Precursor Games has decided to “temporarily” shut down all Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding efforts.
Just a few weeks after Precursor Games launched its Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, which was running parallel to its own, home-grown crowdfunding drive, the whole thing has come to a halt. According to an update posted today on Kickstarter, the cancellation is actually good news – and only a temporary thing.
“Since we announced this Kickstarter campaign we have seen more support from our community than we had ever hoped for. Along with this support has come a host of a new exciting opportunities that will make the game better than we envisioned. As a result, we have chosen to temporarily take down the Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding campaigns on both Kickstarter and our own website on Thursday, June 6,” Precursor CEO Paul Caporicci wrote.
“This doesn’t mean we are going away — far from it,” he continued. “We’ll be re-launching the Kickstarter in just a few short weeks with a reveal of these exciting new developments.”
The whole business with Precursor Games, which was founded in the wake of Silicon Knights’ downfall, seemed perhaps a little shady, and this surprise shutdown of all crowdfunding efforts probably isn’t going to do much to clear up that perception. But because the Kickstarter campaign is being ended before it concludes, no money will be taken from backers, and Caporicci promised that people who supported the game through Precursor’s website will receive full refunds via PayPal. The Precursor forums will be maintained during the “retooling,” and fans can apparently still join the Order of the Unseen forums for backers as well, although how that will work with the crowdfunding campaign no longer available isn’t clear.
It’s an odd situation to say the least, and I think it’s reasonable to suggest that perhaps the decision to pull the plug was spurred at least in part by the fact that with just two weeks left, the Kickstarter campaign hadn’t even achieved ten percent of its $1.35 million target. That doesn’t explain the upbeat “back soon” part of the sale, but I suppose that’s easy enough to explain as either runaway optimism or obstinate denial. Or maybe Precursor was able to sign a deal with a publisher? One way or another, we’ll find out in a few weeks – even if this is the last we ever hear of it.
Source: Kickstarter
