Kickstarter would not get involved in refunds for failed projects

This post goes out to anyone who is upset that they have lost money "backing" a Kickstarter Project. Anytime you invest in anything there is risk involved. Don't ever invest something that you aren't willing to loose. It's gambling only the odds aren't completely stacked against you. Thoroughly research the people involved in the projects before putting a single penny into a project. In this type of investment you have something tangible to loose, money. The person or organization only has their reputation to loose. Only if it is a substantial amount could people band together and sue. However only the lawyers are going to be the winners in a lawsuit.. If you don't know the person and/or organization or they can't prove their previous successful projects then it's too risky. It's probably going to be vaporware and you should move on.

I've only backed 2 games. One of them was Wastelands, which hopefully will be completed by the end of the year. Kickstarter is just he middleman. They aren't a bank. Whatever funds that are given to these developers are an investment for a product. People need to realize this and not see it as a done deal. If a project does fail, the developers and company will be hurt the most, as gamers will no longer what to invest or purchase any of their future games. All those people who invested in the Ouya were crazy. Even if the product does get completed and shipped, it may still fail a couple months later. In the end you'll have a mini game console with just a couple of old games to play. I can't believe it took in $8.5 million.

This is one thing that seriously worries me about kickstarter.Especially if more companies ask for funding from fans instead of from their own funding.I would probably back a move though to give Crash Bandicoot back to Naughty Dog from Universal Studios who now owns the franchise... I would seriously consider that one....

I'm actually surpised that something that operate with funds like Kickstarter isn't serious about that.

i'm surprised this is only news now.

I mean the developers applying for a kickstart has to remember it's a kickstart and not a full fledged funding of their projects. I don't know how this works but being able to take peoples money, the website encouraging this should at least make them present a plan over the project making it easier to see if this is doable or not before they can grab donations. You can't apply for a loan in a bank without a plan, and on kickstarter it's given away. That said, there is always a risk of loss, but the risk is of course highest for the developer, not the kid donating $10.

Poor article from you Connor. If people invest in anything, their is a risk of loss. I'm not sure why you think they should be entitled to refunds (except in cases of fraud).

Let the buyer beware.

Something bad with some developer is going to happen at some point, and some people will lose money.

And then the hateful comments about Kickstarter will rain like fire.

I still think the crowdsourced funding is a great idea, but I also suspect that there will be someone who comes along, abuses the system, walks away with a bag full of money, and messes it up for the rest of us.  It's too tempting a target for the con men to avoid.

Even for legitimate funding requests, I think it has to be made painfully clear that donors are putting money towards an idea that may not succeed, not a guaranteed pre-order.  There should be no surprise for folks if their risk doesn't pay off.

I want the OUYA to succeed and also want it for $99. :-D

A lot of people (idiots) called this an investment, which it really isn't, it's a donation. You're not going to get any financial returns on this, you still have to buy the console, that is if it ever gets released, because you have no guarantee that this will make it to market and are not insured in any way if it does not. Now I just want to lay that out in front of you....YOU'RE THROWING MONEY INTO A WISHING WELL!!!

And just to add, my opinion on ouya is simple, it's rather stupid. I mean you can play android quality games on your tv for $100 now woooooooooooooooo [sarcasm]. 

I LMAO at this whole concept I'm waiting for this to go up in smoke

can i get backed i promise nothing and all you will get is my thanks :)

Well if a product isn't quite so "great" as the backers expected, it's their own fault... However if someone just took millions for a state of the art gaming centre and followed through with a cardboard box, I'd expect the money would have to be returned... If not then that's pretty much fraud, lol.

OOOOO i told ya so! thats what i been saying this whole time. Kickstater was really made for small time people that will never get funding for there project for anything else, not for well established, years in what ever industry they are from, in this case gaming industry , tehre are people who have the money from years working in the gaming indutry and wants to make a game on there own, and they already have over $100,000 to begin with, and they still go to kick starter asking for more money, i forgot what game a few weeks ago that Gamespot posted news about there kickstarter project. they already put in $500,000 of there own money before they did kickstarter, and asked for $400,000 from kickstarter! while that is going on there are other very small teams that will never reach there goal and only ask for less then $100,000, only a few reach there goal, but it seems like a lot of "triple A indie" teams are starting to take advantage if kickstarter, soon this will runin it for everyone else, people will expect a high production video from the team asking for money, will expect the team to have really good people who been doing what they have been doing for years and what not.

now for the refund, read the terms of use, if you invest money to the project and they fail you lose the money, if they dont give you what you want then you lose your money, it even says it right there kickstarter will not refund your money if a project fails. are people that stupid not read the terms of use? that is why you dont invest a lot of money into a project, so if they do fail or dont give you what you want, you call it a wash and have a good day. you can tho turn around sue the team for your money back, but the odds are if you only invested say $10-$200 its not even going to be worth to sue them for because you will spend more on legal fees lot of other things.  so what im trying to say is dont be stupid when investing.

I doubt anyone believed that their kickstarter contributions were anything more than tossing money into a wishing well.

I personally don't have enough money to spend money on things that I may or may not be able to pay more money for later.

At the end of the day the people who run Kickstarter want all the publicity for how great they are, but none of the responsibility for being involved in anyway.

I wonder if people really know what they're doing when they fund something with kickstarter. Too many morons out there, just remember what happened with that  charity donation for the Mass Effect 3 ending change...

Wow, you've seen Weird Al live. I'd love to do that too sometime.

The depressing thing is refunds go to your amazon payments account and that money can't be used on other Kickstarter projects.

The stock market doesn't issue refunds either.

A hackable console (worthless for multiplayer and other online services) with the (soon to be outdated) tegra 3 chipset, by a nobody-company way in over their heads, relying on crowd-funding to push a system full of ad-supported free-to-play/pay-to-win vaporware - launching amidst the coming of next-gen consoles by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

What could possibly go wrong?

One wonders if the recent issues with the Tropes Vs Women kickstarter was part of the motivation for this article.

I know ahead of time it's a risk but I have faith in the projects I fund, and honestly, I'm tired of waiting for the big money guys to green light the stuff I like.

Imagine a crowd sourcing Shark Tank thing. Everybody pitches into an idea for equity in the company or does this already exist.