Kickstarter's Director of Games on Why The Platform Attracts Lower OGL v1.1 Royalties

Jon Ritter, Kickstarter's Director of Games, clarified why creators making over $750K using the new Open Gaming Licence v1.1. will only have to pay WotC 20% royalties on revenue over that $750K instead of 25% like they do on other platforms.

Kickstarter was contacted after WoTC decided to make OGL changes, so we felt the best move was to advocate for creators, which we did. Managed to get lower % plus more being discussed. No hidden benefits / no financial kickbacks for KS. This is their license, not ours, obviously.

When asked whether he was aware that those royalties would cut out the majority of most successful Kickstarter profit margins, Ritter acknowledged this with the words "Very much aware of the numbers."

The OGL -- Just What's Going On?

D&D fandom is in uproar again about purported upcoming changes to the Open Gaming License, and rumours are flooding social media regarding WotC's intentions to 'de-authorize' the existing Open Gaming License in favour of a new one. What's the OGL? The Open Gaming License is a share-a-like...

www.enworld.org

 

[Morrus]

for the moment they made no comment except "its not our license."

I'm pretty sure they enforce copyright violations as being against their ToC.

 

[Art Waring]

If WotC is serious about "de-authorizing" 1.0/a, then they'd likely go after Kickstarter for allowing anything. It's also likely part of their contract. We push creators to your site if, and only if you don't allow 1.0/a. Or, more simply, if WotC says the old license is null and void, Kickstarter would be on the hook for allowing any violations of WotC's copyright and IP. So either way, not likely to be any new 1.0/a Kickstarters.

that is the concern.

 

[Tazawa]

If WotC is serious about "de-authorizing" 1.0/a, then they'd likely go after Kickstarter for allowing anything. It's also likely part of their contract. We push creators to your site if, and only if you don't allow 1.0/a. Or, more simply, if WotC says the old license is null and void, Kickstarter would be on the hook for allowing any violations of WotC's copyright and IP. So either way, not likely to be any new 1.0/a Kickstarters.

Pretty sure this applies to OneBookshelf too. It’s much easier to get people to agree to OGL 1.1 and distribution on D&D Beyond if you block their access to alternate distribution channels.

 

[overgeeked]

Pretty sure this applies to OneBookshelf too. It’s much easier to get people to agree to OGL 1.1 and distribution on D&D Beyond if you block their access to alternate distribution channels.

Exactly. So it wouldn’t matter if they can’t revoke 1.0/a, they can still set their lawyers on any and all distribution channels who don’t fall in line. And that would be the state of affairs until a judge orders otherwise.

 

[Transformer]

Lol. We did it all for the people! A beautiful outpouring of altruism! All 4 the gamers! Just sheer coincidence the percentage only went down for people who go through our site.

 

[timbannock]

I did wonder that. Will they enforce anything?

They enforce so few of their own rules when a particular campaign goes sideways. ;-P
Kidding-not-kidding aside, I guarantee they are interested in how much enforcing WOTC will do, if indeed the OGL 1.0a is de-authorized. If they start losing all those sweet OSR campaigns, that'll certainly hurt their bottom line.

 

[Haplo781]

Well I guess everyone who said the leaks were fake yesterday is wiping the egg off their faces right now.

 

[MNblockhead]

Well I guess everyone who said the leaks were fake yesterday is wiping the egg off their faces right now.

Yeah, but it isn't being wrong that stings...its how wrong this all is. Crazy. Spending way to much time on these boards reading this. I think I need to just step away from it for a few weeks when things are more settled and choate and catch up on any articles EN World posts summing things up.

 

[Andrew Anderson]

Lol. We did it all for the people! A beautiful outpouring of altruism! All 4 the gamers! Just sheer coincidence the percentage only went down for people who go through our site.

In fairness, it would presumptuous for Kickstarter to negotiate something for Indiegogo, for example.
Perhaps you should direct your sarcasm to other funding platforms and encourage them to negotiate.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Exactly. So it wouldn’t matter if they can’t revoke 1.0/a, they can still set their lawyers on any and all distribution channels who don’t fall in line. And that would be the state of affairs until a judge orders otherwise.

If things go that way, I hope they choke so hard on the expense that the entire company folds.

“No D&D is better than bad D&D” ain’t just true for individual campaigns or groups.