MTV Multiplayer details the process in which a developer would receive royalties from those who publish their game. The amount and overall any amount of money they receive is sometimes based on the score based off of Metacritic.
"Here's the way it works: a game publisher agrees to finance the work of a development studio and includes a stipulation that certain bonuses or royalties won't be delivered unless the game achieves a certain Metacritic score. If you're that developer and you agree to that deal, you better hope reviewers give you a fair shake, no?
One developer, who asked not to be named told me about an instance in which their company didn't receive royalties for a game that sold more than a million copies. The reason was because - as had been stipulated in a contract with the publisher - the Metacritic score for the game was too low."-
Xbox and EA have recently made baffling moves that define how bleak the future of the gaming industry is with major companies at the helm. Ryan Bates from "Last Word on Gaming" posits in this op-ed that maybe it's not ineptitude, but intention.
XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director Jake Solomon has founded a new studio to make a life sim game. Here's a new interview with him.
Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's plans to increase every department's margins.
"The plan to move Xbox games to other platforms is codenamed "Latitude" internally, and I know there's debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea. More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they're potentially obvious games you'd most likely expect. And yes, while it's true Microsoft is a prolific publisher on PlayStation already, it has typically revolved around specific franchises like Minecraft. From what I've heard, Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's mandate to increase every department's margins. "
Yeah, they are going to kill Xbox hardware.
i think it will kill off the xbox brand. windows will be fine.
but there is and would be a chance that xbox might be killed off in the future. if they fail to make the money they put in. imo.
"Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation"
Forza and Starfield next?
In the words of Phil Spencer when he was talking about Nintendo last year
“It's just taking a long time for Microsoft to see that their future exists off of their own hardware"
So what! Stop complaining. Publishers should be held to high standards. Make a crap game, get crap pay. However, I think sales should also be taken into account. If your game gets bad reviews but sells like hotcakes, you should be rewarded as well.
” Gerstmann told me. That’s something that really troubles me… When I’m sitting down to write a review I’m never setting out to think: ‘I am taking food off this guy’s table.’”
yeah Jeff... a bad review might cost someone money... maybe even there job. hehe
My position on this is, whether or not publishers should really base developer royalties on the score they receive instead of the amount it sells. But at the same time, what if it were vice versa?
What if a REALLY great game by everyone's standards sold abysmally. Even if the game was a hit right from the gates, due to a stipulation in the contract, they get nothing, even though the game could have sold bad due to bad marketing, horrible release timing and the like. This would be the opposite of whats happeneing.
What if a HORRIBLE game made it out into the public, but sold over 500k for whatever reason, possibly to the best Marketing in the world, and maybe alittle of brainwashing. Should the developers get royalties in which they might assume that they can keep bringing out crap games?
It makes me think that stipulations like this needs to be reworked.
must be Kane and Lynch: Dead Man.