A contract is only as good as your ability to enforce it (in this case zero). Let's say the publisher breaks the contract. Now you need to hire a good lawyer (good enough to go against a publisher that has a legal department or a firm on retainer), which will cost you upfront (nobody will touch for a %). The process will take months, sometimes years. Few people can afford to play this game, pay the lawyer for months and years, etc. Proving that the publisher broke the contract won't be easy either, so after all this time and money spent on lawyers you can still lose or get very little (less than what it cost you).Most people are at least smart enough to hire lawyers to help them sorting out various types of contracts. You can't deny yourself a business opportunity based solely on the reasoning you just mentioned.
The bolded statement is not factually true. Nor is it if we limit the demographic to game developers.Most people are at least smart enough to hire lawyers to help them sorting out various types of contracts. You can't deny yourself a business opportunity based solely on the reasoning you just mentioned.
When I hire freelancers, I usually write contracts in a sort of Legal Simple English. Usually one pagers. This is basic courtesy.Most people are at least smart enough to hire lawyers to help them sorting out various types of contracts.
Are publishers still a thing? Weren't they that thing before Steam existed-that you had to do if you wanted to release a physical boxed game in a store? Sounds like there's no point in having publishers these days, as they just take even more money out of the 30% cut Steam already takes. You'd be better off finding a marketing person.
I've been on both sides of this. Worked as a client studio with EA and Eidos on The Secret World and Age of Conan respectively. Recently (last year or so) I've been working with studios who have games that Funcom will publish. This became one of my responsibilities in around Sept/October last year.Since there are quite a lot of people around here involved in the game development, I would like to ask what are the pros and cons of working with publishers. Based on your own experience, how essential are these companies in this day and age?