BEST Casual Game PUBLISHER
Author
Hi all,
What do you think, which publisher (a company that will help you sell your game downloadable and/or retail too) is the best choice for a developer to offer his game to?
For example I know Popcap.com is offering a publishing services for the right game.
Do you think POPCAP is the worthiest? Or are there some that have better reputation?
What other casual game (downloadable market) publishers do you know? I know there must be plenty of them, but which would you recommend and which not?
What royalties (%) can you expect from the publishers ? Are they offering payments in advance and royalties as well?
What royalty (%) do they get from their partners (that are selling the game directly to many people - like portals, ...) ?
How much % is it finally going to be for the developer if cooperating with publisher?
Do you think it is better for $$$ making to contact portals directly ?
Plenty of questions :) right? Specialists - please answer :)
Thank you!
The short answer is, It Depends.
Like all business deals, it's up to you what you get out of it. PopCap's a really good outfit, but they're not really a portal (in the sense that Yahoo or Real is). With someone like PopCap, what you're actually mainly getting is access to their marketing, QA and bizdev guys, which can help get your game better exposure and deals. On the other hand, they don't do this for many projects, so you're going to struggle to get in bed with them.
Some of the Distributors do pre-paid deals; usually they'd expect a track-record from you and the company first, though (so don't expect them to pony up if this is your first game). Ones that have been known to do this include Oberon, PlayFirst and a couple of others. This will cut quite heavily into your back-end, though, so evaluate the up-front cash-flow (and additional marketing push) against lower total revenue.
Apart from that, if you're self-funded, you don't really want to tie yourself to a single distributor. Most deals are non-exclusive (or exclusive only for a limited territory, like Russia), so you want to get onto as many portals as possible. You'll also want to get your own website to do direct sales (small pie, big piece). I throughly recommend TryMedia for this; they've been amazing to work with.
Good luck,
Allan Simonsen
Like all business deals, it's up to you what you get out of it. PopCap's a really good outfit, but they're not really a portal (in the sense that Yahoo or Real is). With someone like PopCap, what you're actually mainly getting is access to their marketing, QA and bizdev guys, which can help get your game better exposure and deals. On the other hand, they don't do this for many projects, so you're going to struggle to get in bed with them.
Some of the Distributors do pre-paid deals; usually they'd expect a track-record from you and the company first, though (so don't expect them to pony up if this is your first game). Ones that have been known to do this include Oberon, PlayFirst and a couple of others. This will cut quite heavily into your back-end, though, so evaluate the up-front cash-flow (and additional marketing push) against lower total revenue.
Apart from that, if you're self-funded, you don't really want to tie yourself to a single distributor. Most deals are non-exclusive (or exclusive only for a limited territory, like Russia), so you want to get onto as many portals as possible. You'll also want to get your own website to do direct sales (small pie, big piece). I throughly recommend TryMedia for this; they've been amazing to work with.
Good luck,
Allan Simonsen
Thanks for the reply, can you name your top 10 of publishers that you would be offering your game?
Author
Thanks for the reply, can you name your top 10 of publishers that you would be offering your game?
If you're just starting out as a Casual Games Developer, I recommend checking out this;
Casual Games Quarterly from the IGDA Casual Games SIG . Hopefully it should include most of the information you were looking for, without any of those nasty NDA's getting in the way.
Good luck,
Allan Simonsen
Casual Games Quarterly from the IGDA Casual Games SIG . Hopefully it should include most of the information you were looking for, without any of those nasty NDA's getting in the way.
Good luck,
Allan Simonsen
Author
Well I guess no one here is very active or interested in this topic, which is I am sure VERY important. But obviously everyone here knows everything about publishers etc..
If you are interested in the topic go here, we have some more active writers here:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?p=99370&posted=1#post99370
If you are interested in the topic go here, we have some more active writers here:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?p=99370&posted=1#post99370
What other casual game (downloadable market) publishers do you know? I know there must be plenty of them, but which would you recommend and which not?
Almost all of the major players are reccomendable from the standpoint of a non-exclusive deal... that is, they will pay you exactly what your contract states... so at least you don't have to worry too much about being robbed.
I reccomend ArcadeTown myself as a safe place to start. (www.arcadetown.com)
What royalties (%) can you expect from the publishers ? Are they offering payments in advance and royalties as well?
Almost no casual publisher offers payment in advance, and certainly not without a pre-established relationship or a literally phenominal ground breaking earth destroying product. %s vary between 20% and 40%, more or less.
What royalty (%) do they get from their partners (that are selling the game directly to many people - like portals, ...) ?
I'm confused by this question. If you are asking what % do you get when a sale occurs from an affiliate of that portal, it is your same % reduced to the amount they pay their affiliate. So if the affiliate gets 30% you get your % of the 70% left over.
How much % is it finally going to be for the developer if cooperating with publisher?
Keep in mind most portals don't even WANT exclusivity of your game unless you're willing to give it away for free (that would be stupid). So each publisher will be different.
Do you think it is better for $$$ making to contact portals directly ?
As opposed to using an agent? That depends on your salesmanship, experience, and contacts. Based on the questions you are asking here, your grammar, and style, I may suggest using an agent if you can get one. If not, the decision is made for you! Agents typically take around 10% of YOUR revenue (not of the gross revenue).
Information on publishers, thier %s, and their contact information is all available inside my book, The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games and it has a whole lot of other useful information as well :)
-Joe
Almost all of the major players are reccomendable from the standpoint of a non-exclusive deal... that is, they will pay you exactly what your contract states... so at least you don't have to worry too much about being robbed.
I reccomend ArcadeTown myself as a safe place to start. (www.arcadetown.com)
What royalties (%) can you expect from the publishers ? Are they offering payments in advance and royalties as well?
Almost no casual publisher offers payment in advance, and certainly not without a pre-established relationship or a literally phenominal ground breaking earth destroying product. %s vary between 20% and 40%, more or less.
What royalty (%) do they get from their partners (that are selling the game directly to many people - like portals, ...) ?
I'm confused by this question. If you are asking what % do you get when a sale occurs from an affiliate of that portal, it is your same % reduced to the amount they pay their affiliate. So if the affiliate gets 30% you get your % of the 70% left over.
How much % is it finally going to be for the developer if cooperating with publisher?
Keep in mind most portals don't even WANT exclusivity of your game unless you're willing to give it away for free (that would be stupid). So each publisher will be different.
Do you think it is better for $$$ making to contact portals directly ?
As opposed to using an agent? That depends on your salesmanship, experience, and contacts. Based on the questions you are asking here, your grammar, and style, I may suggest using an agent if you can get one. If not, the decision is made for you! Agents typically take around 10% of YOUR revenue (not of the gross revenue).
Information on publishers, thier %s, and their contact information is all available inside my book, The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games and it has a whole lot of other useful information as well :)
-Joe
Hello,
although having not posted for some time I am still reading the posts in this forum. I am the owner of Niels Bauer Games and the developer of the Smugglers series.
For casual games there is a huge difference between ONLINE publishers and RETAIL publishers.
ONLINE publishers won't offer you an advance and pay about 30% to 50% in royalties.
RETAIL publishers will try to get you to sign a contract without an advance (its a lot better for them), but ALL SERIOUS RETAIL PUBLISHERS will offer you a considerable advance for a stand-alone title. For a stand-alone title you can expect a higher four digit number up to a nice lower five digit number (that is somewhere between 4,000 to 15,000 USD depending on the product). Do not sign a retail contract without an advance! You are asking for trouble if you do. Royalties usually are at about 10%.
For online publishers always sign non-exclusive licenses for online distribution and make sure they don't get any non-exclusive retail rights. Retail publishers will almost only sign exclusive contracts (at least if you are going after the numbers mentioned above).
I hope this helps.
Take care,
Niels Bauer
[Edited by - Jester101 on July 17, 2006 4:55:07 AM]
although having not posted for some time I am still reading the posts in this forum. I am the owner of Niels Bauer Games and the developer of the Smugglers series.
For casual games there is a huge difference between ONLINE publishers and RETAIL publishers.
ONLINE publishers won't offer you an advance and pay about 30% to 50% in royalties.
RETAIL publishers will try to get you to sign a contract without an advance (its a lot better for them), but ALL SERIOUS RETAIL PUBLISHERS will offer you a considerable advance for a stand-alone title. For a stand-alone title you can expect a higher four digit number up to a nice lower five digit number (that is somewhere between 4,000 to 15,000 USD depending on the product). Do not sign a retail contract without an advance! You are asking for trouble if you do. Royalties usually are at about 10%.
For online publishers always sign non-exclusive licenses for online distribution and make sure they don't get any non-exclusive retail rights. Retail publishers will almost only sign exclusive contracts (at least if you are going after the numbers mentioned above).
I hope this helps.
Take care,
Niels Bauer
[Edited by - Jester101 on July 17, 2006 4:55:07 AM]
Author
Hi all,
I really dont understand why should anyone avoid signing exclusive contracts with online publishers, if the deal they are offering looks good? For example, money in advance and "promise" to put the game on biggest portals.. Of course maybe this is very rare case, I dont know..
Under what are the conditions would you be willing to sign exclusive contract with a publisher or portal?
And I dont undestand why if someone is not native american should hire an agent? just because weak grammar? or why? Do you think if publisher(portal or distributor,...) feels that someone is from non-US country, it will harm the relationship between them?
Would you REALLY hire an agent (and PAY him) because of this? (Personaly, I dont think so :))
Thanks
I really dont understand why should anyone avoid signing exclusive contracts with online publishers, if the deal they are offering looks good? For example, money in advance and "promise" to put the game on biggest portals.. Of course maybe this is very rare case, I dont know..
Under what are the conditions would you be willing to sign exclusive contract with a publisher or portal?
And I dont undestand why if someone is not native american should hire an agent? just because weak grammar? or why? Do you think if publisher(portal or distributor,...) feels that someone is from non-US country, it will harm the relationship between them?
Would you REALLY hire an agent (and PAY him) because of this? (Personaly, I dont think so :))
Thanks
Quote:Original post by undertaker2
I dont undestand why if someone is not native american should hire an agent? just because weak grammar? or why? Do you think if publisher(portal or distributor,...) feels that someone is from non-US country, it will harm the relationship between them? Would you REALLY hire an agent (and PAY him) because of this?
Hi Und,
When you say "native American" I assume you don't mean only American Indians (I assume you mean people born and raised in the United States).
The reasons for hiring an agent have nothing to do with where one was born, or one's language or race. The reasons for hiring an agent have everything to do with the fact that the agent has connections and understands the industry. If you already have connections, and already know the industry inside and out, and have the wherewithal to go pitch your products/services to publishers/distributors/portals yourself, then you don't need an agent.
This topic is closed to new replies.
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