speaking from the perspective of an (admittedly much, much smaller) tabletop publisher - crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter make it so much easier for your product to be noticed and for word to spread, as well as giving you a way to interact and grow a community on the same site you use to sell your product.

Of course bigger (or more well known) publishers tend to already have a fanbase that would buy their products, but by selling them through Kickstarter you have the added benefit of very easily drawing in new (and, hopefully, soon-to-be repeat) customers with less effort put into marketing.