Editorial Why so many developers close their doors

[Turjan]

I hate this bullshit with fake figures. This is WHY there's such a problem - nobody is willing to come out with the actual numbers and the actual agreement so that we can point out where the guy got screwed. Instead, you get some BS where the numbers are speculative (and self-corrected twice in the one post?) and leave open the possibility that: Maybe the game didn't do so well (how can we be sure?) or the guy really is an idiot who signed a dodge deal that nobody else with a lawyer would go near.

You know what they say when you start talking about "a friend". He might just be referring to his former self.

Edit: Although I guess it's more about companies like Radon Lab. Two mildly successful games, but closed anyway.

 

[mondblut]

News at 11, honest royalties are a myth. Sometime, somewhere, someone's friend of an aunt of a relative of a bride of a cousin actually receives it to keep the carrot dangling, the rest are fucked.

And Treave is correct, the developers respond with bloating their budget advance to include the desired profit margin when possible. It's market 101, devs are selling and want to get the most, publishers are buying and want to spend the least. Unfortunately, the "customer" in this market is few and dictates the price, so a typical developer gets fucked one way or another, either ending up working for food or not selling anything and going bottom up. What we have now is a customer (that is, publisher) monopoly/consortium.

 

[DraQ]

Fixed.
Inclined.

 

[mondblut]

In the meantime, I was monitoring all the email traffic that came in regarding the formation of a new company which we’re supposed to officialize next tuesday. It’s the culmination of almost a year of work, and means that Dragon Commander gets an extra dosage of welcome funding, which should help it go to the level I want it to go.

I suspect I know what company he's talking about To the surprise of many (or rather, the few) here for whom it rings a bell, it might be somewhat connected to the name "Eador".

The "next thursday" part is disturbing though

 

[felipepepe]

He might just be too young. It's been a while since Mike Oldfield's heydays.

Yeah, the last big thing he did was that "Art in Heaven Concert" at Berlin, back in 1999....still that doens't make me less forgiving at "edgy" 'never heard, is shit, lol U dumb Kwa' comments...

 

[BehindTimes]

Don't really see what the big shock about this is.

It's pretty much known as Hollywood Accounting.

It's how movies such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Toy Story, Lord of the Rings, etc., fail to make any profit.

It's not just Hollywood (or even the music industry). It happens in practically every business. And sorry to say, it's pretty easy to give advice at how to make money, but many corporations have decades (or more) and have probably already faced people much smarter than you or I who have already tried using every tactic we can think of.

Publishers are greedy. That's all there is to be said.

(It's similar to like a timetable we have to tell the publisher for our software. The general rule of thought around here is that if we expect something to be finished in X, the publisher will want it done in X/2. So, we will need to tell them it will take 2X. Unfortunately, the publisher already knows that we're adding on buffer time, so they'll tell us they'll want it done in X/4. So, we tell them it will take 4X to complete. The next time however, the publisher learns, so they decrease their number, so we have to increase ours even more. It's a never ending cycle).

 

[Roguey]

Isn't Dragon Commander going to be distributed by CDPR?

Only in Poland (as he pointed out earlier in his blog, worldwide publishing deals are shit for the developer). What about everywhere else?

 

[zioburosky13]

Another developer bite the dust.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12 ... er-2-dead/

Yeap folks, STALKER 2 is gone.

 

[Joe Krow]

They should get their money back. That publisher is a jerk.

 

[villain of the story]

I hate this bullshit with fake figures. This is WHY there's such a problem - nobody is willing to come out with the actual numbers and the actual agreement so that we can point out where the guy got screwed. Instead, you get some BS where the numbers are speculative (and self-corrected twice in the one post?) and leave open the possibility that: Maybe the game didn't do so well (how can we be sure?) or the guy really is an idiot who signed a dodge deal that nobody else with a lawyer would go near.

There's no suggestion as to what IS a good deal - and how much the developer could reasonably expect. For example, if the game was published elsewhere, would it have sold 500k copies or much less? How many other similar deals are really done? Has anyone got a chance of getting a "good deal" or is this sort of deal "the standard" and other publishers just rip you off more?

Yeah, because NDAs don't exist and even without an NDA, publishers can't sue you for libel and leave you penniless.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

But of course, the totalitarian assistentialist state should protect devs with an iron fist.

 

[Haba]

And now the website is down.

Surprising?

Were Lithuanian involved?

 

[Norfleet]

This is completely unsurprising. All you really have to do is look at the facts: Anytime someone vastly richer than you offers you a deal, it's a trap. If they weren't trying to trick you, they wouldn't be richer than you. In order for them to gain, you must lose, so therefore, if they were in the business of making fair deals, they would not be ludicrously wealthy compared to you. Therefore, always balk.