Game portals are the new publishers

Mar-19-07, 1:44 am by Hanford
File under: Misc., Video games

In my comments, someone took me to task for calling Kongregate a publisher.

In the CD-ROM and Floppy days, I knew what a publisher was. They were the ones who cut your deal with, and they were the ones who paid you when your game sold. They also normally were the ones who did stuff like make your your manuals, boxes, and discs, and they dealt with getting your games into stores.

Do Publishers like that still exist? Probably. But these days the people I (and most indie game developers) sign deals with and who send me check every month are the Portals. Portals can play a big factor in how many people play your game, how your game is marketed, and how much money you make. I don't need CD-ROMs and boxes. I don't need someone to go to the portals for me to get my game on their virtual store shelves.

So what am I missing by not having a "Publisher"? I'm losing out on retail distribution, although some of the portals are getting into that as well .In fact I just found out Rocknor's Donut Factory is making its way into retail via an eGames collection. I'm probably missing out on getting some generalized marketing like press releases and whatnot. But that's easy for me to do myself, too.

I can tell you one thing I don't care I'm missing -- the percentage cut that publishers take. In fact at a GDC session, Merscom's Lloyd Melnick said you can expect that about 2/3rds of your retail proceeds will go to your publisher if you have one. Ouch.

Portals are the gatekeepers these days. They publish games to their own sites. They are the new publishers. And when you see me use the term "publisher" on my site, I'm probably talking about a site that will get your game into the hands of a lot of players, and pay you for it.

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RohoMech wrote: Mar-20-07, 3:11 pm

Hanford, there's these guys:
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/12/gamecock-former-g-o-d-heads-found-indie-friendly-publisher/

I read some stuff where they were trying to be a "publisher" but not really, as in funding but not taking over IP, letting companies make games how they want etc....it could all be marking mumbo-jumbo, but they're the same guys from Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.) so they might actaully mean it.

Hanford wrote: Mar-20-07, 11:45 am

Jon, how did you get that deal?

Jon wrote: Mar-20-07, 5:56 am

Just a quick follow-up re: publisher funding... We're developing a game under a contract from a publisher who has funded our development as royalty advances but does NOT own our IP... Probably at a discount to our royalties, admittedly.

Our hope is that (a) we can make a good game and not have to worry about costs up to a point, (b) the publisher will help get us quickly on to the front page of Yahoo, Real, etc, instead of buried in another portal waiting to go YouTube viral, (c) the publisher will ease our transition to other platforms (consoles, handhelds) or even into retail (as they've done for other games) if/when that makes sense.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. More on that in a few months!

Indie wrote: Mar-19-07, 9:22 pm

Yep, the roles are changing. This is why I like Kongregate, and also why I am asking them to sponsor my new game, P.O.D. And, Hanford, I also featured your blog on my homepage, www.indieflasharcade.com :)
Cheers

Benjamin C.

Hanford wrote: Mar-19-07, 2:42 pm

Good point Jim. I was actually going to mention the funding part in my original post.

But if you're being funded by someone to make a game that the funder will then own the rights to and do what with they want to, then that seems more like the funder is a Developer and you're more of a Contractor. I'm splitting hairs, I know. But it seems like all the roles are changing, and perhaps the terms will, too.

Jim Greer wrote: Mar-19-07, 2:07 pm

As for Indie's plight, we're trying to change the game for Flash developers, but until we reach critical mass there's only so much we can offer.

Having said that, I'm looking forward to seeing the latest version of your game, Indie!

Jim Greer wrote: Mar-19-07, 2:04 pm

Indie has a good point - typically in the casual games industry a publisher still means someone who funds development and pays for marketing. Now they may publish games that they didn't fund, but typically they go together. Even in the casual space this definition usually applies.

For instance, Playfirst is a publisher - they paid for the development of Diner Dash, they own the IP rights, they market it.

Kongregate so far has not paid for the development of Flash games, and never tries to control the IP. So I would side with Indie and say that we're typically not a publisher.

I agree with your basic point though, that portals are the gatekeepers. That's why we try to be as transparent as possible, and let players decide what belongs on our homepage.

Hanford wrote: Mar-19-07, 11:16 am

Indie: Thanks for the feedback. I am looking at writing up a blog post about making money from your games, look for it soon.

Jon: I always look at Amazon as the example of how the web is different than real life shelf-space. Amazon does not have a limited amount of room, and they've put a LOT of effort into matching people up with products that they might be interested in.

I do believe that even if Portals take the Amazon approach (as I believe Big Fish is doing), they'll be more competition as more games come out. Even though it was relatively easy to get my games onto Portals, None of the big ones ever featured my game on their homepage. It just wasn't a best seller for them.

Humuhumu wrote: Mar-19-07, 9:50 am

I can see your point, Jon, and it's entirely possible, but I just can't take it as a given. The example that gets brought up (ad nauseum, but for good reason) is YouTube. YouTube is completely glutted -- that makes it hard sometimes to find something when I know what I'm looking for, but when I'm just looking to find something interesting, YouTube delivers pretty consistently.

I don't really foresee portals becoming selective about they games they take on, but I can definitely imagine your second prediction -- the development of simple yet effective ways to identify the good stuff. But for a game developer, that will probably come down to considering the marketspace, making a good game, and spending a bit of time to get the word out about it -- same as it ever was.

Jon wrote: Mar-19-07, 5:50 am

I hate to say it, but eventually "portal space" will be just as difficult (and important) to attain as "shelf space" is today.

As the indie/casual space grows to include more and more people and money, portals will become overcrowded and will need to be very selective about the titles they feature. It's likely that the relationships developed between high-volume publishers and portal sites will win out over once-a-year indie developers when it comes time for the portals to decide. One of the benefits of the indie/casual scene so far has been the ability to self-publish, but as the noise increases portals (and players) will be looking for ways to easily identify quality -- and that's the role traditional publishers have already played.

Indie wrote: Mar-19-07, 3:12 am

Hanford,

Thank you for elaborating on your position, I must say I agree with you after reading this page. In fact, I really like Kongregate and see their disruptive potential as well as you do, so I will broaden my term for publisher.

I guess I'm a little passionate about this topic right now because I have spent the last 5 or so months developing a really great Flash game, and I would like to see some returns from it. I don't want to see other people making money on my hard work while I sit here and eat Ramen. Honestly, I was thinking about selling some licenses to portals but I don't really know what to do first. I know what I want to make from the game, and I want it to have the widest possible audience.

As someone who deals with portals, do you have any suggestions as to where I begin? Thanks. I'm sure other readers are wondering the same thing.

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