There's a somewhat interesting blog on Gamasutra about legal liabilities of companies running a Kickstarter Campaign. I wasn't aware that there's already a lawsuit in progress over a card deck Kickstarter that failed to deliver a product.
A card game with 810 backers. One of the 31 ones that lives in the Washington state was friendly with the Attorney General there (or the AG backed the game?). They are asking $2,000 dollars per backer in fine and repayment. Or $1.6 millions for a game that funded at $25,146…sure.
Going by the rest of the article, it looks more like baiting to do a lawsuit against Peter Monyleux over Godus. All that is going to result in is less transparency in game development.
Overpromising is not unique to Kickstarter. Firms bidding for government contracts do it all the time, as do many software companies. It's in the nature of the economic model. When those companies fail, they too can get sued and punished. There is always the protection provided by the bankruptcy law, if they run into unsolvable budget issues.
There are various degrees in the practice.Overpromising is not unique to Kickstarter.
Even with their heavy political connections, those firms would not get off scot free as crowfunded projects do if those firms had the idea of underdelivering the way crowdfunded projects do.Firms bidding for government contracts do it all the time,