Scott Miller (CEO and founder of Apogee/3D Realms) has put up an interesting blog about the rather pitiful deals/10%-15% royalty rates that independant game developers these days get. Publishers keep the IP of the game, a large portion of the profits, and the developers end up footing the bill for all the development costs of making the game from their portion of the royalties. [url="http://dukenukem.typepad.com/game_matters/2003/12/royalties_and_a.html"]It's a very interesting read[/url].
That is a very intersting read. I knew how some areas of the pricing of a game were split up, but I was unaware that console game devs had to pay that much for liscencing fees.
It is also a little disheartening that developers can get such a small amount in return. I just guess that it is the way it works though.
Yep - that's the 'industry' for ya.
I agree with most of what he says. It's really up to the independent developers to push for a better deal though...shop around for a good publisher etc. If up-themselves-cheap publishers keep missing out on good game developers' work, then it's unlikely that they will last long.
Some of the comments in that blog ring so true - the publishers have a grip on developers like record companies have on musicians. It's the same deal, you pay the studio the recording costs etc, got some dismal portion of the profits, and in the end you don't even own songs.. I think some musician coined it like "paying off a loan for a house, and not even owning it once you finish the payments".
Sucks that new developers always have to bend over and take it sideways... only option is to press for a higher advance and no royalty deal to hopefully try and make some profit during the development.