More details about it here.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/253471/State_court_orders_Kickstarted_game_creator_to_pay_54k_for_failing_to_deliver.php

I'm very happy this is finally happening. I know backing video games are risks, but if this ends up happening all over the United States of America, will it be a message that video games in Early Access will also get you a full refund if the video game fails to meet it's deadline of a fully finished product to be released for sale?

The lawsuit is filed by the states Attorney General, not by some private consumer protection group or whatever.

While I'm glad that the swindlers are getting what they deserved - the ones who were swindled aren't getting much of a refund much less a full one. Restitution fees are $668 total while the backers were burned $25,000. Everything else goes to either the lawyers or the state.

This wasn't the KS where they burned the money intended for the cards/cardgame on moving was it? The location seems wrong... So i don't think so...

True, but I'm betting that the thieves and scammers who will try to abuse kickstarter.com to get free money are going to be nervous right now :).

Tim Schafer be like; ''But my sockpuppet created the kickstarter!''

Also they should look into Randi Pitchfordism and Ubisoftism. They both need some pitchforkism.

About damn time.

Perhaps the backers of a certain video project can finally get their money back.

That being said, don't be dumbass and not do your homework. No excuses. Some of these scammers are blatently obvious. To play devils's advocate, I just think Tim sucks with handling money and time.

Yeah; he should've hired someone who can count beyond 50 and tell the time ;D
Seriously though, I don't understand how someone can flush that much money down the toilet and still have the audacity to ask for more.

[s]Tim: But i brought the world Spore!!!! Remember spore? I could make more good games! i promise![/s]

edit: Post irrelevant, Will Wright made spore... yeah... see followup post 2 posts down...

Tim wasn't involved in Spore.

He wasn't then? I knew i should have looked it up... I was certain Tim was also the one that did the sims, but i must be thinking of the other guy...

*Looks it up* Will Wright.... yeah... okay..

Let's try that again then... Ehem...

Tim: But i brought the world Psychonaughts!!!! Remember that? I could make more good games! i promise!

Attaboy!

But first.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1w38qRhGBU

Tim didn't fail to deliver though. The game ended up costing a lot more, which he shelled from the company's pocket, but he delivered in the end, unless we're talking about Space Base, which was early access. But all his KS games have been delivered.

But then again, that doesn't change the fact that there's still KS games out there, some with much smaller budgets, that were funded at the same time as Broken Age was and which still have not been published. Out of those dead or uncertain games, I doubt anyone will get their money back, no matter what the courts decide, but maybe it will serve as at least some sort of moral victory.

I don't think this is a positive development. At the very least it looks highly problematic and it might severely cripple kickstarter all together. While I get that people are upset about backing projects that don't work out or are, rarely, outright scams, I do think there are risk involved in developing a new product and it does seem more reasonable to distribute the risk among the backers rather than tie the creator of the project to it.

I think it is a problem of kickstarter that people perceive themselves as consumers when they rather should be seen as business angels who support an endeavor that has some risk of failure to it.

But someone trying their best and failing is entirely possible; On the other hand there's other known kickstarters that are outright scams, taking the money and running... Those are the ones that need the snot beaten out of them.

We dont have enough information to know if this can cause damage to the first set of people though - and that is worrying.

Unless any incompetence in the running of the attempt, or outright fraud somewhere, is involved a failure should result in no action or requirement to refund anything. If the ruling is too general it could be used against failures that were just genuine failures.