From: jare AT jet DOT es (Javier Arevalo)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,rec.games.programmer,alt.comp.shareware.for-kids
Subject: Re: Publishing a game
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 21:01:15 GMT
Organization: Iguana demogroup
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mike AT il DOT pxsoftware DOT com (Mike Kulas) wrote:

>By the way, I think arrangements in the industry are pretty fair for the
>developer.  One thing to keep in mind is publishers, as a group, are not
>getting rich these days.  Most did not do well this Christmas season.  I
>think a typical return on investment for a publisher is in the 10% range
>for the past couple years.  Since you can do better in the stock market, it
>makes me think publishers are not screwing developers in order to get rich.
>You could argue that publishers as a whole are just incompetent, but with
>all the perceived potential of the entertainment industry, if that were so,
>it would have attracted competent people who want to make a killing.

Hm, although you're right with the publishers not becoming money
machines, I have to disagree somehow on the competency issue... why do
so many publishers run into losses? Mostly due to strategy mistakes,
and lack of a coherent view of the business. Acclaim and their
record-setting past fiscal years is probably the best example of
sticking to an outdated strategy of licenses, cartridges and wrong
marketing.

From my work with publishers (I being a developer) I somehow get a
feeling that what is needed here is a better coordination between the
publishers and development houses. Very common problems due to the
separation between the publisher and developer are:

- missed release dates (You probably know one or two of these).
- broken promises of game features and gameplay (see Rocket Science).
- conservative approaches to product style (who wants film licenses?).

Note that most of them are caused both by conservative publishers and
ego-tripped developers. Each one think that the other is "the enemy",
which somehow is the whole point of this thread: developers worried
about publishers eating the money.

I believe that a developer who doesn't know about marketing, and a
publisher who doesn't know about development, simply can't work
together succesfully, except if they're also VERY lucky...