[massysett]

I’m guessing worse: they’ve had years to refine this game. To see an example of what a game without that refinement period looks like, just see any early Paradox release.

They can be satisfied that they didn’t start charging until they had a refined product.

[zhynn]

Also, they could focus entirely on their own vision for the project instead of being totally reliant on delivering for the marketplace.

They had "slack" (in the slack/moloch sense) to try out weird ideas that may not have been possible if they were relying on sales revenue instead of donations to stay afloat.