Areal flies past Kickstarter goal despite uncertainties
Areal, West Games’ spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., has reached its goal on Kickstarter. The campaign flied passed the $50,000 target over the weekend – raising an extra $12,000 in the process – despite the addition of only two new backers.
The oddities don’t end there, strangely enough. On Saturday, West Games shared a typed and signed letter it had received from someone claiming to be Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“We thought at first that there’s no way that this is legit, because we are a Ukrainian studio for the most part, and it’s probably the usual trolls trying to deceive us, but then when we looked at it closely, we started thinking that it might be real.”
Adding to the uncertainties surrounding Areal is West Games’ continued retaliation against dissenters of the campaign. The company has specifically called out the likes of VG247 and Forbes for “unprofessional” reporting containing “incredible personal bias”.
And lastly, Eurogamer reports that there have been “hundreds of lengthy copy-and-pasted posts a day” in the Areal Kickstarter comments section. As a result, “the many critical posts questioning the campaign have been buried under a mound that only the most determined comment-tracker would bother digging through.”
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how things play out from here!
