Are there any good networking sites where mobile developers go to seek publishers who can promote their app?
No. You've got to pound the pavement and reach out to publishers. If you've got a good app/game and have some pre-launch PR going (ex "Upcoming Games" in Toucharcade) then you might have some publishers reaching out to you first, but generally it's all about you doing the legwork to contact them. DP
Also - think about what you really want from a publisher - they all have their strengths and weaknesses!
Revenue share 50/50 model and marketing your games. I mean it really depends on what your objective is for your games. Most developers want a publisher who has a decent userbase and knows their way around marketing. If your game has potential, we can negotiate on terms.
50/50 rev share in exchange for only "marketing" services is a pretty big chunk to ask for, especially when your company only has one game on the App Store and you yourself are asking for advice on how to market and monetize games. Do you provide any or all of the following that would be useful to developers? - paid advances on royalties - cross promotion from an existing install base - leveraging Apple relationships for possible feature slots - QA and usability testing during development - tech and/or creative support during development - customer support post release - support/implementation of merchandising - allow developer to cross promote to their other titles - paid installs/paid advertising campaigns There are publishers out there who provide all or most of the above and still ask for less than a 50/50 split.
Just for perspective, when I talked with Alawar last year they were asking for 30%. I think there are some benefits to having a game published but only if that publisher is well established.
Sure, you can go ahead and sign a deal with a major publisher, however your game has to guarantee success. Big publishers, most of the time, will only publish games that will guarantee revenue unless they already have a few big games and they are open to any game that gets sent to them. However, when you get into the scenario where a "well established" and high profile publisher has a few games published that are similar to your game, the developer will look for other companies to partner up with so the competition is fierce because you want a publisher who not only will accept you, but who has great marketing skills, business ethics, and has room for your game. Everyday, people ask advice for what services to use. Big companies like Rovio, OMGPOP/Zynga, GameLoft....they won't show it but I bet you they spent a lot of time doing research everyday to keep up with the market. Things can change overtime. To answer your question, yes, we would provide all of those but it all depends on the overall objective of what the developer needs, how much budget is needed, and how good the games are. Most developers who ask for less than a 50/50 rich probably already have well established games that are getting a lot of revenue. But as I said, there are a lot of start up developers out there who will get rejected by the big publishers and so they will lean towards the small publishers who know what they are doing. Correct me if I'm wrong.
No developer should expect to give up 50% of their revenues in exchange for just "marketing services", regardless of their track record. I still find it a pretty big ask when you are offering so little with no real track record and asking for so much in return.
Depends on their needs. developers who have no knowledge on how to market their game but expect their game to be a huge success wouldn't mind going for a 50/50 split in revenue share. If a game isn't hot like Angry Birds, it will take a lot of money to invest in making sure a game gets the exposure it needs on every platform. An app has to guarantee a high ROI or else if a publisher agrees to a 60/40 or 70/20 split, their will be no marketing budget. There has to be enough money to earn for the company and enough money to actually invest in marketing. So it all depends on the scenario. But yea, my original questioned asked where was the best place to meet iOS developers of any size with great games. I never mentioned anything about meeting developers who wanted high profile, well established publishers.
Can you explain why you think an inexperienced or lower quality developer should compromise with a "less than market" revenue share when you yourself are not compromising even though you are an inexperienced publisher? How do you justify asking more than a well established publisher while offering less?
That model is totally flawed if all you do is put marketing on the table. If you pay a chunk of cash up front as a "buy in". Then maybe. But just plain marketing - never in life. Even the biggest evil publishers that only slap a logo on front take max 30%. There is a total alternative for developers as well - get a good PR agency, pay them a one time fee and you get more or less the same effect. For a well known sum of money and developer keeps 100%. So good luck! /Thomas
Ok, so I'll give you some scenarios: Well-established publisher with big games and a lot of revenue coming in - accepts a 70/30 (30 on their site) deal. they're humble. why make the developer share a big amount of revenue with them? they already have games that make big revenue. however, the games that they accept from the developer better be high quality games. if not, they will just publish the game, invest a tiny bit of revenue on the game and that will be it. not much revenue will come from a game that isn't high quality. they won't get any revenue on the game. 70/30 deal - dev gets most of the money and pays their programmers and designers more money to make the game better. publisher gets only small amount of money. if the game sucks, revenue will be crap. a crappy game won't get good revenue unless you either make it better or you expose it better by investing more into marketing. so you can either 1. make the game better, or 2. invest more money into marketing to make the game exposed more. A PR Agency? Sure, except PR agencies are super expensive. You want a PR agency that targets your demographic audience and a PR agency you can trust in your game's niche. Revenue share involves earning money for BOTH marketing a game AND for the company itself. You're spending money to pay for marketing the game, paying your employees for customer service, paying for maintenance, etc etc. If the game's revenue is not high and you are earning 30% of the revenue, there's not much you can do except hope that the developers who are getting most of the revenue will make the game better. Small publisher with not a lot of money but they know marketing very well - ok, it can be considered. They might not have as many contacts as a PR agency but they know how to market your game and they will offer to support your game in other aspects besides marketing. My point is, there are OTHER things that money will be invested on besides marketing and unless the publisher is getting revenue from their other games, then good luck because if the game isn't earning that much revenue, there won't be any revenue to invest. Big publishers can afford 70/30 split because they use revenue that they earn from other games OR the game is really good and the chunk of money they are getting is pretty large. So it really depends on the game(s) you are publishing.
Sounds like it yep - no proven (I've yet to see the track record) experience, less money on the bank for bad investments, going for devs with low quality products, taking 50%, no up front investment for making the product better, no skin in the game..... Any marketing commitment in "out of pocket" money? Are you guaranteeing to spend e.g. $100k per game out of pocket? If not - I see NO risk commitment from you as a publisher. So end of the day its back to the developer yet again to take the entire risk of production as well as launch and sale - and in this case even giving away 50% of revenue. Good luck! Wont see me knocking on your door. Thats for sure. No offense /T
No, and I never said that, although if that it was you assumed then ok, but no. Define "bigger share". 50/50 is a bigger share than 70/30, yes, however if you are going to receive only 30% of the revenue, then the game must either be great quality and can bring in a lot of revenue or your other games should be bringing in enough money to compensate for the amount of money that your new game is not making. The goal is to have enough money to market the game as well as pay for other services that are needed. I don't remember myself specifically saying that any publisher would go for a developer with "low quality products". Technically, every game in the app store has a skin..question is...how many skins and settings does the app offer... Up front investment is optional. Some publishers can't afford up front payments unless they have the money. Unless the company is rich, makes a lot of money from their currently existing games, or is being funded by an investment company, then making investments into marketing using out-of-pocket money is bad (but that's just my opinion). I'm still surprised that this thread went from asking a general question of WHERE can a publisher meet a developer...as in where is a good networking site to view developers...to a direct thread asking about what I can offer. No offense taken. If you want more information, go to www.piplay.com and send them an email
Thanks, I was just curious on how it all works and you were the only one who answered my question directly
So you want to take on lower risk because the developer may not be at the standard that would otherwise have them being published by a bigger publisher. How is the developer compensated for you not being able to offer the user network, the support, or the services at the level of a bigger publisher? You seem to want to minimise your risk when working with lower quality developers, but don't want to recognise you yourself are a "lower quality" publisher. Where is the compromise? In any case, whether you agree or not, for what you seem to be offering and what you want in return, I'm going to suggest that developers can get a better deal elsewhere. If a developer just wants "marketing services" for no money down, they can do a rev share deal with a company like TriplePoint PR, who are experienced and will take a cut at much less than 50%. He is looking to meet developers to publish their games, not the other way around. This is not true, at all.
Once again, you assume a lot of things but I can't blame you because everything I am post on these forums gives out a lot of implications. Sometimes developers of any size get accepted/rejected by publishers of any size...it all depends on various factors. Sometimes big publishers are too egotistical and too busy to work with a lot of developers so they only work with few developers. But that's only sometimes. Developers have to work hard to find the ideal partner. True, but I like his concept and he was the first one who answered my question directly.
