A Kickstarter campaign for a board game called Harry Potter: Catch the Snitch has been cancelled, with the publishers blaming the “current situation of uncertainty in the world derived from the electoral campaign in the United States”.
The game, a recreation of Potter’s Quidditch only with loads of plastic miniatures, was looking for $US450,000 ($620,010) to fund its release, but at the time of its cancellation had only raised $US64,000 ($88,179).
In a statement posted to the game’s Kickstarter page, publishers Knight Games write:
The current situation of uncertainty in the world derived from the electoral campaign in the United States, is negatively affecting our Kickstarter. It’s generating many technical problems on the web and freezing our communication strategy plan.
All social networks and platforms are having considerably less traffic, which has a very negative impact on advertising campaigns. This implies that they are not having the scope that they would have in a normal situation.
We understand the concern and anxiety this is causing in the north american people and we stand in solidarity with them.
Therefore, we think that it is best to postpone the KS campaign until next thursday November 12th (11-12-20) so we can reach all of you and offer the best products with fluid communication and no interference.
We are really sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, but we will compensate all of you for this. To start, we are including the figure oh Harry Potter in the Core Box. But we will still have several more surprises to show you next week.
We reiterate our apologies, but the gravity of the current situation forces us to take this pause to be able to come out with a stronger start and bring Harry Potter’s universe to all of you, who are the meaning of our efforts.
Sincerely yours
Knight Games team
That’s…an awfully long bow to draw. As many users point out in the comments directly below their statement, it’s ignoring another — potentially the most — important factor in people’s limited interest. The problem may not actually have been the US election, but the price of the game, which was an outrageous €100/$US120 ($165), and that’s for the cheapest version; the fancier edition was €300/$US350 ($482). For a game of quidditch.
The publishers are going to try and list the game again on November 12. Whether they try again at €100 or not remains to be seen.
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