I was just wondering how much or what percentage of a game''s profits would go to each party( programmers, artists,etc)?

For full price commercial AAA titles around 7-8% goes in royalties to the developer who made the game. Its their decision about how that royalty gets split. Usually the company gets the largest share and the individual workers get an even split of what''s left. As an example, 50% to the company, then the remaining 50% split evenly amongst the staff.
Other companies are less fair though - if a company is starved for cash, the powers that be may divert the profits to the company rather than the employees so that the company can stay in business.

The royalties come after the advance (AOR) and the break even point (recoup of advance) of course which is always paid, and is at usual industry levels.


If you''re talking about "independent"/hobbyist or shareware development, then I''d suggest searching this forum, it''s been discussed before.

--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

Scott Miller from 3D Realms responds to this question in the IDGA forums, stating that royalties typicly range from 10 - 20%. The IGDA forums also have another interesting thread about this subject where Kathy Schoeback from SEGA offers a snapshot of the costs for a console title with devolper royalties at 16% of the retail price.

15% of trade is normal... but I''ve heard of some as high as 20-25% in the past !.

Cheers,


Adrian Cummings (Proprietor)
Mutation Software
www.mutationsoftware.com
www.dweebs.info

It all very much depends on the particular case though.

A game funded entirely by advance on royalty is going to pay a much lower royalty percentage after break even.

A game part or completely funded by the developer themselves gets a much higher royalty. Likewise if the developer is bringing a strong IP with them (established brand, known engine etc), they''re in a much stronger position to force a higher royalty.

Also it depends on what the percentage is of - net reciepts ? or profit ?...

What about games like MMORPGs?

Do the "monthly payments" get split to the publisher aswell, or does the developer get all of that?

quote: Original post by GroZZleR
What about games like MMORPGs?

Do the "monthly payments" get split to the publisher aswell, or does the developer get all of that?

It''s entirely dependent on the outcome of the contract negotiation stage.

Both sides obviously want that money. Online games bring complications though, which affect who has the most bargaining power anyway. Things such as who''s going to be hosting the servers, who pays for hardware upgrades, does the development team have to provide ongoing support (security patches etc), is there a cut off point when the servers get disconnected if they don''t make a profit etc, who''s liable for claims (e.g. "one of my employees played your game on a work machine, it had a security hole and we got hacked and lost data, therefore I''m suing your company") etc etc...

The negotitiation of things like that are where the lawyers start to make big money (usually a few months worth of bartering with lawyers doing the in the middle negotiation based on what they''re clients are prepared to be flexible on).

--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com