wierd account info. request

[lennard]

Hi all. A portal has contacted me about a deal. To proceed they have requested bank info. as follows:

Bank Info
Pay to the order of: [Account Name]
Bank Name: [Bank Name]
Bank Address: [Address]
Swift #: [number]
Account #: [number]
ABA #: [number]

I'm a bit of a luddite and this sort of request just sets off alarm bells for me. Any of you living in the 21st century think I'm just being paranoid - I'll probably go to my bank later and see if they know of a good reason to not supply this info.

[cliffski]

thats all fine, they want to pay money INTO the account right, its not like they ask for your pin number or password. If anyone here fancies paying money into my account, I'm happy to pm the details :D

[Desktop Gaming]

That's a pretty standard request as far as I can see. They don't appear to be asking for any information they couldn't get from a cheque.

They haven't asked you for your credit card number, security codes or pin numbers.

Which portal is it? Is it one you've had correspondence with?

[lennard]

Thanks guys - they sent the contract w/out the info. anyhow but based on your feedback I won't worry about handing over the details if I sign the contract.

[Spore Man]

Those details are so they can initiate a Wire Transfer. Hopefully INTO your acct.
;-)

[lennard]

:)

I'm pondering the offering tonight. It's a portal that wants to submit the game to just about every other portal on the planet, including many I haven't been able to get onto previously or didn't even know existed.

Unfortunately, the numbers are the typical large portal breakdowns so I'm pretty torn. I quit a well paying job so I could feel like I had a bit of control over my games. I've also been vocal on this board about how sick it is to take 25% after you have done all of the work and taken all of the risk. It ain't right I tell ya! To further complicate the matter I have a retail publisher who have treated me pretty well including putting some skin in the game and it's hardly fair that a big portal can get the game for no advance, no risk and for a weak royalty.

That said, this one is harder to turn down than the ludicrous console deal I detailed here earlier this summer. I know what the #'s are but I also know what the eyeball #'s are. On the fence about this, leaning towards just taking the cash because, as my friend said at lunch, I need them more than they need me.

[Spore Man]

It's been said on this board before..... ALL CONTRACTS ARE NEGOTIABLE. At least counter-offer with a % you would feel comfortable with (or higher)

[Desktop Gaming]

I've also been vocal on this board about how sick it is to take 25% after you have done all of the work and taken all of the risk. It ain't right I tell ya!Look at it this way:

What's 25% of $1000.00?
What's 100% of $0.00?

[lennard]

I'm familiar with the 25% of $1000 argument but a) I'm not in a position where I have to and b) what happens when they offer 22% next time and c) 25% is a decent royalty if we are talking about a publisher fronting all of the dev. costs and taking a bunch of risk. This is not the case - we are talking about a completed product with 0 risk to start earning money tomorrow.

The question is why do they get 75%? The answer is because they can. This won't change if we all follow the 25% of $1000 argument. Cliffski sounds like he has taken a stand and gotten better #'s and I'm going to try and do the same. The worst they can do is leave the table in a huff in which case I will be where I was last week - doing OK and happy with my indie. game makin' life.

[moose6912]

Those information are the type of information that I would provide my client so that he can transfer money into my account. With all those information, it would be hard for him to transfer money out of my account.

[Desktop Gaming]

The question is why do they get 75%? The answer is because they can.Well, the answer is, 'because you agree to it'. If you're not happy with 25% then don't take the deal.

They may not have had any input in the game design, or even funded any of it, but you're giving them a majority percentage simply because they already have a mass of customers they can sell to, therefore huge visibility and a well known and trusted brand. I'm sure Cliffski will be among the first to tell you its very very difficult to go it alone at first.

Doing it that way is far and away easier than going out and finding a million potential customers of your own.

[Nikos Beck]

That 75% means you don't have to spend one second looking for customers. Once you send them the zip file with your game you can start the next project. You don't need a server or bandwidth because the portal has that already. It does seem like 75% is a lot to give away but you have to weigh it against the time you'd spend doing their job. If you go it alone it will cost even more to sell your game because you need to manage advertising and handle customer sales as well and your customer base will be far smaller.

By all means, negotiate your percentage now. Remeber that if this game does well you'll be able to negotiate from a much stronger position the second time around.

[lennard]

I'm gonna bump this one because it took a wild turn today.

The company is Oberon and they want to rep. Real E$tate Empire to about 126 sites in their "network" including MSN Games who I understand they are basically the gate keeper for. That would include all of the usual suspects like BFG and Reflexive. Basically they want to take a huge cut just to submit to a fat whack of portals. I said no. They called me last week on the phone and I literally found myself laughing at the guy on the phone when I said no again.

Now today I get an email from BFG asking if BFG should stop dealing with me directly as... Oberon is now apparently representing Real E$tate Empire to them.

Aren't you supposed to have a deal before you do this. And if you've been turned down shouldn't you, even if you had wanted to represent a product... stop even pretending that you are the product rep.. Seems close to fraudulent to me.

I know that Oberon are a big company and it's about impossible for me to take legal action given my budget... but this is really un-freakin'-believable.

Has anybody dealt with Oberon and had a good experience, am I just dealing with a rogue employee here who is acting outside of their normal MO?

[TMK]

We published Pirates of the Atlantic with Oberon, and from our experience they have been very professional and always paid on time.

However, we agreed to their contract so I have no idea what happens if one does not agree to it :p

It sounds really unbelievable that such a big company would do something this shady, I hope it's a "misunderstanding" e.g. a rogue employee telling his supervisor everything's OK...

[Desktop Gaming]

Now today I get an email from BFG asking if BFG should stop dealing with me directly as... Oberon is now apparently representing Real E$tate Empire to them.

Aren't you supposed to have a deal before you do this. And if you've been turned down shouldn't you, even if you had wanted to represent a product... stop even pretending that you are the product rep.. Seems close to fraudulent to me.:eek:

Yes, you're supposed to have a deal in the first place.

As for whether BFG should stop dealing with you and do it with Oberon instead, all that will happen if they proceed down that route is they will pay Oberon, and Oberon will pay you. And you'll almost certainly get a smaller percentage that way, too.

If you already have a deal with BFG then I'd discuss with Oberon the possibility - nay, requirement - of excluding BFG from their marketing in this case. Why pay somebody else for a done deal?

Oberon do have a new guy called Brian Nixon working over there and I gather he's still finding his feet within Oberon. Maybe that's what's happened. I'm just guessing, though.