Hello. I have recently been negotiating a deal to make a game for a high profile youtube channel. I don't want to go more into it then that, but basically, the game will most likely be released on android first, so that is why i'm asking this specifically about the google play platform. Does it have features that allow you to easily slit revenue between 2 parties? Making it so payments are not relied on by any specific party. Hoping some android developers can answer this.

Assuming from the US, your best bet is to form a single legal entity, such as an LLC or S-corp, and get everything done through that single legal entity.

There are some good law books on the subject, but the best reference is an actual real life business lawyer. They aren't THAT expensive, often $150-$200/hour and this will likely take a single hour if you do your homework first.

You'll need to jump through your state's legal hoops (which usually are just a few online forms) to form a proper business entity. All the work you do gets legally assigned to the entity, all the agreements and contracts are made through that entity, and so on.

Without such agreements, everything you do is still separate. The contract you've got for the "high profile youtube channel" is not with one person, not with a single entity but contracts with both of you. Then there are complications about if one of you quits and the other doesn't, or if one person stops, or if one person has other issues It gets really complex really fast. Similarly, if for some reason the two of you ever stop working together, one of you moves or goes away, each of you separately owns your own work. That is usually death for the product you made, since each person involved needs to be tracked down.

Also, because minor disagreements eventually become major, it is best to establish one person as the leader. Sometimes it is tough, but with a 50/50 agreement it means if for any reason you cannot decide on a critical issue, the whole thing may blow up. It is almost always best (with extremely rare exceptions) to go at least 51/49 ownership, or if one person is expected to contribute a larger amount, better to go in 60/40 or a bigger split.

It is an oft-quipped reminder that you should not go into business with friends, because ultimately some day there will be a conflict; instead of just losing a business partner you will also lose a friend. Be very cautious about it.

Congratulations on getting your deal. I hope everything works out well for you.

Assuming from the US, your best bet is to form a single legal entity, such as an LLC or S-corp, and get everything done through that single legal entity.

There are some good law books on the subject, but the best reference is an actual real life business lawyer. They aren't THAT expensive, often $150-$200/hour and this will likely take a single hour if you do your homework first.

You'll need to jump through your state's legal hoops (which usually are just a few online forms) to form a proper business entity. All the work you do gets legally assigned to the entity, all the agreements and contracts are made through that entity, and so on.

Without such agreements, everything you do is still separate. The contract you've got for the "high profile youtube channel" is not with one person, not with a single entity but contracts with both of you. Then there are complications about if one of you quits and the other doesn't, or if one person stops, or if one person has other issues It gets really complex really fast. Similarly, if for some reason the two of you ever stop working together, one of you moves or goes away, each of you separately owns your own work. That is usually death for the product you made, since each person involved needs to be tracked down.

Also, because minor disagreements eventually become major, it is best to establish one person as the leader. Sometimes it is tough, but with a 50/50 agreement it means if for any reason you cannot decide on a critical issue, the whole thing may blow up. It is almost always best (with extremely rare exceptions) to go at least 51/49 ownership, or if one person is expected to contribute a larger amount, better to go in 60/40 or a bigger split.

It is an oft-quipped reminder that you should not go into business with friends, because ultimately some day there will be a conflict; instead of just losing a business partner you will also lose a friend. Be very cautious about it.

Congratulations on getting your deal. I hope everything works out well for you.

Thank you for the insightful information. My team of 2 are planning on forming a legal entity soon. We will most definitely create a contract with our team and the people we are creating the game for. I still question exactly how the revenue split is going to work between our two entities? I mean obviously specifics will come down to the contract, but are there ways to ease the process. I know splits between me and my other team member will be handled through our legal entity, but how exactly is that going to work between ours and theirs? That's why I was curious specifically about google play because that is our leading platform. I don't really want to rely on one party or the other making payments or something like that. Sorry for noob questions...hobbyist game developers getting into commercial game development for the first time :P

Payments go to whoever sets up the Google Play account as part of the process is setting up bank account information. You can give other people access to the revenue information so everybody can see how much is being made. But Google isn't going to send the money to two different parties. This is the kind of thing you should have already talked about because it needs to be clearly defined in the contract.

are there ways to ease the process[?]

Write the contract before this. Seriously. You should have written it long before this.

It's still fairly early so there was not really long time before this. I just want to learn as much as I can about how everything works and this was something I was specifically was curious about.