A panel of unspecified video game industry veterans launched Insurgency Interactive, a publisher seeking to democratize the business and "take control away from the 'suits'" with a community-driven and community-funded game.
The company invites gamers to pledge $50 towards the experiment to earn a Participant Credit, which will allow them to vote on the various aspects of the funded game -- platform, genre, name, and marketing decisions. Participants will receive a credit in the game and a free copy of the finished title. They can also take part in beta tests for the game.
"Take control away from the 'suits' at last," the publisher promises on its site. "Banding together, we can finance and distribute the world’s first community-driven AAA videogame!""
Insurgency Interactive does not plan to collect any money until it proceeds to Greenlight Stage 1 right after receiving 150,000 commitments. During that process, the publisher hopes to collect $3,750,000 of the pledged funds. After that, Insurgency Interactive will move to Greenlight Stage 2, in which it will present proposals and allow its membership to vote on the game's direction.
The company hopes to eventually raise $5 million for the project, a goal that it admits could be difficult considering the anonymity of the executive panel heading the project. The site's FAQ explains, "Since we’re not taking any salaries out of the project for now, we must remain anonymous. After all, we are all currently working in the industry, and chances are our employers wouldn’t appreciate our efforts to democratize the business!"
“We’re trying something that has never been done before,” said a representative identified only as Mouthpiece. “Trust has to be our prime directive. We know that’s tough when we have to be anonymous, but we hope we can mitigate any concerns by being otherwise transparent and by not taking money at first. With our Greenlight Staging Process, we will be able to know if we’ve got enough interest to go full steam before we ask anyone for a single dime.”
