[casual_games] negotiation costs

Fri Apr 7 06:07:41 EDT 2006

I agree with Lennard. 2-5K per portal soon sums up to a lot of money that might be spent more wisely and, in my mind, the figure is rather bullish. I think you shouldn't spend the cash unless you are absolutely certain that your game will make enough money to turn a profit from the investment.

I think that the gap between the most popular games and less popular games might be pretty wide when you consider the portals. I might be wrong and this probably depends a lot on the portal and the number of games featured but I think, in some cases, that the gap grows exponentially where a few popular games probably run away with around 80% of the total profit (80 / 20 rule). Just something to keep in mind.

On the other hand - A carefully selected distributor which has a lot of exposure and is a good fit for your game might be worthy of a considerable investment. Of course it depends on the contract that you negotiate but that is probably a different issue.

Jónas B. Antonsson
CEO, Gogogic Games

jonas at gogogic.com 
www.gogogic.com

________________________________

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Lennard Feddersen
Sent: fös. 7.4.2006 06:03
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] negotiation costs

You should look at what some developers are making in this space - not
the people making hits but some of the other players.  Pay 2K per portal
contract and you better have a hit on your hands or you are going to be
unhappy down the road.  Who was sponsoring that session?

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7

Ryan Sumo wrote:

> Hi guys,
>  
>   In a workshop from the europe casuality.org conference, I noticed it
> said something about:
>  
>   1) contracts costing between 2-5k to negotiate a contract with a
> distributor
>   2) needing a good commercial IP lawyer
>  
>   I was wondering if anyone could tell me why exactly it costs between
> 2-5k to negotiate a contract (I'm asssuming the lawyer's fees make up
> some of this?)?
>  
>   Also, since I'm based in the Philippines, would I have to hire an US
> based IP lawyer when dealing with distributors/publishers in the
> States?
>  
>   Hope you can help me out!
>  
>   Ryan Sumo
>
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