Harry Potter Board Game Cancelled On Kickstarter

The company behind a Harry Potter board game, Catch The Snitch, pulled the plug on its crowdfunding campaign abruptly and without warning today. No, it has nothing to do with Her TERFness, but that would at least be a valid excuse. Their publicly stated reason is a bit…weird.

“The current situation of uncertainty in the world derived from the electoral campaign in the United States is negatively affecting our Kickstarter,” Knight Games claims. Why do they claim this? Because “all social networks and platforms are having considerably less traffic, which has a very negative impact on advertising campaigns.” Have you noticed a dip in social media activity this past week? Neither have we.

It’s very unlikely that events in another country (that had nothing to do with a Harry Potter board game) would affect its campaign so severely that it would have to be pulled. It’s far more likely Knight Games was looking for any excuse to suspend the campaign, because it wasn’t going very well. The asking price was a massive $450,000, well above the target goals of most successful board games. While it is true that some REACH those numbers, it should never be treated as a guarantee. At the time of cancellation Knight had only raised $64,000, a measly 14% after just fifteen days.

Perhaps the confidence of landing the Potter brand made Knight Games feel they could walk on water. But it was not to be, whether the delayed counting in Georgia had anything to do with it or not. Knight says they will relaunch the campaign later this month, hopefully with more realistic goals.