However, their recent Kickstarters haven't actually been by Palladium. They have been by PEG, for Savage Worlds ports of Rifts. And PEG is a company that is professionally run. Palladium has a lot of issues that mostly rest at the feet of one man. I think all of us unfortunate enough to have done the Robotech KS have enough trauma still...and CGL is *WAY* more professional a company.
actually they've done two for palladium, the Titan Robotics Sourcebook (in november 2022. funded in 5 hours, backerkit in Feburary 2023, finished shipping by august 2023), and the currently running a
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other Strangeness deluxe reprint KS. (started october 2023, funded within hours. pledge manager to launch soon)
however the company has a new co-owner, who also is the chief creative director now. he's the one runnign the KS's, and part of the reason the company is recovering.
Palladium has been misleading people and abusing trust for DECADES at this point. The Robotech Kickstarter was just a crowing moment of failure in that regards. Multiple warnings were brought up about Palladium's past history but everyone wanted this to succeed so they ignored them. The result was one of the biggest kickstarter horror stories we've ever seen.
I'm glad that their recent Kickstarters seem to have turned that around, but you dont erase that level of failure with just a couple good results. They've got a long way to go before they earn back any trust, especially when the person who owns the company still has their fingers in everything. So I am not surprised people are still giving very big warnings about their past history here.
i'm sorry, i don't care how upset a KS made you, it doesn't deserve death threats to company staff, 24/7 harassment online to the point a writer attempted suicide, and more than ten years of attempts to actively destroy the lives and livelihoods of the people involved with the company. the behavior of the trolls goes way past "very big warnings" and into deranged sociopathy. and most of them stepped over that line not long after the RTT thing ended.
and i've seen worse ones,. the KODT film kickstarter had the guy involved for making the film literally take the money and run, then run three other KS's through different names where he did the same thing (pencil dice for example). Ninja Division's multiple KS for super dungeon explore, starfinder, way of the fighter, and Rail Riders Infinite still remain unfulfilled to this day, nearly a decade after they were funded. (and indeed, much of the stuff people blame palladium for stemmed from ninja Division's involvement in the RTT project for the miniatures side)
by kickstarter standards the RTT kickstarter was fairly typical for the time it was done.. people invested in it, the company did its best to fulfill, but wasn't able to deliver on all of the stretch goals it promised. and unlike most it actually attempted to ensure that the backers got their money's worth in the end. its problem was the PB staff was out of its element and a bit over their heads, and it was substantially larger a KS than most for the time.
I am shocked after the robotech epic failure the are even allowed to do another one. Even more shocked people woult take the risk.
they followed kickstarter guidelines for declaring a failed project, and did their "trade wave 2 value for existing product" exchange which by KS's terms of service, cleared out the existing KS. that some backers were idiots and refused to take the deal was on them. many of the deranged trolls claim to be people who refused the deal because they insisted on cash.. something that KS does not actually support that late in a project, and wouldn't have been feasible in any case.
