I’ve noticed a trend (among TT games and other product categories), of established companies using Kickstarter. Mostly I think they use it as a hype machine/pre-order system, but that doesn’t quite feel like the ethos behind Kickstarter. Full disclosure, I have backed some of these myself!
A few examples (some are on Kickstarter-adjacent sites)
I don’t do pre-orders so Kickstarter which seem even more uncertain have not appealed to me. But, established companies doing it feels extra weird.
There’s a mechanical keyboard company that I Kickstarted once, and they now use it for every new product launch. They also post the new product launch as an update to their old products.
Ah yeah, keyboards has been one area that has been pretty notorious in that area with so many group buys and keycaps people wait years for.