Neal Stephenson pronounces his high-profile Kickstarter game dead

Almost a year ago today, we brought you the news that author Neal Stephenson and his Subutai Corporation had run out of resources to continue development of their Kickstarted historical swordfighting game Clang and were seeking additional funding as development continued on a volunteer basis. Today, Kotaku points out that Stephenson has publicly confirmed the project's termination in a final update published to its Kickstarter page. He claims the development team has disbanded, and that refunds totaling over $700 have been issued to all backers who asked for them. The project originally raised $526,125 via Kickstarter in the summer of 2012, narrowly achieving its $500,000 funding goal. Though the high-profile project's failure is reminiscent of the cancelled YogVentures Kickstarter, Stephenson takes pains to point out that Subutai did deliver precisely what it raised funding to build -- a swordfighting game prototype -- and that the company's failure to release the game at retail as a finished product shouldn't discourage other developers from using Kickstarter as a fundraising platform. However, the state of Washington's decision to sue a Kickstarted game maker who failed to deliver earlier this year should at least encourage developers using Kickstarter to make good on their initial pitch.