6 replies to this topic

[Pihb]

I am totally ignorant to what a publisher would do for an online game.

[Diablobo]

They provided the startup money for the project. Piranha does most of the heavy lifting, but the publisher gets a cut. They are the funders of this little endeavor. They also provide marketing and PR I imagine.

[Pihb]

Shortest thread ever. Thanks homie!

[Lonestar1771]

They also make most of the really bad decisions and force things upon the developer and community that nobody wants.

[Zaptruder]

Also, in this case, IGP are the rights holder to Mechwarrior, and PGI are the guns for hire to make this game.

[Gaan Cathal]

Common theory would have it that someone needs to be the devil's bagman

[Elizander]

Pihb, on 23 February 2013 - 10:03 PM, said:

I am totally ignorant to what a publisher would do for an online game.

A publisher is different from a developer. A developer makes games, a publisher just redistributes games or in simpler terms, the publisher 'runs the game'. Publishers -usually- pay a license and royalty fee (usually within the regions of 30% but it can change) and they keep the rest of the profits. Publishers are usually localized to a certain area or region but not always.

There are publishers that have license rights to games in the SEA region like Cherry Credits or Riot Games (LOL) while other companies 'host' the game in their own areas. There are also publishers that usually only get rights to host the games in their own country like Level Up Games in the Philippines.

Normally if someone buys a region or country license from the developer (or sub license it from another publisher?) they will have IP restrictions in place to prevent other regions from mooching off their playerbase. So this means any game purchased by a company for a country, for example India, can only be played by people in India. The same goes for regions such as SEA, EU, NA (the usual major divisions).

Publishers will -usually- pay for server costs in setting up and run CS (customer support) for the players in their area of jurisdiction. They will also be the ones to pay for promotions and advertising in order to make the game more popular and profitable within the area that they hold.

Publishers will usually have many games from different developers and have separate contracts for them and they keep roughly 70% of what the games earn and the last 30% is shipped off to the developers as their monthly royalty.

Publishers will usually talk to developers regarding what changes are needed in the game in order to cater to the players/customers though in some cases publishers are powerless to do anything other than run the game as given by the developer. It all depends on their working relationship and contract.

Edited by Elizander, 23 February 2013 - 10:35 PM.