back to article Kickstarter folk pay $8 MEELLION for joys of EXPLODING KITTENS

Cat-loving Kickstarter users have coughed up more than $8m for the pleasure of Exploding Kittens, dethroning hackable games console Ouya as the crowdfunding website's most highly funded game of all time. Exploding Kittens is a comedy card game cooked up by XBox chaps Elan Lee and Shane Small, along with Matthew Inman, the …

  1. Paul 25

    Might actually stand a chance of delivering

    I've pre-ordered EK, we've been playing a lot more board and card games recently and this looks like a bit of silly fun.

    Unlike a lot of other kickstarter projects I expect the EK team to be able to deliver, it's a simple enough product being made by people who actually do this kind of thing for a living (I believe two are professional games designers) with help and advice from the Cards Against Humanity people. There are plenty of manufacturers who can make decks of cards and a box to put them in.

    Far too many crowd funded products are complex electronic gadgets being made by people with a bright idea but who don't understand the problems of industrial design, manufacturing and scaling production.

    1. durandal

      Re: Might actually stand a chance of delivering

      Plus Inman has some experience with crowdfunding (after the Tesla museum), and isn't likely to stick his name on something that's going to never appear

    2. Dapprman

      Re: Might actually stand a chance of delivering

      While the Kickstarter campaign for the refrsh and relaunch has now finished, you may also want to keep an eye open for Unspeakable Words - it went big resulting in the new release partly due to a very favourable review on Will Wheaton's show.

  2. Mark 85
    Happy

    Waiting.. checking mailbox... waiting...

    see title.

  3. Simon Potter

    Why does it take $8m to produce a card game?

    1. DropBear
      Mushroom

      Well, in this particular case, because they need to make some 220.000 of them - not cards: complete decks (doubled: base and NSFW). And some deluxe boxes and other stuff. You do realize their initial goal was just $10.000, yes? They budgeted / priced for that sized run, things just... slightly... seem to have got out of hand.

    2. Ashley Ward

      It doesn't. Turnover is $8m. Some of that will be used to produce the game, pay staff and suppliers, etc. The rest is profit, just as with any normal retail outlets. And why shouldn't they make a profit?

    3. StillBill

      Depends on how many decks are produced

      Assume there is a magic 10 dollars to produce a deck and box and get it shipped out.

      They get 4M to develop a killer product

      It costs 4M to ship out 400K decks of cards.

      Yes, if they were only shipping 100 decks of cards to 50 backers - I'd agree with you, but with most things, physical objects scale with the size of the delivery.

  4. ecofeco Silver badge

    Seriously. WTF?

    No. Seriously. WTF?

    Good for them, but $8 MILLION? There has to be more going on here than is being told. This is NOT normal.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Seriously. WTF?

      Internet. Kittens. Lasers. Unicorns.

      What more expalantion do you need?

      1. 2460 Something

        Re: Seriously. WTF?

        Indeed, but don't forget those magical enchiladas. Looks like it will be lots of fun. I am eagerly awaiting my set.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Seriously. WTF?

      Love them all, but totally useless shite.

      People are going to wonder why WW3 started and will be utterly clueless. Clueless collateral damage.

      "We threw money at a flash in the pan fashion du jur ideas and have no idea why the 4 horsemen are riding."

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NSFW

    It would be interesting to know the percentage of takers for the NSFW version and if they thought they would be subscribing to some hot kitty action.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: NSFW

      There is no explaining the penchants of furries. If you know what I mean.

    2. KroSha

      Re: NSFW

      Regular deck; 15k backers

      NSFW deck; 200k backers (including me)

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens

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