Quote: Original post by Calabi

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by Calabi
Well thats the thing, I think, the bonus's paid to developers are usually contractual. Its not a discretionary payment at the whims of their boss's its an agreed on amount after a certain amount of sales or something like that.

Surely this be a game development forum, someone should know about this?

I have never worked at a company where bonuses were contractually specified, or where rank-and-file employees were able to demand it. I am in the industry and have seen quite a few contracts.

There was a time, decades ago, where royalties were sometimes specified with employment, but those days are long gone for rank-and-file workers.

Now days it is generally not contractually guaranteed, but often offered. It may be based on some formulas about how well the company is doing along with an individual modifier assigned by the company. This allows star performers to get a bigger bonus and poor performers to get a small bonus or even no bonus, at the boss's discretion.

Fair enough, I guess that means West and Zampella, are screwed then.

I don't know about that. Everything posted is just speculation. Nobody really knows the truth. Also, the sorts of bonuses people are talking about here are paltry in comparison to the type of bonus that West and Zampella were set to receive. There are certainly examples in legal history where the judgment has come down with exorbitant amounts to discourage immoral business practices, if that's what this was. I say let's just wait and see. I'm not going to make a prediction, because I could foresee scenarios where it could go either way, and without having all the facts, it's hard to know what the real situation was.

Besides, most cases are settled out of court anyway. That's probably the most likely outcome, actually.