And yet, in a way, it lives on.
Yes, it’s true. Fig, the crowdfunding platform that is perhaps best known for the campaign for Psychonauts 2, has gone the way of the dodo.
As per Rock Paper Shotgun, Double Fine and Blackbird Interactive have confirmed that Fig is no more. Before the site went offline, Double Fine community manager Harper Jay wrpote the following on Psychonauts 2‘s Fig update page:
We’ve been informed that the Fig website is going to be brought offline on Sunday, May 28th; that means we’re going to have to shift our communications to a different hub.
Homeworld 3 publisher Gearbox posted something similar on their official website. They also go on to state that this won’t affect backer rewards. For both, and likely all parties on the platform, the news seems to have come fairly short notice.
Fig’s profile rose considerably when Double Fine chose it to raise funds for Psychonauts 2 over the likes of Kickstarter. Most notably, Fig allowed backers to invest in a project’s future, over simply funding it. Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer was also on the board, alongside other developers such as Brian Fargo and Cliff Bleszinski. Naturally, some wrinkles were thrown into the mix over time; Double Fine’s acquisition by Microsoft changed Psychonauts 2‘s investment returns into a one time payout, with a similar thing happening with Homeworld 3 after Gearbox got bought by Embracer.
Fig was bought entirely by Republic back in 2020. The plan was seemingly always to phase out Fig in favor of their self-titled platform that does much the same thing, though they never gave a hard date. At least, not until very recently. All ongoing campaigns have moved from Fig to Republic, so there’s no worry to users in regards to their investments.
Source: PC Gamer
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