Category — Industry Contracts

Gamsutra Feature: Pros & Cons of Licensing

December 6, 2006 at 5:15 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Click here to read this article on the pros and cons of developing games under license from others.

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Licensed Game Cases, Startup Game Developer Issues

Newsweek Alleges Kutaragi Dropped the Ball on PS3 3rd Party Exclusives

November 21, 2006 at 8:17 pm - by Dale Dietrich

In this third part of a very interesting 3-part “inside baseball” article, Newsweek alleges that Kutaragi dragged his feet on signing third party exclusives for the PS3 while Microsoft was aggressively pursuing exclusives from third parties such as EA (FIFA), Konami (Winning Eleven) Take-Two (Bioshock) and Ubisoft (the next Splinter Cell). Famously, Sony lost its Grand Theft Auto exclusive with Take-Two and Rockstar Games. And Assassin’s Creed, long assumed to be a PS3 exclusive, has now been confirmed to be under development for the XBox 360.

Sources: Newsweek

Discussed: 1Up.com

Related Posts:

PS3 vs. Xbox 360 Head to Head, PS3 Reviews and other Miscellanea (December 11, 2006)
Newsweek Alleges Kutaragi Dropped the Ball on PS3 3rd Party Exclusives (November 21, 2006)
Is the Lack of Force-Feedback in Sony’s PS3 Controller a Technical or Legal Issue? (June 28, 2006)
Immersion Wins Latest Round of Sony ‘Rumble’ Suit (March 13, 2006)
Sony 3D Artist Fired for saying “Xbox 360 is better” than the PS3 (February 2, 2006)
Region Coding for PS3 Unlikely (November 8, 2005)

Categories: "Inside Baseball", Industry Contracts

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Game Law: Contracts 101

July 25, 2006 at 3:22 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Attorney Tom Buscaglia explains the reason why game development contracts are so complex.

Source: GamaSutra Feature

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Startup Game Developer Issues

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How to Get Your Video Game Published - GameDaily.biz Feature

April 12, 2006 at 5:21 pm - by Dale Dietrich

This GameDaily.biz feature presents Careen Yapp’s (VP of Licensing and Business Development for D3 Publisher) thoughts on how publishers make their decisions to take on a developer and what developers should understand when preparing a presentation to a publisher.

Source: GameDaily.biz

Dale’s Comment: Gamasutra also included a recent “Feature” entitled “Pitching Your Game to a Publisher”. While less informative, it is amusing!

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Publisher/Developer Cases, Startup Game Developer Issues

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Non-Disclosures & Non-Competes: To Sign Or Not To Sign?

March 9, 2006 at 3:28 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Gamasutra Feature: Marc Mencher advises video-game industry job seekers to carefully consider and read before signing an NDA or non-compete agreement upon taking that new job.

Source: Gamasutra

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Non-Compete Cases, Startup Game Developer Issues, Trade Secret Cases

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A Game Developer’s Bill of Rights

November 21, 2005 at 12:23 am - by Dale Dietrich

Eric Zimmerman, co-founder and CEO of gameLab, proposes a bill of rights that postulates “the correct and proper ethical positions” for game developers to take when negotiating contracts with publishers. The x rights he discusses in this piece are:

The right to full ownership of what we fully create.
The right to be billed as the game creator in marketing and on game packaging at least as prominently as any mention of the game publisher.
The right for every individual involved in creating the project to be given accurate and prominent credit within the game.
The right to move freely between publishers on new game projects.
The right to a fair and equitable share of profits derived from a game.
The right to full and accurate accounting of any and all income and disbursements relative to our work.
The right to promote and the right of approval over any and all promotion of our games and ourselves.
The right of approval over means for distribution, as well as for licensing, merchandizing, and other derivative versions of our games.
The right to a publishing arrangement that reflects the iterative nature of game development; one that recognizes that changing a game as it is developed is part of creating a game.
The right to a publishing arrangement that results in a process that conforms to accepted standards regarding work hours, compensation, and labor practices.
The right to acquire publishing rights to a game if the publisher has stopped distributing the game.
The right to employ legal representation in any and all business transactions.
The right to final say in creative disputes regarding the game.

Source: Gamasutra

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Publisher/Developer Cases, Startup Game Developer Issues

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Contracting: Case for Flexible Milestone Deliverables

October 27, 2005 at 10:57 pm - by Dale Dietrich

by Thomas H. Buscaglia.

Source: Gamasutra | Tom Buscaglia’s Blog

Categories: Featured Articles, Industry Contracts, Startup Game Developer Issues

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Audit Rights - Use Em or Lose Em!

September 19, 2005 at 6:22 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Attorney Tom Buscaglia takes a look at royalty audits, a provision in most publisher contracts that few developers choose to exercise, but, Buscaglia suggests, many should.