Following the example of Crowdfunding pioneers Golden Bell, Awaken Realms is going to launch ISS Vanguard on their own platform. This piece of news came out during Man Vs. Meeple's live unboxing of Etherfields. Marcin Swierkot neither confirmed nor denied it, but promised to reveal everything very soon.
So, assuming that this is true, and an alternative to Kickstarter is born, how will it affect us? Possibly not at all. We'll just have to check both platforms for new projects from now on. Awaken Realms will save the 10% of earnings they were giving to Kickstarter so far, but will this profit be reflected in the price of their games? Will ISS Vanguard be cheaper? And how does it differ from a straightforward pre-order system?
The King of Average wondered if this might trigger a cascade of new platforms created by each of the big companies: a CMON platform, a Mythic platform etc. Regardless of whether this happens or not, I believe it's best that Crowdfunding platforms are run by a third party whose interests do not directly lie with the companies that use it. But let's wait for the official Awaken Realms announcement.