[casual_games] distribution question

[Brian Robbins]

This is the purpose of an audit clause in a contract. This should be
pretty much standard in contracts with any distributor, and is across
all the major portals.

Typically you'll have the option to audit their books up to once a
year. If a discrepancy of greater than X% is found then you get
reimbursed the cost of the audit, plus the difference, and possibly
plus some sort of interest or penalty. There's some great info on this
within the IGDA's Business and Legal Contract Walkthroughs:
http://www.igda.org/biz/contract_walkthrough.php  This particular
point is in the 2nd version, but it's a good idea to look at all of
them

At the end of the day, you should trust them to do their business
properly and if you don't, then you shouldn't be signing a
distribution deal with them. That said you should ALWAYS have these
types of protections in a contract no matter how much you trust the
other party.

-- 
Brian Robbins
Director of Games, Game Trust
http://www.gametrust.com/
Chair, IGDA Casual Games SIG
http://www.igda.org/casual/


On 5/12/06, Brent Silby (Def-Logic) <brent at def-logic.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
> I have a question regarding distribution of casual games.
>
> We are in the process of supplying a distributor with several games. He will
> distribute demo versions of the games, and end users will then purchase the
> full version of the game through his site. He will then pay us on the basis
> of how many games are sold.
>
> My question is this:
> Is there anyway we can protect ourselves from being misled as to how many
> games are actually being purchased? My worry is that the distributor could
> conceivably sell 50000 units but only tell us that 25000 were sold. Don't
> get me wrong, I trust the distributor and do not believe we will be misled.
> However, I would still like to know how other developers get accurate sales
> figures. We are new to this, and any help will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
> Brent.