I have problems with Desura. I published my game there and they are not sending me any money. I sended over 10 letters and I didn't received a single answer regarding my game yet. What should I do now? Has anyon had similar problems?
Desura is not paying me my money
You should try to settle it first with the organisation, if you can't settle it by yourself, consult a lawyer. Please don't post any accusation in a public forum as more or less anonymous poster.
How long has it been since you sent the letters? Have you tried contacting them via email, or only via snail-mail?
Are you sure you've met all of the conditions to be paid? There may be minimum income levels or sales numbers to qualify for a payout.
If you're sure a payout is owed have you double-checked that you provided correct information to be paid?
Do you have a copy of the contract you agreed to when you licensed your game to them?
How much money do they owe you? Is it above any thresholds for payments?
How much money do they owe you? Is it above any thresholds for payments?
Author
Sorry for the late reply! I tried to solve the situation with Desura again. But I am still waiting. And yes I read the contract very precisely and it is above the threshold. The only thing what I can imagine is that they have problems because Desura has been buyed by Bad Juju Games. They told all game developers that because of this the payments could be delayed. But this was in december.
And no there is no dispute. They are simply not answering my mails. If there would be a dispute I could do something to solve it. But at the moment I do not know the reason.
I am not a lawyer, and I've never been in a similar circumstances. If I was in such a situation, here's the steps I'd take:
Send non-accusatory snail-mail via certified mail (or some UPS or FedEx equivilent) so you have a court-usable record that they've actually received your complaint.
Keep trying to reach them, through many different methods of *private* communication (email, registered certified mail, FedEx, phonecalls), without accusing them of any wrongdoing or negligence. Keep records of how much they owe you - if you have some way of knowing how many copies of your game they have sold. (Is the game calling home to your server? Keep records. Print IP addresses and dates. Is there some kind of Desura webpage where you log in to see your sale count and accumulated revenue? Print that page before it disappears), print copies of your license agreements with them.
If you reach them on the phone, ask the name of who you are speaking to, be friendly, and record who you spoke to at what date and time calling what number and what was talked about. Note: You're not allowed to record conversations without the permission and knowledge of both parties (law varies by state), so don't do that. Just take very good notes and save digital copies of those notes.
Basically, be polite, but keep very good records in-case things go sour. Do not attribute to maliciousness what can otherwise be attributed to sloppiness, computer-error, not enough employees, or, as you mentioned, corporate transitions through buyouts or mergers.
Be patient. Be persistent. Be polite. And when it comes to record-keeping, be pedantic.
Apologies for bringing back a slightly older topic, but as it's still a relevant topic I thought this link might be of interest to anyone effected:
Desura is not paying developers, but promises a fix [Gamasutra]
:)
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