Approached by a publisher

I’ve recently been approached by a publisher that expressed interest in publishing my game. This is something that I’ve never dealt with before.

Does anyone here have any experience with this? Is there something that I should be wary about when dealing with publishers?

 

Is it an actual publisher of note? What deal did they approach you with? Are you sure it's not a well-disguised scam?

There's lots of ways a publisher approaching out of the blue can go wrong.

 

Based on a few searches, they seem to have published several games on the AppStore. I have no idea how successful they are though. They’re certainly no Ketchapp or Vodoo.

Hmm, any type of scam that I should be wary of? The game they’re offering to publish is already released on the AppStore.

 

Before you even think about making some sort of deals with publishers/agents etc., always think how you would be potentially benefiting from that arrangement. You need to also consider what you would be signing away and what you would get in return... It's easy to promise potential success, big things etc. but those are just potentially possible, but whatever you give away, you have given away.

 

Publishers can promise the sun and moon, but then deliver nothing. Publishers can buy up games and then only bother pushing the ones that have immediate results. Publishers can provide convoluted contracts that ultimately end up with you making none of the money, losing the rights to your game, or even owing them money.

Be wary. Get information on other game developers that have used this publisher and contact them directly. Make sure you know what you are signing. Be aware that if it comes to a legal fight, it is probably more expense than the game is worth, especially if the publisher is in a different country than you.

There are plenty of legit publishers out there, but not all of them are.

 

A lot of them can be extremely easy to fall into because they'll be using obfuscated language in the contracts you sign. For instance, some of them will go "oh, you'll get paid once we recoup our marketing/distribution costs" but also not give you any way to request an audit to see where that money is going, or they'll present what looks like a reasonable cut up front while having a good deal of the rest of the contract dedicated to nickel and diming you to absolutely no return on your part.

 

Yeah, I recommend having your lawyer help parse the legal terms of the documents. You need to understand the specifics, and make sure there is nothing vague about the relationship. Like Murgilod mentioned above, it might say you get paid after marketing costs, but you need to know what those will be.

 

If it's not somebody with well known reputation I wouldn't even bother. What can they do for you that you can't do yourself?

Cut through the BS talk - if they can't say it in simple straightforward terms and it is so clear where the mutual benefit is that a ten year old could understand, it's a scam.

 

I'm curious what this publisher is saying they will do for a game already published.

 

All publishers are scams unless they are willing to throw decent money upfront in a 'minimum guarantee'. If they don't do that, just ignore them.

Also make sure any contract you sign has a decent exit clause, something like:

"The term will automatically renew after 1 year unless either party notifies the other in writing at least a month prior to the renewal date that they wish the contract to expire."

I'm no lawyer, so get a lawyer to make sure something like this is in there. Nothing worse than a publisher holding x% of your game and not providing any value beyond the initial launch.

 

Thanks for all the good advice you guys . I’ll definitely be a lot more careful throughout the whole process. My game isn’t exactly lighting up the charts, so I do approach this with an open mind. Albeit now with plenty of caution.

Perhaps I’ll create a thread in the future here detailing my experience (good or bad) so it can help inform other people here. Wish me luck.

 

I think that would be really helpful to others.

Good luck.

 

Some publishers like to leverage games that are similar or complementary and create cross promotion among titles that will match their market. Or they already have a successful marketing and UA pipeline that can benefit an existing game working with a complementary or existing demographic. Their "upside" could simply be that they have a strategy to make money of a particular type of game. (like sports games for example) Publishing is convoluted and a bit of an art these days. UA is tricky and some some publishers are really good at it in specific genres/demographics. Or it could be a scam.

 

In addition to the above, I've heard of them requesting that a game be "reskinned" to match an existing catalogue / brand / audience. Even without that, it's about the audience, not the game. If they haven't seen it before then that's the same as it being new.

 

Totally. That happens with very big publishers. Often to the point that some companies get to the point where they can build a business completely on a single (core) game and reskin it for other markets. It is really becoming that UA/Marketing is a very highly specialized field that, that is pretty much critical to any game's success. You can't do it as an after-thought, or hope for virality any more.

 

What do they have published on Google Play?

Google Play shares install numbers, which are a great indicator of publisher UA/Marketing spend.
A less accurate figure is going by trhe number of reviews on the App Store.

What exactly is the publisher offering?

 

This probably is useful to you.

 

I was only approached by a publisher once, but they offered money up front for something like 40% of the revenue on a console port. Basically they were willing to buy equity up front.

If indies give up a percentage up front with nothing guaranteed up front, what incentive does the publisher have to actually work on selling the games? They can make guaranteed money with no risk just picking up percentages for free by just going around to indies and asking nicely for a cut...

Nobody asking for publisher advice on this forum is dealing with a large reputable publisher. So, get money up front or don't give away a percentage (unless the game is making nothing anyway and you have nothing to lose).

 

I think they are a smallish Hong Kong based publisher. They're called Superera.

Well, after some back and forth, they're now offering to develop new games with me instead of publishing my existing games. Again, the details are still very sparse but apparently they are offering to fund the creation of a demo and also will provide further funding if the demo goes well in their marketing tests. Subsequently, they're offering to split the revenue down the line. Again, I have never dealt with publishers before so I have no idea if these terms are standard in the market. But the person I'm discussing these with seems pretty nice and the terms seem kinda reasonable (the $$$ amount notwithstanding)?

I have been developing for Unity for a few years but mostly for my own amusement and as a hobby so the thought of approaching a publisher has never really crossed my mind. Any thoughts from you guys? Should I try to develop something with them?

 

Nobody will be able to tell you what to do. It really depends on your situation and the specifics of the deal being offered.

Giving someone revenue is essentially selling them equity in your work. If its a good deal or not will depend on how much you think your work is worth (realistically in dollars), how much emotional investment you have (how much is ownership worth to you emotionally), and how much demand you currently have on your time. You try to mentally sum all that up and compare it against the offer.

My only recommendation is to assume a near worst case in terms of promotion. Look at the money up front and look at the sales of your current game. We all want to imagine incredible sales figures once there is an ad budget, but more likely the game revenue will come in just under budget. Traditionally, publishers lose a little money on most games, and they make it up on big hits. So assume your game sales will be a little in the red.

Valuing your work (in dollars, emotion, time and risk) is hyper subjective. So think it out, get legal review (if its worth the cost), and roll with your best guess.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the really great advice. I really appreciate it.

 

A couple of other considerations, to add to the above.

First, how much control are you willing to give others? If they're giving you money then all or some of your income is dependent on keeping them happy. They may be great to work with, they may be terrible, they're probably somewhere in the middle. Someone already said to talk to others who've worked with them - do that! Still, you can't know for sure until you do it, so there's still some amount of risk there.

Second, financial success isn't the only consideration. Would you love for someone else to handle funding, marketing, localisation, market research, brief you on market trends, help to validate projects, get stuff ported... what are your pain points? If they can solve them so you can just make games then awesome, that may be worth just as much or more than increased financial success. But you need to make sure they're (contractually) on board with meeting your specific needs.

 

Yeah. Those are some good points. I think I’ve always approached game development as a hobby till now and I’m not really that focused on making money from it. So working with a profit driven publisher would probably be a huge change from that.

A lot of the pain points that you mentioned are some of my least favorite aspects of game dev (localization, marketing, market research) so it’d be nice if the publisher can handle a lot of that. Is definitely something I’ll bring up in future discussions with them.

Thanks for your advice.

 

If you decide to go ahead with them, please spend the $$ and get a lawyer to review the deal. There is a lawyer on Reddit called videogameattorney who posts in the gamedev subreddit now and again, whose firm specialises in deals related to the game industry.

 

Will do. Thanks a lot.