Retail % royalties?

[jcottier]

Hi,

How much can a dev expect as a royalty rate for a game on sale in retail. For example if the game is on sale in a shop for 20$, how much does the dev's get back? I am talking about small casual game, 100% finance by the devs.

Thanks

JC

[papillon]

Retail? You'll be lucky to get anything past the advance at all. :)

[Desktop Gaming]

You won't get an advance. You won't get royalties. You'll get a price per unit sold.

If you want to put your product in a store, they'll only do it sale or return - afaik no retail outlet will take anything on firm sale any more. So they might take 500 units, but you might get 499 of them returned if they don't shift.

Also, some shops in the UK charge publishers for shelf space. GAME do it. They probably do in other countries as well.

Finally, a retailer will want to buy in the product at something in the region of 55% off the MSRP. So your $20 retail price is cut to $9 straight away.

You also have manufacturing costs to think about. Short runs are typically more expensive. DVD packaging, CD, on-body printing, you're looking at at least $4 a unit for a run of 2,000 units.

I honestly don't think its worth going down this route. Too much risk and too many headaches.

[Michael Flad]

Depending on where you sell, there might be a VAT on the retail price too - so in Germany f.i. you have to start by subtracting 19% as the very first step from the retail price.

In general for small casual games in retail the best deal is to do deals with a fixed price based on territories. Two big advantages - you know upfront how much you get *and* you get it upfront as you don't have to wait for reports, write invoices and chase continuously for your money ...

[jcottier]

thanks.

JC

[Jack Norton]

I did several retail deals and I've never seen a single penny after the advance royalty. So be sure to ask a good advance money because that's all the money you'll see (based not only from personal experience, but from the one of lots of devs I know).

[lennard]

I did several retail deals and I've never seen a single penny after the advance royalty. So be sure to ask a good advance money because that's all the money you'll see (based not only from personal experience, but from the one of lots of devs I know).

That's the same as in big game dev. - don't do a deal unless the advance makes it worthwhile and hope there is more later.

I have done one retail distro. as an indie and turned down two because the advances offered didn't make the deals worth my while. The other thing to consider is that it's likely that your casual game title won't sell at retail at $19.99 so your online sales will be competing with the retail version at a lower price point.

[svero]

A ton depends on the publisher. There are a lot of smaller budget publishers where you wont see anything past an initial payment, but I've seen royalties/payments from larger publishers. Some people I know have made very good money with retail, though I've never been so lucky. So while a lot of the warnings are true I don't think you can write off retail too quickly. The right game with the right publisher could make big $$$.

[cliffski]

Don't forget the tech support requests will come to you from the retail buyers, and you will need to handle them. Plus, those buyers will not have had a chance to try a demo (most likely) so there is more chance of getting buyers whose PC's are not up to running the game.

[jcottier]

Thanks for all your comments guys.

This deal is only for the French speaking territories and they do offer me an advance. They are small retail publisher in France but in their category they are big (meaning they do release a lot of games and I heard of them before).

The game will be on sale at 19.99 Euros (equivalent to 19.99$ when the $ was worth something). The thing I wasn't to sure about was the % they are offering me. They claim that the distribution take 50%, this is fine. I wasn't to sure about their real cost. The only thing they do is the box, and there is no way they pay 4$ for that.

Anyway, I have amended the contract, will see how it goes. If I have learn one thing is that we should always negociate before signing anything.

Thanks

JC

[Desktop Gaming]

Right, so you're talking about going through a publisher to get into retail, rather than producing the product yourself? It does keep things simpler that way, but the downside is, you have a middle-man.

My first ten games were released to retail and didn't make much money (for me) at all. We're talking probably about $60,000 gross from all ten titles. Not a fantastic amount and I didn't get royalties either. For a while it was my only income and I was happy just to be making my own way. I also sold the intellectual property rights which in hindsight, was a stupid idea.

Doesn't matter though, since all but a couple of the games were crap, given that they were started, finished and out the door in as little as 30 days.