First things first - I had no idea that there was a Rifts board game in the works, let along being developed and soon to be kickstarted by a third party until it was brought to my attention earlier today.
First we get Savage Worlds Rifts licensed to Pinnacle and now we are getting a Rifts board game, licensed to a Palladium freelancer (don't call him an employee - I guess that's a black mark or something)
Why would Kevin give up some of his IP control? He's infamous for holding that close to his chest.
Could it be Robotech RPG Tactics, the Kickstarter that over $1.4 million and still isn't fulfilled? Sure, some have their product but many don't and boy, are they angry. Seriously, the comment section is alive and well even of the Kickstarter isn't. 98,000 comments and popping another every few minutes. I guess over 5,300 angry backers can do that to ya.
It is a total fucking train wreck. A few years ago, a trusted business partner embezzled money from Palladium and the company almost went under. This time it may be the influx of $1.4 million that puts the nail in coffin.
Maybe this comment sums it up the best:
Any of my readers have pics of the horrible models from wave one?
Oh, and one update in 5 months:
So, if wave one was such shit, are they going to get new shipments with wave two?
I don't think Palladium was fraudulent so any sort of legal action isn't going to go anywhere. I do think RTT got caught up by being too successful. Also, as an accountant, I wonder how much a license for Rifts goes for knowing how small the non D&D market is. I think Erik you're way wrong to think that Kevin is licensing this stuff to get positive cash flow to keep the business open. The numbers just won't work. Palladium lives off selling their game books to their customers. Maybe the licensing fee for the Rifts movie helps but i bet that is just tens of thousands of dollars until hit hits production.
ReplyDeleteCarmen has had the rights for the board game for three years which predates the Robotech game. I bet you the reason Wave 2 is so late is that the money raised is gone.
Remember that not all licenses just have a static fee. It may include that plus sales, or be largely based on sales...there's a lot of models. My point though is that no matter how small the market, a license fee is a guaranteed way to get some cash for (relatively) little work. Any cash is good cash when it comes with less workload.
ReplyDelete(Generally speaking.)
I came close to funding this thing, glad I passed! I did invest in the Martian Front KS, which was a trainwreck and the company ended up sending us bankruptcy notices.
ReplyDeleteI gotta be honest, I've had a bad taste in my mouth with game companies and Kickstarters since I backed "Shadow Over Brimstone" from Flying Frog Productions. I STILL haven't received all the stuff which is already IN stores.
ReplyDeleteThis Palladium thing just Cements my wariness.
Especially from long standing companies that I assume we can "trust"
ReplyDeleteI've distrusted "The House That Kevin Built" since I read the essay on how the original Rifts system is mechanically perfect from Rifts: Ultimate Edition, and the "mysterious" circumstances that kept occurring in the years after involving "lost money" - unfortunately, this sort of behavior continues to engender that distrust.
ReplyDeleteShipping costs are killing these companies. That's why so many ks charge shipping after the fact, now.
ReplyDeleteAnd production costs can balloon. It's just bad project management. Companies also let run away KS ruin projects. And some of this is on us too. We want stretch goals and if I ran a Kickstarter I wouldn't have any. It should solely be a pre sale campaign
DeleteThanks for picking this up Erik. The turn around was quick. Your audience is huge and the Backers of this project haven't been dealt with fairly.
ReplyDeleteThe slap in the face is Carmen (RH) trolling the comments section on the RTT Kickstarter with his... He could fix RTT if the community backed his future Rifts Board Game. I'm pretty sure that violates KS TOS so I've been posting about most of the day encouraging others to be vocal about this shit. Of coarse the loudest voice I could contact was yours.
Total ineptitude on their part-
And thanks again!
And beside being against the TOS, it's total ball sack behavior.
ReplyDeletePalladium Books has been saying the same stuff for two years. "We have been working on some "exciting stuff," but we can't reveal that to you because of "reasons."
ReplyDeleteYeah. He's been saying that in the Rifter for like 15 years. But Palladium Fantasy and Rifts are fantastic products so I'm willing to put up with the frustration.
DeleteThe recent and previous goings on have turned my sour against Palladium Books. I'll never forget the fun that I've had, but it's time to move on.
DeleteI loved the Macross saga and would have gone for this - except that anyone with Google knew damned good and well that giving Kevin Siembieda money in advance is an amazingly stupid thing to do.
ReplyDeleteHere's some detail of the minis from a guy that knows how to do models (and still got one of the destroids wrong):
http://roebeast.blogspot.com/search/label/Robotech%20Tactics
What a never-ending trainwreck. It's sad to think what these games might do in more capable hands.
ReplyDeleteI backed with a friend of mine for two Battlecry Levels and we have both received a chunk of our Wave 1 items. Not all of course. Anyone who thinks we will ever see the rest of Wave 1 or any of Wave 2? I applaud your optimism but three years of listening to the occasional cricket saying the same thing every 3-6 months has removed any faith I ever had in Palladium.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do mean Palladium not just Kevin. we listened for almost two years about how it was a language issue with Harmony Gold, or Productions concerns with Ninja Division and a half dozen other things "frustratingly beyond our control". But at the end of the almost three years and still counting, Palladium took a piss on all of the RTT Backers and is aiming to keep right on doing it with big smiles on their faces.
People say the Community is so toxic now..and it is.. because Palladium Games made it that way by throwing Wave after Wave of excuses with no resolutions, then crying about Backers being mean to their Customer Service Rep.
All any of us ever wanted was our promised Rewards. All some of us ever got was promises. They would Post Updates claiming progress was forthcoming with evidence in the next month only to go silent for half a year. To return with apologies and more excuses at the end. Proving to us that they care so little about us or our money that they can't have a Staffer type up so much as a "Sorry, we don't have anything yet." On the Updates page.
The response to Carmen Bellaire's post has driven him to attempt suicide: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rrpgt/robotech-rpg-tacticstm/posts/1811029
ReplyDeleteyep - post incoming shortly
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