Publishing through multiple publishers/distributors

[Greg Squire]

I was just noticing that the game "Platypus" can be found through several Publishers (RealArcade, BigFish Games,Alawar Entertaiment, probably more) and a large number of Download sites (distributors). It seems to me that this would be an ideal way to go, as it gets the game it front of many more eyeballs than could be had with one sole publisher. (Exposure is critcal for an Indie game, or any other product for that matter) It's probably a bit of a negotiating nightmare to do this, but apparently it's possible.

Can anyone explain some strategies on how to accomplish this? Could this be done on a first title, or would the developer need to establish himself a bit first (Negotiating Power)? I would also assume that the publishing contract would have to be "non-exclusive", meaning the developer would retain the IP rights, and retain the rights to publish and market the game himself as well. I'm not exactly sure how pricing would work in this model, as the publisher has most of the control over that. Would other publishers get into a pricing war over your title? I guess you'd end up with several revenue streams for your game, each having different royalties paid to you, but all making you money (we hope); some probably better than others.

[Andy]

Platypus is so bad that sure it requires huge exposure to sell at least 2-3 copies per month. All publishers together are just trying to help Mike's family to not die without food. :D

Seriously, we always submit every new our game to all serious portals (Real, Zone, Pogo, Yahoo, Shockwave) to give it a try to grab some money - efforts. No one wasn't published yet - result. ;) Big Fish is trying to help somehow but they are too special guys as well - they have approven hit with our new Waves but push everywhere some strange Ricochet which loses the worlds one-by-one... :D

...pricing war... - yeah, we were aware about this issue when we were young (a year ago). Plus exclusive request for all portals and opps - we said "No" to Gamehouse. But I'm pretty not sure if we'd make the same decision today. Money guys - they are so sweet and able to give you such a great pleasures... Jack will say you later about 1 million in ten years - but I was always stupid to prefer 100 thousand and right now....

[Jack Norton]

Jack will say you later about 1 million in ten years - but I was always stupid to prefer 100 thousand and right now....
Hehe, well it depends, that's my point of view ;)
Also remember that I'm making mostly NON casual games. If you have a niche game in my opinion your best bet is to sell it yourself.

For casual games things are different, too much competition now, you need HUGE exposure even to sell 10/month... :D

[Greg Squire]

Am I correct in assuming that you'll probably need different builds of the game to accomplish this? For example you'll probably need different splash screens that denote the publisher (maybe credits too), and you might need to account for different registration keys from different publisher/online billing systems, etc.