Should we rethink game-selling strategies?

Taulin · 2002-04-12T09:07:21

Hello, I have been reading a lot of contradicting aspects about the game market. Most have come from sources like Gamasutra and articles here, and others from interviews. Besides the love of making games, there has be some sort of income. To me, there seems to only two choices: (Sorry, my thoughts are kind of scattered today) Publishers-- 1) If you want to make big bucks, you have to have a publisher. 2) If you have a publisher, you will not get big bucks. 3) As you release more and more games, your percentage and control will increse To me, this sounds exactly like working for another company. Someone else has control of your profits, and periodicly you get raises for working hard, and never get a solid asset (your game) settled. Self Publishing-- 3) People say selling on your own off the internet does not make much money. What about AO and Lineage? Most of their sells come from the internet? Selling off the internet kind of resembles selling your games in plastic bags like in the old days. What is wrong with that? Where does this leave us then? I have been thinking about major success stories, like id for example. It seems to me they started off making a game on their owns terms with self publishing. After it became popular enough, after being finished, publishers met id''s demands to help each other out. So, would a good strategy be to publish your own goods until you can snag a great deal with a finished game? The last thing I would ever want is a publisher deal that forces me to make a sequel.

Games Business and Law Business

Started by Taulin April 01, 2002 01:24 AM

11 comments, last by Taulin 22 years, 7 months ago

DavidRM

270

April 05, 2002 07:01 PM

After nearly 6 years, I''m Truly Tired (tm) of hearing about "advertising in games" as some kind of possibility...

1. Players suggest advertising in games because they figure it''s a way to play a game for free...never seeming to realize that the advertising is intended for *them*...the game sure as hell don''t need it. And these players then do everything they can to *not* have to deal with the ads...

2. As Jack P already pointed out...the audience is too small to support normal advertising rates.

3. And even if the audience wasn''t too small...click-thru ads have such been such a huge, all-around failure as a means of effectively sending a message (except in very isolated cases), that it''s amazing anyone still uses them. On top of that, it''s pretty easy to find software that will strip off ads in nearly every conceivable context (see #1).

Advertisers are only interested in buying ads that people see, and (in the case of the Internet) respond to. Ads in games aren''t those type of ads.

As for "general interest" games that supposedly support themselves via advertising...there are fewer and fewer of these each week. Because they''re not turning a profit, can''t meet expenses, and have to go offline.

I would say that if there was ever a period of time when ads in games could support those games, it has long past...and only lasted a few minutes...

DavidRM
Samu Games

DavidRMDavidRM Software The Indie Game Development Survival Guide JoeIndie.com