News – Jon Hare Cancels Sociable Soccer Kickstarter

Another day, another Kickstarter project closes.  Earlier we reported on how Jon hare was looking to bring back the magic of 90s football sim Sensible Soccer, through a successor entitled Sociable Soccer.  The goal was, and still is, to make this game available for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, and for it to feature multiple different gameplay modes, including online play.

In order to make this a reality, Hare was looking to raise £300,000, and like many, took to Kickstarter in order to achieve this.  However, despite gaining considerable press coverage and awareness for the game, this didn’t translate into Kickstarter backers, with only £32,498 pledged by 1767 backers.  As such, given that it was apparent the original goal would not be met, Hare has now taken the decision to close the Kickstarter campaign for Sociable Soccer.

Nevertheless, for anyone still excited in this revival of the classic 90s sports title, there is still hope, as Hare has only closed the Kickstarter and not the game’s development.  In fact, Hare has gone on to say that he already has a working prototype.  A prototype that according to him:

already plays amazingly well

Additionally, the announcement of the game and the subsequent press buzz, has apparently brought the game to the attention of a number of publishers.  Although, Hare is keeping which publishers these are a secret for now.  This all means though that game’s production will continue and that Hare and the team are now looking to try to bring the game to market through the traditional publishing model.  This was again confirmed by Hare in an interview with Eurogamer:

Much more than that I cannot say at the moment, except that development is continuing at full tilt and when we get nearer to confirming how we will be bringing the game to market we will be sure to let you know

So, the Kickstarter may be over, but it looks like Sociable Soccer may live to see another day.  That’s certainly Jon Hare’s plan anyway.  All in all though, this does bring the spotlight even further onto the plight that many developers seem to have, when trying to fund their projects via the oversaturated Kickstarter model.

There are of course massive successes like Bloodstained, Mighty No. 9 and Shenmue 3, but it’s still nice to see Indie developers rising up from everywhere.  With successes regardless of Kickstarter, such as the Banjo-Kazooie successor Yooka Laylee, showing the strength of Indie development in the industry.  Either way, we here at Rings & Coins wish the best of luck to Hare, and hope to see Sociable Soccer in the future.