The Rainbow Six Kickstarter is asking for more money from the people who have already supported

In 2021, Mythic Games, supported by Ubisoft, announced a Kickstarter campaign to adapt an officially licensed board game. Rainbow Six: Siege. Two years later, Mythic is asking people who’ve already paid for the game to pay a little — and in some cases a a lot-more.

The game, simply called 6: Siege, pretty much what you’d expect: two teams of operatives fighting on a tactical map, one side attacking and the other defending. Also, as you’d expect from an officially licensed board game that appears on Kickstarter, it’s meant to be hugepromising all kinds of plastic miniatures, expansions, 3D buildings and terrains.

In 2021, you can get the game in three tiers: a basic version for $69, a deluxe version for $199, and a more premium version for $269. The latter came up with a lot Of the stuff: five “years” of expansions, multiple map packs, add-on modules, a neoprene dice tray, 3D buildings, and even a small laser pointer so you can quickly and accurately mark line-of-sight items.

Now, in the year 2023, With the epidemic in the board game industrylegendary (trans the fighter) posted an update on their campaign website explaining that, as it currently stands, the money people paid during the initial campaign would not actually cover their manufacturing costs.

As a result, they’re giving backers three options: They can pay more money, they can wait for the prices to drop and pick up their games sometime in the future, perhaps, or they can ask for a refund. The $69 backers are required to pay an additional $39, the $199 backers will need to pay an additional $99 and the $269 backers are required to pay an additional $129.

This is… oh boy, this is it a lot of extra money. legendary They explained the decision on their campaign pageattributing the increases to international conditions, along with some internal transgressions:

… The combined COVID crises and the war in Ukraine, which we did not expect, have changed the international situation. Prices have literally exploded across the board, and the estimates we relied on before and during the Kickstarter campaign are completely irrelevant.

To give you some examples, the cost of paper and cardboard has increased by 50 to 100% on average (the paper we use for example has gone up from $600 a ton to $1200 a ton), the labor cost in China where our toys are located and production, assembly and shipping has also doubled from $4 to $8 an hour. The cost of energy, plastics and raw materials has increased by about 50%. Finally, while container fees have recently come down from their ridiculously high levels (but not reverted to pre-crisis rates), last-mile costs have skyrocketed and have never been higher. For our part, it has to be said, we spent a lot more than expected on developing the game, with more people than we expected to work on it and longer than we originally estimated (causing additional costs, but also has the advantage of having an optimal, well-tested game). varied and balanced in the end).

On a grand scale, this isn’t the first time Mythic has had to do this; they The darkest dungeon The adaptation had to ask for additional money as well, something 20% ​​of supporters rejected. In this case, the Mythic update says that “if we do not reach the commitment rate, we commit to reimbursing all contributors for these additional costs by the amount of their contribution,” and that “at the end of the fundraising period, if we reach the minimum commitment to go into production, we will begin to printing. “

While I sympathize greatly with my board game publishers and manufacturers at the moment, these circumstances are not new; I wrote “Board games are having a bad timein April 2020, and this game launched a year later. Mythic not going above and beyond their price difference allowances during these turbulent times reflects poorly on their campaign planning, and fans have every right to be upset at not only being asked to pay more, but also a lot more.

It’s also another example of the inherent dangers of an arms race, so many board game publishers are caught up on Kickstarter, offering increasingly obscene amounts of plastic miniatures and other luxuries with their games in an effort to attract backers, all the while making for much more expensive projects – And therefore risky – in fact.

I’ve contacted Mythic to clarify what exactly happens to the entire campaign if the ‘commit rate’ isn’t met, and will update if I hear back.