Direct sales vs. Mr. bigportal contract

[AJirenius]

As I actually believe I typed the last lines of code on my first game last night (yeah right.. wait until the publisher looks at it) the question about my way of selling this game has grown very large.
Today I have no signed contract about whether I will or will not sell the game via Direct Sale (own site) AND portals or only sell it via portals.

As I've understood the publisher, they tell me it's a little bit up to me. If I go with NO selling from own site it will mean a better foundation for them to negotiate a better contract (even exclusive ones) with those biggie portals over there. I've been told it's pretty common to sign an exclusive contract for a few months before you publish the game to a wider range of portals. This cannot happen if I sell my game directly from own site.
If I choose to sell from own site I of course gets the whole cake but then again I have no visitors at my site today and that would mean a lot of advertising both for the game AND my site (I am not allowed to write any url's within the gamedemo).

I would like you to give your opinions about this situation and even better tell me about your own experiences in this area.

thanks!

[jcottier]

Hello Andreas,

I haven't play your game but I can get an idea from the screenshots on your site.

First of all, you need to understand that you need traffic to generate direct sales. Your site is new, you have no traffic. So do not expect to be rich by selling your game tomorow on your site.

Secondly, by the look of your game, I don't see the point of giving the exclusivity to anyone. You need to contact as many potals as possible and get to chat with them directely. You will gain massive experience and will learn more things. Use 3rd parties only to reach opportunities that you cannot deal with directely (retails/some huge portals). For the others, why will you give someone a cut when you can deal directely with the portals.

My 2p advice: Put your game for sale on your site and contact as many portals as you can. Again, you will learn many things.

JC

[Desktop Gaming]

If (as you say) your site isn't getting any visitors, then there's little point in releasing a game on there. Unless you plan on spending more money on press releases, google adwords and so on, but even then its going to take a long time for traffic to build up. Plus, you'll need thousands of visitors a day to generate even a couple of sales.

I'd let an established publisher/portal handle the sales since they already have their own customer base and a massive mailing list they can sell to. I said something similar in a recent thread on here which I can't be bothered to look for, but, 40% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

[AJirenius]

Just want to clarify a few things and make some more questions out of the answers Ive got from you guys.

This is my first game really (the other one on the site was made in 3 weeks for a competition) so I havent even tried getting visitors to the site. It's kind of the startup for the site now as the game will be released.

My 2p advice: Put your game for sale on your site and contact as many portals as you can. Again, you will learn many things.


As I think I stated earlier, I already have got a publisher, and I have that for a very specific reason. This first time I release a game I don't want to wind up in many of the traps I guess are out there and also I want to focus on the actual game development and not getting contacts all over the world as it seems to be a LOT (yes a LOT) of work. After I get this one published I might have automatically some contacts (or at least I might have a title to show as Im pushing the next game).
Now I have maybe 6-12 months to check out the "scene" without getting totally burnt.

If (as you say) your site isn't getting any visitors, then there's little point in releasing a game on there. Unless you plan on spending more money on press releases, google adwords and so on, but even then its going to take a long time for traffic to build up. Plus, you'll need thousands of visitors a day to generate even a couple of sales.


What I am concerned about is that I will stand in the exact same situation next time I release a game. I mean, maybe I must start now and be able to get some visitors now and when the next title comes I have a small foundation to continue on?

[JoKa]

You don't need a publisher to get a deal with most portals, why waste money? Don't you separate licenses for retail and online sales?

Instead of distributing the game non-exclusively through many portals, an exclusive deal with one big portal could do much better if they do a good job in advertising and sublicensing.

[jcottier]

> This first time I release a game I don't want to wind up in many of the traps.
you just falling into one: you don't need a publisher for everything, there is some stuff you can do yourself. Use the publisher only to reach stuff you cannot on your own.

What will you learn from letting everything being done by your publisher?
Very little: only if it was worth dealing with a publisher or not. So for your second game you will be in the exact same situation. There is a lot to learn and the best way is to find it out by yourself.

> After I get this one published I might have automatically some contacts (or at least I might have a title to show as Im pushing the next game).
Why and to do what? The only contact you will have is your publisher.

Honestely, contacting portals is not a huge amount of work. Just contact the main 10 ones. They will all ask you for the same thing anyway. You will be able to compare many different contract and understand why some protals don't want your game, you will start building a contact list etc etc...

Selling on your own is hard, really hard. Selling through portals is easy.
Just do both. You might get some tiny traffic leakage from portals.

But again, you have to experience it all by yourself.

JC

[AJirenius]

I guess you have a lot more experience when it comes to selling your own games but I haven't even HEARD about something called casual games just 8 months ago. Having a publisher has helped me a lot to tweak the game for the casual audience, making it attractive for the special type of client, understanding the whole portal thing and given me time to learn close from a company that has been into the industry for a while and that can answer all my questions about it.

I dont regret having it for my first game at all. Frankly the game would probably not turn out as good without them and claiming that even using a publisher is a common trap I would say might be an overstatement?

[Adrian Cummings]

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[Adrian Cummings]

My advice is go with a publisher (or several if you can on Digital and Physical versions) but always retain the right to sell it (digital download) yourself via you own site - if you don't choose the last bit you could regret it later on if you go 100% exclusive and get locked into the agreement for 2 to 5 years - not good!

If they want the full exclusive rights 100% to everything then you MUST ask for an advance on royalties else you are wasting your time and product in practice.

[jcottier]

... that even using a publisher is a common trap I would say might be an overstatement?

I didn't say that. I said use a publisher only to reach market you can't reach on your own.

I haven't play your game, so I don't know if it is good or bad. Just by seing the screenshots I will say you will probably make most sales on portals. To reach some portals you need a "publisher" because they don't deal directely with "mortals" ;-). You need to reach these portals because they are the biggest one. But for all others big size portals, you can contact them directely. And because you are using a publisher, on all the sales made by these portals, you are losing a lot of money because your publisher will take its cut first. So, this is where you made a mistake. But never mind, like I always say people need to learn things by themselves, that is the only way to not make them the second time.

Anyway, I wish you good luck with your game, it is always a big archivement to finish a game. Most people here talk a lot, but actually, they hardly release any games ;-)

JC