Chances are zero.

It is even hard to get a deal with a budget (label) publisher, like valusoft and egames. They got plenty of submissions and planned projects on there schedule, I noticed.

Wizard works don''t take external submissions. They are owned by Infogrames. Read there policy on there site.

Activision value is also very hard to deal with.
Expertsoftware and Headgames are owned by Activision Value.

Take Two took over budget publisher Godgames.
So they aren''t independend anymore

Midas Interactive is also very hard to deal with. The same is for Inca. They got there own developers. And also they work with some experienced developers on contract. Especially because the (Pc) game market is financial not stable as 4 a 5 years ago. No publisher is taken any risk.


EA you can forget.

Also many publishers I know are bankcrupted and as I mentioned above some are took over, by a bigger fish.

Also many local budget publishers are bankcrupted.

So I advice to sell your games online. I sold 2 copies in 5 months Not much but...it prevents you to get any headaches.

Also the income from only only one budget publisher is mostly not enough to live from. A solution perhaps, if you got luck and you find in every or most country a budget publisher. I tried that but it''s very hard. Egames for instance sell there games through local distributors in each country. Only in the UK, they distribute self there products.

But again, I can say it loud, no chance at all.
Online you can sell some copies. But mostly you can''t afford a living form that. There are plenty free games on the internet.
And honestly from poot and high quality.

If you want to run a software business, I advice you to develop
simple administration software and build it up to a high skill.
Developing administration software is easier then games, I found out. And there is always at market for.

Everyone seems to be interested in "breaking into the game industry". No matter what anyone says, the -only- way to do this is to be good. Damn good. And I don''t know how you guys feel, but there certainly seems a shortage of people who are willing to put in the time and effort to do anything meaningful. It''s always, "Let''s make a l337 game. We just need to find some coders," or, "Hi we''re a startup company looking for artists you have to be good but we can''t pay you."

So, what am I saying? I''m saying don''t worry about it. Just do it. There''s nothing you can do to take the place of skill.

Yes, we are our own publisher, we arn''t going to depend on any "big daddy" to publish our game, but it is possible, one of my friends works in Marketting department of Microsoft, they sponsor people ALL the time, but it is usually the Game Developing team that cancels their project. It is possible, "Chances are Zero" no it isn''t it is happening all the time, how do you think you keep seeing new games from EA etc. That is proof that it is happening, only to the lucky few however. You have slim chances of getting published by big or local publishers, excpecially since america is in a recession.

I only allow people on my team who are serious, yes we have had bull shit people who are full of crap, but i kicked all of them off, now our team is full of serious people who really want to make the best game of all time, and i think that is what you need to keep in mind as you develop a game, think of it as the best game of all time, and you will develop, a kick ass game, if you are developing and the whole time you are thinking negative thoughts, you are going to come out with poor results.

the simple truth is you need to make damned good games, so start practising now! your first game will doubtless be rubbish and make no money. This is always the way. The more times you go through the proces the mroe you learn. The best way to start is with small shareware games over the web. your first game might sell a dozen copies if your lucky, but you learn mroe with each project. gradually make them more ambitious and you will KNOW when its time to go for the big game and get into debt for x thousand dollars.
If you cant make a fun game in 6 months just working in your spare time, then if you take 4 years and 3 million dollars nothing will change, you will just have wasted more time and more money.
If Sid Meieir Peter Molyneux or Will wright were given 6 months and $15000 they could all make a fun and doubtless profitable game (thats my guess...) thats why people are prepared to lend them x million dollars and wait three years for them.
Just my opinion...

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