of a developer.
I like how I haven't sarcastically called you a moron once, despite how blinkered I think you're being, and yet you can't even begin to return me the same courtesy.
There really isn't anything else to say on that, because you're stating the obvious while avoiding the actual issue.
they will let almost anyone create almost any project and take a cut of the funds, with little concern for if the product ever materializes. That Which Sleeps is one of a million examples of vaporware games. You will never see that on Fig.
Because Kickstarer is actually about helping people get their stuff made, and not enriching themselves. Unlike Fig which gets to cherry pick the projects so they don't ever look bad and people start finding examples of exactly the kind of shit they're worried about.
Also you seem damn confident with Fig for it's whole 12 games and 2.5 years of being around.
It's much harder to invest in Fig, than say, buy stock in a game publisher or any other company associated with a hobby you like. Funding of these games is very limited, and it's not really going to be something the "average" person does. Who is the "average" person who is lured into dropping $1000 on a risky investment?
1) It's not hard at all. Credit card, user account, give me your money please. I don't know where you get the idea it's hard to invest with them. That was the whole point of getting the FTC to let them sell to unaccredited investors, is that they DIDNT have to jump through complicated investing hoops which would make them say "Ah fuck it" or provide them any understanding or protection of what they're getting in to.
2) Funding of these games is limited? Wut? $100,000 is limited? "Average people" don't spend ridiculous sums of money on video games? Is that why Kickstarter pledge goals go up into the thousands and people actually buy them? And they're doing that for essentially nothing. Now tell them they could have all that, and make 100% return.
Jesus dude. You called it a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme is a kind of scam.
Words matter. And not all pyramid scheme are scams. Cutco is not a scam even though it's a pyramid scheme. Door to door air purifiers are not scams, even though they're pyramid schemes. I should know. I've done both of these things.
When it's an actual scam, I'll call it a scam.
What "average person" has $1000 they're ready to spend on something that, best case scenario, doesn't pay out for years? And that's assuming they ignore all the fair warnings that "this project may fail and your investment will disappear." The average person isn't about to buy $1000 worth of anything on a whim, even if they love gaming.
See above. Kickstarter demonstrates you're wrong here. People have easily dropped $1000 in the name of their hobby and hype, and they did it without any expectation of getting a return. They didn't read the Kickstarter warnings or heed them. And now you've got a platform that is like "Oh you can drop $1000. But if you drop _$2000_ and it does really good, why you could make even more back! The sky is the limit!"
So yes, I don't trust the inherent good judgment of average people for investing, especially not investing in their hobbies and something they may be legitimately passionate about besides trying to get paid. And I believe Fig was created specifically to exploit people like that.