As an aside: for books print-on-demand has become feasible for the long tail, but boardgames of course have a variety of components (board, cards, various figures, tokens, coins) that make print-on-demand unfeasible. Who knows when 3D printing will be advanced enough for mass produced board games.

Second major advantage of Kickstarter is that distribution and game stores claim 40-60% of the final sales price. Especially thanks to a whole new industry of fulfillment centers a designer can now offer a lot more value at the same price point, most often as huge stacks of plastic figures.

Not to say that there have not been some amusing failures when Kickstarter was the hot new thing. (Amusing for those who did not back or design the game.) Luckily it is a lot easier to judge a new boardgame based on concept art, a copy of the rule set, and the designers’ previous performance than it is for computer games.