I don't doubt they tried other publishers, that was never my assumption and I never said anything about that. I'm asking if this is really the best possible deal they could get. And I'm also wondering if the people at Lab Zero really think its fair to put the responsibility of this game on thousands of internet strangers, and whether or not that's worth refusing a publisher that might require them to change things.
Apparently it is, since the campaign is going on, but I'm not convinced that this funding amount was the most reasonable way to go about it. This campaign is asking to be almost twice as big as Skullgirls as its base amount. Skullgirls shot way past what they were asking and its final number seems to be very close to where Indivisible will likely end up.
In what way is it disingenuous? They're attempting to make enough money to convince this publisher that the game is worth funding. Without this funding, they're apparently not convinced. Sorry if bribe offends you, but I think it's a fairly candid description of what's going on.
I never made any assumptions about their control. I want to know what they control, if they do. It would be nice if people weren't putting words in my mouth here. Sony isn't publishing Shenmue, but they are financially involved in some aspects, and it took a very long time for them to clarify that. That's my point, to their credit there's no need to clarify the publisher relationship with Indivisible.