Game publishers in 2016: how to lose your life's work in a few seconds

Remember the old saying: “if the deal seems too good to be true, then it is so”? Well, these agreements don't even seem to be good, and a lot of developers come across them every day. Of course, I'm talking about “publishers” who prey on weak and enthusiastic developers in the Steam Greenlight program. "Publishers" promise the success of your game and its access to the top platform Steam. They say they saw you at the Greenlight, were delighted, and offer to trust them, because they will turn your dreams into reality.



However, in this reality, such "publishers", in essence, do not give (and even sometimes do harm) by demanding in return all that you have! I have seen people bound by indefinite agreements under which they lose 30% of their income - all in exchange for some post on Twitter here or there. There is a long list of companies involved in this, and I do not have time to name each. Instead, consider Ultrashock Gaming and its “outstanding” agreement.



To be clear: they are not the worst in the world. But they are bad (very bad, in my opinion), and there are a lot of people like them. If a publisher offers a deal, contact a lawyer. Or, if the money is tight, then google, is there any point in contacting them. See what Google gave me:



Wow! Million members! Maybe I should not be afraid? They are not some scammers, they really are the largest publisher of games on the Steam platform! And it is clear why, since it follows from the following image that they publish such games as Call of Duty and Dota 2 (which is very cool). Although, just a minute ... It looks like they are just arranging contests on Twitter with the distribution of free games. But this can not be, because they still call themselves the publisher. Digging deeper.

')





I like the wording above: “UltraShock Gaming has distributed more than 375,000 games - this makes us one of the most reliable gaming companies.”



What does this even mean? Are they a free game distribution group? Are they publishers? Or "game company"? And how does the distribution of a handful of games for which they do not even have a license, makes them reliable? You know that it is impossible, right?



There is no point in all this. If you are going to send contracts to clients as a publisher, offer publishing services and send them to your site, would you not have shown at least part of your publishing power? Let's look at their page on Steam to find out how many games they have published so far:







How? None? Interesting ... It seems that they are really just a community for the distribution of games. They did not publish a single game about which they speak, and they have only 113,209 participants instead of a million or more, which was discussed above. Well, well, it must be just a typo. Well, now that we know that they are a relatively successful distribution team for gaming, we can understand and accept paying them a few dollars to promote your game. Undoubtedly, in order to reach out to several hundred thousand Steam users, you can afford to pay some money. Let us now see the agreement they propose:







For only $ 899 you can get a lot of impressions and advertising posts! But keep in mind that these are exactly advertising posts with minimal audience involvement and without any loyal fan base. This is almost the same as paying for the Twitter campaign to promote the game. Although why “almost”? This is the same thing. Although why is “the same”? This is worse! Because customers such a campaign will lead to a “publisher” and not to you. Sumptuously!



And here's another thing: I have a well-pumped account on Twitter, although I am not Activision. Here are my statistics from May 1 to 23 (that is, in less than a month):







UltraShock Gaming has 120,000 subscribers (more than me), but the involvement of each tweet is much less. All of their tweets are distributions of some random games, but many retweets (and “long” is an exaggeration, maximum 30 pieces each) collect only those in which they distribute games that they don’t work with, like Call of Duty. How can you have 120,000 subscribers and just six likes per tweet with the distribution of the game? It's simple: you probably have fake subscribers, and you spam Twitter with all kinds of nonsense all day.



Well, okay, never mind, are you ready to give a few hundred dollars to someone who can help with the promotion on Facebook and Twitter? Go ahead with the songs! I saw a lot of people who donated a lot of money to much more ridiculous ideas (my aunt once paid someone to check if there were any ghosts in her house). In a sense, this is still far from trying to secretly unsubscribe 20% of your revenue to yourself, or even somehow dissolve it ...







The fine print says: “ Royalties : Twenty percent (20%) of the gross income derived from the exclusive distribution and sales of the above games, according to Section 7 indefinitely, starting from the day this contract takes effect, in accordance with the terms of this agreement.”



LORD GOD'S MERCY! It is not joke! Cheating goes to a whole new level. Is UltraShock Gaming going to post some stupid links on Twitter and Facebook and for this not only get the initial $ 900, but 20% of the turnover forever ? But that's not all - the termination clause says, among other things, that you can give notice for three months and then terminate the agreement, but UltraShock Gaming will continue to receive 70% of its initial 20% anyway . Wow termination of the contract!







Guys, this is impossible! Such things should be prohibited. Such companies need to be banned on Steam, banned on Twitter and generally on this planet. The clients who approached me about these agreements are mostly young people, inspired by the fact that they have a game that has attracted some attention. They do not read the fine print, they just fly on the wings, that someone praised them. These publishers prey on such enthusiastic novices and ruin their potential career. I will not delve into the difference between gross income and profit, but 20% of gross income means that this money must be paid before the costs of the developer are taken into account. This means that most of this money would have to be a company’s profit and return to it as an investment in development, and not go into the pocket of some avid publisher.



I urge you all to study the agreements that are being offered to you much more carefully. I urge you all not to accept revenue sharing agreements without very substantial compensation. And I urge you not to allow such companies to hang around the best part of our community - independent developers - and destroy them, depriving us of the prospects for the emergence of new outstanding talents.