When publishers are taking less risk these days with orginal titles, it gets extremely tough for developers to secure a publishing deal that isn't related to a movie/tv title or sequel. The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on the $300,000 shortfilm investment by Melbourne game developer, Tantalus, that aims to launch a new franchise and help pitch the game to publishers...
"It's very difficult," says Tom Crago, the chief executive at Tantalus, where the new product is a game called Anaka. "I'd say it's the greatest challenge facing independent developers today."Getting anything new off of the ground is tough, but the rewards are massive. The potential to own and exploit our own IP (intellectual property) is central to what we're trying to do at Tantalus and we hope Anaka will give us that opportunity.""
The importance of owning IP is also reflected by the Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Marsha Thomson....
the Australian game industry is well regarded internationally "but in the global context it is a niche player existing principally on fee for service contracts from overseas companies. The Victorian Government's aim is to encourage our developers to initiate their own concepts which can be exploited internationally, thus ensuring increased export income and an expanded and stabilised local industry."