Games crowdfunding site Fig Publishing Inc. has taken an interesting path in raising money by giving fans and investors the ability to buy shares in forthcoming title “Wasteland 3.”

The game, a followup to the successful “Wasteland 2” from inXile Entertainment, has already raised $3.1 million in funding and investment reservations from 17,707 fans, who gave their support with the campaign generating $2.25 million in investment interest. Now, with approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is offering 1,250 Fig Game Shares – Wasteland 3 at $1,000 per share.

As with all regular shares, investor purchase shares that give them an ownership stake in the game and subsequently a share of any profits made from the game. Both accredited investors and non-accredited investors can buy the shares on the Fig website.

“As other crowdfunding platforms continue to struggle, Fig continues to transform the entire video game ecosystem, from the way fans interact and support their favorite games, to the way games are published,” Figg Chief Executive Officer and Founder Justin Bailey said in a statement. “Fans now possess the ability to support the development of their favorite games and financially benefit from their success.”

As with all investments, Fig Game Shares – Wasteland 3 come with the usual caveats, mainly being that while the company is hopeful the game will be highly successful, there is never any guarantee that it will.

“Amounts will only become available for such sharing and payment of dividends if and when Wasteland 3 generates sales receipts, and the total amount available for Fig’s revenue share – and consequently for dividends – will depend on the amount of such sales receipts,” the company said in its SEC filing. “In all events, our board of directors may decide not to pay a dividend or to reduce the size of a dividend if it believes it would be necessary or prudent to retain such earnings in order to avoid a material adverse effect on Fig’s financial condition or results of operations.”

Crowdfunding campaigns for games and general tech startups have started to struggle as more and more campaigns come online with many failing to meet their goals. Crowdfunding news site Cliqist noted in November that crowdfunded games are struggling as less money is going into funding for major titles, which has led to some of those titles being canceled and those who invested losing money. Bloomberg noted separately that something similar was occurring with tech startups seeking to raise money.

Selling shares in a tech startup or game directly to the public is a different way of raising money to general crowdfunding in that investors get a stake in the product or company. If it sounds familiar, it’s the same model venture capital funding works, with one main difference: VC rounds are restricted to accredited investors only. Anyone can buy shares of Fig Game Shares – Wasteland 3.

Whether opening the door to anyone is a safe strategy is uncertain. But with the SEC apparently happy to approve the offer for Fig, it’s likely we’ll see more offers like this going forward.

Image: Wikimedia Commons