It really irks me when people think large amounts of money equate to magic. In the grand scheme of things, 60k is chump change when trying to develop an open-world RPG at AAA quality. Big development studios funnel tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars into a project like this over the course of years. (Seriously, look up the budget for any game of this type with this quality. For example - The Witcher 3 had a budget of $81 million, and took 4 years to develop.)
Before Wild Life really gained traction and was sitting between $12k-$15 a month, it had no definitive future. But with how much they're making now, the original vision may actually be obtainable within a few years time. With a generous estimate that they've been making 60k per month for two years now, they would've made just shy of $1.5 million - 1/54th of the budget of a similar game.
Patreon projects don't fail because they're cash grabs, they fail because you need a large amount of consumers to support them every month, and consumers do not understand how indie video game development compares to AAA development. Wild Life is fortunate because it managed to slog through the initial phase of systems development before a lot of people found out about it, so they're now capable of pumping out visible, tangible progress at a rate that will satisfy their newer supporters.
If anyone honestly expects a game to have any real content at 1/54th of the budget that other games in the same genre and quality bracket had, they're living in fantasy land.
/rant
