quote:Original post by Valderman
Couldn't those games be released as shareware, so the developers get something back for their efforts?

"For crying out loud, she has fishes coming out of her head on either side. How can you find this hot?!"
"If anyone sees a suspicious, camouflaged factory being carried across the desert, they should report it immediately ."

It`s not developers that should get something for their efforts - they were already paid for their work and they won`t see royalties anyway.

It`s the publisher who invested high sum into project and isn`t going to get it back. That`s the main advantage of being a developer - you don`t have to care if it is going to be sold or if it pays for all costs associated with the project - you just do your work, you were already paid for your work. And royalties are usually non-existing until the game pays in royalties for development - which is obviously true only for 1 game out of ten. And it must sell in millions for developers to be interesting in royalties. Otherwise they see few thousands USD and that`s it (if at all).

EDIT : Plus imagine releasing a 400 MB demo into shareware. You`ll hardly get as many downloads as would you need to get sales.


VladR
Avenger game

[edited by - VladR on July 29, 2003 9:23:25 AM]