Amplitude (Harmonix) PS3/PS4 - KS (Funded, final day)

Grief.exe said:
Oh wow.

That contract they initially signed must have been horrible.
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It certainly sounds prohibiting, but from what I understand, they probably would have gone under if Sony didn't publish for them back then.

SpasilliumX11 said:
I'm kinda hoping there's someone out there watching this KS to see how much gets raised, and at the last moment be like "Bam. Here's $200K-$300K to finish it."
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I think the max donation is $10k. The best hope is probably that someone with access to that kind of cash has a large following and could help spread the word.
 
Neuromancer said:
They're giving out free codes for PSN tomorrow at noon on Twitter. They're calling it AmpliTuesday.

Also a new tier tomorrow 'for new backers.'
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Jesus, this has been handled so badly. This should have been in place on the first day, or at the very least in the first couple of days. Unless it has an amazing boost these last few days (like, what, $125k per day?) they're not going to make it.
 
Isn't there anyway we can drum up support for this outside of GAF and Twitter? You would have thought this would be making the rounds on IGN, Reddit, 4Chan, etc.
 
I wonder if (and yes it's probably too late) there was anything they could do to try and get some money from people who like the idea but won't be buying the game as it's not on something they can play.

Like, Kickstarter is in theory about "oh you just want it to happen" so that isn't an issue, but culturally it's more "I want it to happen and have it". I don't know, $20-$50 tiers of swag of stuff that's obviously not worth the value specifically (there needs to be primarily profit), maybe stuff they already have and effectively auction through KS, just to twist those people who like them and would support but would just like something small.

This is of course completely theoretical and I have no idea how much those sorts of rewards do on other projects. Knowing GAF, someone will have a better perspective. Suspect it's this sort of thinking that causes the financials of many KS projects to fuck up as they focus on rewards.

That's focussing on getting new people I suppose, the other challenge is convincing some of the approx 5000 people who've gone for the game at cost to go for a bigger tier, and paying twice as much for a bit earlier clearly hasn't cut it.
 
tusken77 said:
$387,582. Past the halfway mark.

tumblr_mh7zp8gAXF1qa9jn1o1_500.gif
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So um when is Shu gonna chime in and donate the rest?? Shu, Hirai and Trentton need to move some of their pay cut into this project.
 
Do we know which gameplay elements Sony owns? Because part of me still believes that they didn't do a spiritual succesor because they thought it would get more money as Amplitude instead of a new IP.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
Jesus, this has been handled so badly. This should have been in place on the first day, or at the very least in the first couple of days. Unless it has an amazing boost these last few days (like, what, $125k per day?) they're not going to make it.
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It needs to average about $100k per day. Kickstarter says 3 days left, but it's really 3 days 22 hours from now.
 
I'm bummed that this may mean we won't be seeing a new amplitude from Harmonix. However, I'm not really bothered or shocked that the Kickstarter failed.

No matter how much they want to claim that they aren't some huge AAA company asking for money on Kickstarter, they are still the company that made Rock Band, and are making a game with Disney based on Fantasia. It's not quite Michael Bay making a Kickstarter for the next Transformers (Trans5mers?) but from a consumer perspective it's closer to that than 3 guys in a basement working on a passion project.

A reliance on Kickstarter is essentially a reliance on pre-orders. This and many other Kickstarters are an attempt to transfer monetary risk from developer to consumer. It may be acceptable for this or another particular Kickstarter that you or I love, but overall it's a crappy trend that I think needs to be quashed before it becomes too prevalent.
 
Adnor said:
Do we know which gameplay elements Sony owns? Because part of me still believes that they didn't do a spiritual succesor because they thought it would get more money as Amplitude instead of a new IP.
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I think they're doing Amplitude instead of a spiritual successor because they want to make the best game possible, and they couldn't do it with spiritual successors like Blitz and Unplugged.
 
conweller said:
I'm bummed that this may mean we won't be seeing a new amplitude from Harmonix. However, I'm not really bothered or shocked that the Kickstarter failed.

No matter how much they want to claim that they aren't some huge AAA company asking for money on Kickstarter, they are still the company that made Rock Band, and are making a game with Disney based on Fantasia. It's not quite Michael Bay making a Kickstarter for the next Transformers (Trans5mers?) but from a consumer perspective it's closer to that than 3 guys in a basement working on a passion project.

A reliance on Kickstarter is essentially a reliance on pre-orders. This and many other Kickstarters are an attempt to transfer monetary risk from developer to consumer. It may be acceptable for this or another particular Kickstarter that you or I love, but overall it's a crappy trend that I think needs to be quashed before it becomes too prevalent.
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That gives me an idea... KS is pretty broad spectrum when it comes to consumer... but if a dev REALLY wants to put risk on consumer using something like Kickstarter...

KS needs to team up with retail outlets like Gamestop/BEstbuy/Walmart. ACTUALLY rely on pre-orders... not only would this be a broader range of consumer awareness... but it will also more accurately gauge consumer interest in the game.

I mean how many people would love this game, but have NO IDEA about it because they dont go on kickstarter or or hardcore gamers... but if they DO go to gamestop, and the employees could hit them with the: "hey theres this new game called amplitude would you like to put 5 dollars on it?"

Add that to the funds from hardcore gamers backing on kickstarter... and you have a golden opportunity to actually fund the game.
 
conweller said:
A reliance on Kickstarter is essentially a reliance on pre-orders. This and many other Kickstarters are an attempt to transfer monetary risk from developer to consumer. It may be acceptable for this or another particular Kickstarter that you or I love, but overall it's a crappy trend that I think needs to be quashed before it becomes too prevalent.
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Assuming the company is one that doesn't have a history of budget overruns and seems to know what they're doing, it's more of a risk elimination strategy.

I also think it would be foolish to do it for things that aren't 'passion projects' or are completely unproven, but hell, if a publisher isn't willing to take the risk, and you don't have the money to make it, and you WANT to make it, why not get people who are interested to buy in? If I want it, I Kickstart it. If I'm on the fence or I don't want it, I don't.

Personally I would rather see more studios attempt to fund their niche/commercially 'unviable' projects through crowd-sourcing (but only Kickstarter-style, e.g. you only get the money if you meet your goal) than have them never come to light. I just don't get why people are so bothered by the concept.
 
KiraXD said:
"hey theres this new game called amplitude would you like to put 5 dollars on it?"
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"Oh Cool! Sure, when does it come out?"
-No release date yet.
"Oh....alright well I'm a crazy person, So I am still interested in giving money to this idea. It's definitely coming out, right?"
-No. If 10,000 more people give 5 dollars, it might come out.
"Oh.. that's weird. Well, if it doesn't come out I get my money back, right?"
-Not necessarily. You'll get your money back if they don't get the other 10,000 people.
"Okay, gottcha. So if 10,000 other people pre-order, we all get the game we paid for."
-No. There's no guarantee that they make the game.
"Then I get my money back."
-No. They can just take your money and not make a complete game.
"Okay bye. I'm never coming back to this stupid store again, you guys are straight up trying to steal people's money."
 
KiraXD said:
That gives me an idea... KS is pretty broad spectrum when it comes to consumer... but if a dev REALLY wants to put risk on consumer using something like Kickstarter...

KS needs to team up with retail outlets like Gamestop/BEstbuy/Walmart. ACTUALLY rely on pre-orders... not only would this be a broader range of consumer awareness... but it will also more accurately gauge consumer interest in the game.

I mean how many people would love this game, but have NO IDEA about it because they dont go on kickstarter or or hardcore gamers... but if they DO go to gamestop, and the employees could hit them with the: "hey theres this new game called amplitude would you like to put 5 dollars on it?"

Add that to the funds from hardcore gamers backing on kickstarter... and you have a golden opportunity to actually fund the game.
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This would be a disaster. Even Gamestop doesn't charge you full price to preorder games that are actually coming soon. Asking the average consumer to pay in full for a game that is probably close to 2 years away would be a lot to swallow. Kickstarter will only really ever be for the extremely passionate.
 
conweller said:
I'm bummed that this may mean we won't be seeing a new amplitude from Harmonix. However, I'm not really bothered or shocked that the Kickstarter failed.

No matter how much they want to claim that they aren't some huge AAA company asking for money on Kickstarter, they are still the company that made Rock Band, and are making a game with Disney based on Fantasia. It's not quite Michael Bay making a Kickstarter for the next Transformers (Trans5mers?) but from a consumer perspective it's closer to that than 3 guys in a basement working on a passion project.

A reliance on Kickstarter is essentially a reliance on pre-orders. This and many other Kickstarters are an attempt to transfer monetary risk from developer to consumer. It may be acceptable for this or another particular Kickstarter that you or I love, but overall it's a crappy trend that I think needs to be quashed before it becomes too prevalent.
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This just goes to show a fundamental misunderstanding of where the money goes in the industry. Obsidian made Fallout: New Vegas, a game that has shipped 5 million copies and has made $300 million as of 2010 and yet they've seemingly been working game to game more or less before and since then and famously were screwed out of a bonus because it didn't hit a certain metacritic score. Do you think they got much if any of that $300 million? Did anyone have a problem giving them almost $4 million dollars for Project Eternity? Harmonix have been pretty up front that the studio wasn't going to shut down if this wasn't funded, just that they can't put all the money in themselves (because they are not a publisher and that's where the money usually comes from) and that this wasn't going to happen any time soon if it wasn't funded.
 
Adnor said:
Do we know which gameplay elements Sony owns? Because part of me still believes that they didn't do a spiritual succesor because they thought it would get more money as Amplitude instead of a new IP.
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No we don't but I imagine things like actually building the song by completing phrases and having them auto play on their own is Sony owned, since none of that stuff happened in Rock Band Unplugged/Blitz. Also if you remove that it really isnr Amplitude any more, it's just pressing buttons to the music.

conweller said:
No matter how much they want to claim that they aren't some huge AAA company asking for money on Kickstarter, they are still the company that made Rock Band, and are making a game with Disney based on Fantasia. It's not quite Michael Bay making a Kickstarter for the next Transformers (Trans5mers?) but from a consumer perspective it's closer to that than 3 guys in a basement working on a passion project.
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The lions share of profit from games goes to the publishers, not the developers.
 
GuitarAtomik said:
This just goes to show a fundamental misunderstanding of where the money goes in the industry.
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You're right. The public has a general misunderstanding of where the money goes in the industry. (As well as how much money is required to make a game.) You can't rely on the general public to fund your game, and then blame their lack of understanding when your plan fails.

And the industry is developing a general misunderstanding of their relationship with their consumer.

The only other industry that I can think of that relies on "Give us money, we'll probably provide you with a product. And then it might be of the same quality that we usually give you." is Pizza Delivery. Except they generally give an accurate timeline.

Harmonix is awesome, Amplitude is awesome. Crowdfunding is the worst industry trend.
 
conweller said:
-No. They can just take your money and not make a complete game.
"Okay bye. I'm never coming back to this stupid store again, you guys are straight up trying to steal people's money."
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This is patently false. I made this post a couple weeks ago:

RyanPierre said:
Actually with Kickstarter, the creator is legally obligated to fulfill the rewards or refund the money: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter+basics#faq_41860

Is a creator legally obligated to fulfill the promises of their project?
Yes. Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill. (This is what creators see before they launch.) This information can serve as a basis for legal recourse if a creator doesn't fulfill their promises. We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill.
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You (or even a state attorney general) can take legal action if the creator fails to meet their obligation. For example:

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/attorney-general-asylum-playing-cards-crowdfunded-project/
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conweller said:
You're right. The public has a general misunderstanding of where the money goes in the industry. (As well as how much money is required to make a game.) You can't rely on the general public to fund your game, and then blame their lack of understanding when your plan fails.

And the industry is developing a general misunderstanding of their relationship with their consumer.

The only other industry that I can think of that relies on "Give us money, we'll probably provide you with a product. And then it might be of the same quality that we usually give you." is Pizza Delivery. Except they generally give an accurate timeline.

Harmonix is awesome, Amplitude is awesome. Crowdfunding is the worst industry trend.
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Though I disagree with the bolded, I agree with the rest. Someone either needs to write a really in depth piece about how much games cost and where the money goes, or just a FAQ or something so people can get educated or at least link to it when other people have no clue.
 
conweller said:
I'm bummed that this may mean we won't be seeing a new amplitude from Harmonix. However, I'm not really bothered or shocked that the Kickstarter failed.

No matter how much they want to claim that they aren't some huge AAA company asking for money on Kickstarter, they are still the company that made Rock Band, and are making a game with Disney based on Fantasia. It's not quite Michael Bay making a Kickstarter for the next Transformers (Trans5mers?) but from a consumer perspective it's closer to that than 3 guys in a basement working on a passion project.

A reliance on Kickstarter is essentially a reliance on pre-orders. This and many other Kickstarters are an attempt to transfer monetary risk from developer to consumer. It may be acceptable for this or another particular Kickstarter that you or I love, but overall it's a crappy trend that I think needs to be quashed before it becomes too prevalent.
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Fine, don't donate. Vote with your wallet if you feel this way.

But your point has been made multiple times and explained through blog posts, dev comments, and more.

Frankly, at this point it seems like people keep repeating the same thing over and over to dampen excitement over this. Let us try and have the game funded if we have no issues with it, hm?
 
Nearing 400k!

B E L I E V E! Its that E3 time of year where miracletons can happen!

EDIT: Thanks Insomniac for the boost!

hawk2025 said:
Fine, don't donate. Vote with your wallet if you feel this way.

But your point has been made multiple times and explained through blog posts, dev comments, and more.

Frankly, at this point it seems like people keep repeating the same thing over and over to dampen excitement over this. Let us try and have the game funded if we have no issues with it, hm?
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They are repeating the same thing over and over. I want to blame the OP for not updating, but its also their fault for not reading the FAQ provided in the OPs link. If we had a 10k nickel for every PC port beg here we could have been done with this!
 
Welp. I just pledged $20

I've never backed a project on kickstarted before, but i love Harmonix, and don't want to see them fail.

I've also never played a frequency or Amplitude game before, but I hear they're good.
 
hawk2025 said:
Frankly, at this point it seems like people keep repeating the same thing over and over to dampen excitement over this. Let us try and have the game funded if we have no issues with it, hm?
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It's like it doesn't have enough going against it: the limited time, limited platforms, battling against preconceptions on multiple fronts, etc. But then people like to be pessimistic about it on top of everything else.

I don't want to confuse realism with pessimism, ie. pointing out that the Kickstarter has a tough fight ahead is totally fair. But if enough people subscribe to a narrative that it's impossible/hopeless and we diminish every new big contribution to "oh, well that's just one guy," that's a great way to foster negativity and decrease the likelihood of success.

(This post isn't meant to apply to just this thread in particular, but also for discussions about the Kickstarter throughout the Internet.)
 
Saw on Twiiter that Insomniac and Jstev were kickin' in on it. Pretty cool stuff. After getting kicked in the junk this past week by MS, hopefully they can get it funded. Sony should pitch in now....
 
FantasticMrFoxdie said:
Nearing 400k!

B E L I E V E! Its that E3 time of year where miracletons can happen!

EDIT: Thanks Insomniac for the boost!



They are repeating the same thing over and over. I want to blame the OP for not updating, but its also their fault for not reading the FAQ provided in the OPs link. If we had a 10k nickel for every PC port beg here we could have been done with this!
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Maybe if even once they explained why they can't do what people are suggesting with specifics instead of saying "No totally guys, it's really complicated but we can't" it wouldn't be brought up as much. They're trying to get people to fund a project and withholding important information to why the project needs to be what they want. If people are constantly questioning and complaining about that aspect, maybe they should address it instead of handwaving with "it's, like, hard to explain"

I don't have a huge problem with it being PS only (though I did see it as a huge reason it would fail pretty much immediately) but if they won't give a real answer then you can expect people to keep asking, because it matters to a lot of potential backers.
 
Archaix said:
Maybe if even once they explained why they can't do what people are suggesting with specifics instead of saying "No totally guys, it's really complicated but we can't" it wouldn't be brought up as much. They're trying to get people to fund a project and withholding important information to why the project needs to be what they want. If people are constantly questioning and complaining about that aspect, maybe they should address it instead of handwaving with "it's, like, hard to explain"

I don't have a huge problem with it being PS only (though I did see it as a huge reason it would fail pretty much immediately) but if they won't give a real answer then you can expect people to keep asking, because it matters to a lot of potential backers.
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If they came out and said "We can't tell you because if we did, you'd get pissed off at Sony, which would in turn mess up our relationship with them", would you believe even believe them? Or how about "we can't tell you because the details of our publishing agreement are under NDA"? At some point, you just have to trust that they're not lying to you, and since they don't really have a history of lying to consumers, I'm going to take them at their word right now.
 
hodayathink said:
If they came out and said "We can't tell you because if we did, you'd get pissed off at Sony, which would in turn mess up our relationship with them", would you believe even believe them? Or how about "we can't tell you because the details of our publishing agreement are under NDA"? At some point, you just have to trust that they're not lying to you, and since they don't really have a history of lying to consumers, I'm going to take them at their word right now.
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It isn't about lying, it's about being open and honest when you're asking for people's money on nothing but trust to begin with. If they said no they can't because legally they can't, that's one thing. If it's no because Sony would get mad? Too fucking bad, Sony isn't funding this project so it's not their feelings that you need to consider if you want it to succeed.
 
Archaix said:
It isn't about lying, it's about being open and honest when you're asking for people's money on nothing but trust to begin with. If they said no they can't because legally they can't, that's one thing. If it's no because Sony would get mad? Too fucking bad, Sony isn't funding this project so it's not their feelings that you need to consider if you want it to succeed.
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It's not "nothing but trust". A Kickstarter is a contract. Don't make up information.
 
hodayathink said:
If they came out and said "We can't tell you because if we did, you'd get pissed off at Sony, which would in turn mess up our relationship with them", would you believe even believe them? Or how about "we can't tell you because the details of our publishing agreement are under NDA"? At some point, you just have to trust that they're not lying to you, and since they don't really have a history of lying to consumers, I'm going to take them at their word right now.
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Also, at this stage, there's not going to be a PC version coming out. So either you back the project as it is now, and get a PS3/PS4 version out of the deal, or you don't back the project because you won't play anything but a PC version that won't exist. Which is your right! If Republique didn't come out with a PC version I wouldn't have backed that project because I'd literally have nothing to play that game on.

Let's say Harmonix decided to give you excruciating detail on what Sony owns and why they won't let Harmonix make a PC version. (I mean, the latter seems pretty obvious to me but whatever.) Would that really change your mind? Would it really make you more likely to back the project? Because if I were in your shoes, I sure as hell wouldn't. At the end of the day, it's still not coming to PC. If you only have a PC and can't play Amplitude HD when it comes out, it doesn't really matter what the reason is, does it?
 
At some point potential backers need to move beyond the spiritual successor vs. Amplitude question. They're doing an Amplitude Kickstarter. If you're too hung up on what it's not, then it's probably not the project for you to back.
 
hawk2025 said:
It's not "nothing but trust". A Kickstarter is a contract. Don't make up information.
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It's absolutely based only on trust. If you count the end product as one of the goals and a guarantee, you still have nothing but trust to assume that end product will have been worth paying for.
 
What trust is needed? They're saying you're getting Amplitude on PS3 and PS4 if it succeeds. Harmonix has a pretty trustworthy history. They're not hiding a PC or Xbox version here, they've outright said what people are getting.
 
ricen-beans said:
Welp. I just pledged $20

I've never backed a project on kickstarted before, but i love Harmonix, and don't want to see them fail.

I've also never played a frequency or Amplitude game before, but I hear they're good.
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Dude... Amplitude rocked. I've been wanting them to make a sequel for the last 10 years. You won't be sorry!

TimmiT said:
I wonder if they'd have to remove them mentioning Sunset Overdrive and maybe Spyro.
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I don't see why. It's just lyrics.
 
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