The most passionate fan base in gaming strikes again
The EarthBound fanbase is an ever growing blob of sweetness and joy. Just when you think you’ve seen how far it can go, it gets even bigger and even more happy. Did you know that the game was #10 on the Wii U eshop charts last week, beating out awesome games like Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Shovel Knight, and Super Mario Bros.? Not bad for a turn-based comedy/drama RPG that was once considered a flop.
As well as the game has done on the Wii U, I’m more impressed with how well its fans have done on Kickstarter. Fangamer‘s upcoming documentary/CD/book/zine project has been a runaway hit, collecting over $200K with about six days of its Kickstarter campaign left. With that $200K milestone, Fangamer has announced they’ll be throwing a EarthBound/Mother convention next summer. It will be a relatively lean and mean event, with a cap at 450 attendees. About 300 of those tickets will be made available to backers first, leaving the rest of to hope that the remaining 150 tickets don’t sell out instantly (which they will). If it’s a big enough success, they may turn it into a yearly thing.
While crowdfunded games don’t seem to be finding the same success that they used to, crowdfunded things about games appear to be doing better than ever. Maybe Fistshark should plan a convention stretch goal, something that rhymes with Don John perhaps…
