Pillars of Eternity 2 campaign clears $3 million

The crowdfunding campaign for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire hit a major milestone yesterday by raising over $3 million. It’s the third Fig campaign to do so and, with more than 26,000 backers, it’s become the single most-backed campaign on the platform.

Pillars of Eternity 2 is the direct sequel of the 2015 title from Obsidian Entertainment, a computer role-playing game in the classic, isometric style of Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. The original was notable for its length and narrative complexity, but also for being one of the biggest Kickstarter success stories, raising nearly $4 million on the platform in 2012.

Since then, the team at Obsidian has thrown in their lot with Fig, which offers traditional rewards-based options as well as equity crowdfunding. Obsidian’s own chief executive officer Feargus Urquhart even sits on Fig’s advisory board, alongside members of the teams at Double Fine, InXile and Harmonix.

Pillars of Eternity 2 is the third game to earn more than $3 million. In January, Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2 became the first $3 million campaign on Fig, finishing with more than $3.8 million with 24,109 backers. Later that year, InXile’s Wasteland 3 finished at over $3.1 million and 17,707 backers. A project by Harmonix, to port Rock Band 4 to Windows PC failed to raise its goal of $1.5 million, finishing at just 52 percent of that goal in April of last year.

2016 was a wild year for video game crowdfunding generally. Fig weathered an extended period of review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before it was able to collect money from any of its un-accredited investors. Kickstarter saw its total crowdfunding revenues fall for the first time ever in 2016. The decline was especially steep in the video game category, which saw a nearly 60 percent decline. Some of that loss could be attributed to Fig; all three of its $3 million-plus campaigns are from companies who saw success on the Kickstarter platform.

The campaign for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire ends in three days. You can read more about the game in our feature story.