This happens a lot in the game industry kickstarters. The most money usually goes to a large studio or a famous game designer appealing to his fans.
Examples: Ragnar Torquist's The Longest Journey sequel, Richard Garriott's kickstarter, Double Fine Adeventure by Tim Schafer, Project Eternity, Planescape: Torment spiritual sequel... there's a lot of them.
Ultimately, both sides have a point. It is a tad disingenous for the elite in a specific genre to ask for money upfront from crowdsourcing, because they could have gotten that money elsewhere. On the other hand, we shouldn't deny them the chance of starting the kickstarter -- and once they start it, their large fanbase can usually be counted on to pitch in enough.
As for you and me, dear reader, we should do as always -- vote with our wallets and support interesting and sometimes risky projects which wouldn't get the money any other way.
People are worried about bigger projects muscling out smaller ones in the same category, but for now, this isn't what's happening. High-profile campaigns are instead still creating the market for smaller ones.
Kickstarter has some basic analytics so creators can see where backers are coming from, and for small campaigns, most backers are like you, people who go to Kickstarter looking for new and interesting projects. But the blockbusters brought most people to Kickstarter in the first place, not the long tail.
I would just say that none of the studios you mentioned are large, or elite. If Bobby Kotick or Peter Moore were jumping on Kickstarter, then I'd understand the complaints. But these are mostly people who have been beholden to the big public corporations, and are getting a chance to succeed independently. I see it as a triumph of the little (not littlest) guy.
Examples: Ragnar Torquist's The Longest Journey sequel, Richard Garriott's kickstarter, Double Fine Adeventure by Tim Schafer, Project Eternity, Planescape: Torment spiritual sequel... there's a lot of them.
Ultimately, both sides have a point. It is a tad disingenous for the elite in a specific genre to ask for money upfront from crowdsourcing, because they could have gotten that money elsewhere. On the other hand, we shouldn't deny them the chance of starting the kickstarter -- and once they start it, their large fanbase can usually be counted on to pitch in enough.
As for you and me, dear reader, we should do as always -- vote with our wallets and support interesting and sometimes risky projects which wouldn't get the money any other way.