Believe it or not, not all crowdfunded projects turn out to be successful. A few have already failed (so unfortunately), leaving not only the developers but also the backers heartbroken. It’s not really so much about the money or profit loss but not being able to achieve success especially after we believe in a project’s potential. But business is business and because of several reasons, the group behind Matchstick has decided to no longer push through with the project and refund all the money pledges given by the backers.
It’s been eleven months since the Matchstick project was listed on Kickstarter last October. It’s the Firefox OS-powered HDMI stick that was aimed to rival Chromecast. Initial target was $100,000 and it was quickly reached only within a few days since being posted on the crowdfunding site. Actually, it’s twice the goal amount when we first featured the project. We don’t know the total amount collected but they completely will be giving those who helped a 100% refund.
The Matchstick team admits it’s disappointing but you can’t control the future. No matter how good or promising a project is, you need to make a difficult decision to go on or continue something that you know won’t be as relevant after a few months. We’re not saying the Matchstick won’t be a good product but it’s already been done. The team even struggled with DRM development based on Firefox OS so they just decided to stop the project. More development, integration, and research can be done but they might not be able to finish it in time.
The Matchstick has detailed on a Kickstarter page how the pledges will be given back to the backers. The Amazon payment system will be used within 60 days. In case your debit card or credit card is no longer available, just use a Amazon Payments account for more detailed instructions.
SOURCE: Kickstarter
