That's a good point. LaMothe spends time and effort negotiating deals with publishers for games that ultimately never get sold. So the 50% thing is partly insurance.

On a different note, I'm writing a game engine similar to Klik'n'Play, but games for it are C++ DLLs. How can I sell something like this?

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~CGameProgrammer( );

I went on their site and they claim to publish a person's game and split the profit 50/50, plus they'll give you the help you need if you are "producing."

It seems like a sweet deal, but I was curious to find out by anyone who has actually contancted or got something published through them.

Thanks for your time,
-OberonZ

Money clarifications.

If you can get a product sold on its own, and it retails for $15. The publisher will probably sell it for $10 or so, minus distributing fees, say $9. Then the developer would normally get about 10-15% of that, so we'll take 15%, so thats about $1.37 per product.

You can XGames would split this, so you take home about $0.68 per title. Not a lot, but budget titles can sell a lot of units over longer periods of time than big-budget titles (as they are usually off the shelves within a few months and budget games can stay around for years).

So, while you are giving up half your profits, you dont have to learn all of the things involved with the business side of the games industry at once before getting your games into stores. Thats a big deal. Making contacts, dealing with contracts, dealing with negotiations isnt simple or intuitive. So for your first few titles, or more if you like the model, this may be the best way to go.

Im personally in support of anything that will help people starting out get to do what they are trying to, so I see this as a Good Thing.

-Geoff

Hi,

My company has gotten pub''d through Xgames...if your starting off, its a great investment for most people, because who has those connections...Even going to a developer with a great product, alot of times they''ll give you the cold shoulder, so this in an essance is most peoples only way...also you basically have no legal issues you have to deal with (other then a small contract for xgames and you)...you get access to free "useful" stuff, and alot more...i do it cause i like seeing my game on the shelves...its nice seeing money too (which you do see by the way. so until more people help xgames grow, thats when youll see the full potential of Xgames "the Id of valueware games" ;-)

Sincerely,
Scott

President
CFE
http://coldfusiongames.8m.com

Hi Scott,

Do you get money every month, quarterly, or every year?

Are you satisfied with your revenue?