New opportunity for Indie Game Developers from GamePro

[GaiaDreamCreation]

According to http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/03/gamepro_to_publish_independent.html, GamePro, a U.S. consumer magazine and website GamePro is preparing to enter into the world of game publishing - more specifically and oddly, independent game publishing.

It looks like there many advantages to promote independent games, like being featured in GamePro magazine. However, your game will be published under the GamePro brand. I don't know if this is exclusive.

There is more info at http://www.gamepro.com/labs

Is there anyone interested by GamePro and do you think that is a good avenue for Indies (especially if the supporter is a well know company like GamePro)?

[gutripper]

Hmmm, not much information there. I guess the publicity could be worthwhile, and having somebody else do that could save time for game development, but it all depends in the nature of deal.

[Sybixsus]

Yeah, I read this earlier too. As Gutripper says, there's not much information there, and the whole thing is set up such that you have to "submit" a game in order to make any kind of contact with them.

Frankly, there are a few little things which rub me the wrong way. I don't like it when publishers tell me I will be able to do more coding in all the free time I'll have while they do all the hard work selling my game. Quite aside from being slightly patronizing, it's the kind of thing I usually hear from extremely low budget publishers who are trying to get good games from talented but inexperienced developers at an extremely unfavourable (to the developer) rate. Not that I'm for a minute suggesting they are. It's just an unfortunate choice of words, but what I'm getting at is that they seem to be aiming at a very young, amateur audience, which I don't quite get.

Another thing which bothers me is asking for an XBox Live Gametag on a submission form for "select" developers. When was the last time you applied for a job as a train driver and they asked you to supply your Hornby Collectors Club membership number?

It just all seems as though it's geared towards student gamers who might be having a bash at a game in their spare time. Which is fine if we were talking about Microsoft's Community Games scheme, but when we're talking about a publisher looking for "select" indie games, it doesn't really make much sense to me.

[PoV]

Yeah, with everything moving towards digital downloads in a big way, I really wonder how relevant a publisher is these days. Obviously if they have the advertising dollars and opportunities to put in to a product, or if they fund the development of the game, then that's something. But as a "you make it, we publish/market" model, I dunno. I'll admit marketing is a pain in the arse, so beyond having $10k to throw at advertising off the bat, I'm not sure what they necessarily bring to the table. You can approach pretty much any portal and any platform holder directly. If your game is genuinely awesome and suits them, they tend to let you in.

[joshuadallman]

I see this as another company trying for an opportunistic grab for indies.

This is about as much of an opportunity as PlayGreenhouse.

Still, if you're that one in a thousand awesome game and you couldn't do it without their guidance and marketing, it could be a good thing.

But I'd be much more excited if an established digital distribution company with established customers announced that they were publishing and planning on publishing more indie games than ever before.