I think it might be worth defining what a publisher like Chillingo really is these days, because as dyscode said, publishers in the digital world are quite unlike publishers in the traditional sense. In terms of a digital publisher what you get in exchange for giving away XX% is PR and a label to stick on your game. Ultimately, that's it. Now, there are plenty of proper PR companies out there who will work for a fee instead of a percentage, so that aspect is not hugely relevant, and so I think what it ultimately comes down to is buying that brand label to stick on your game. That's not to cheapen how valuable that is, because being associated with a brand can be worth an awful lot. But if you're deciding on whether or not to go with a publisher, I think you need to look at both your game and your marketing know-how and decide if your game can stand out from the crowd on its own merits, or if having it become part of an established brand will be incredibly worthwhile.
I really think for the most part it's a toss up depending on your goals, game, and marketing skills. My first game will more than likely be self published, luckily I happen to have a co-founder that is a pretty well versed in marketing, so that might help. The obvious pros for a publisher that I see include: the power they have in their name, the professional marketing experience, their knowledge on what makes a popular game. However, as Chillingo and others get popular, I can only imagine that dates for game releases will get pushed back to accommodate all of their pending titles. You could be waiting months before your game's release date approaches, which isn't a terrible thing, but it's always nice to not have to sit on a finished product. However, the fact that I want to build a brand for my company is a pretty big con for me for initially going the publisher route with my first title. There is no doubt that their name will blanket your creation, and is probably what most consumers will see and remember. I'm also betting the level of polish i'm requiring from myself and my designer, as well as the large amount of time we've put into the marketing plan will hopefully payoff. With successes like Trainyard, Doodle Jump, and others, and the fact that Gameloft, Chillingo, and Glu had to start from somewhere, inspires me that as long as you strategically plan and eliminate as much possibility of failure as you can (un-polished design, pricing, bugs, gameplay, etc), your chances are probably better than you think! (At least I hope )
it depends what you're looking for. Surely looks good on paper to say your game was published by a major publisher. But the money is better to limit the number of hands in the cookie jar. So I would do as much as you can by yourself bring on a publisher as a last resort. I'd be more inclined to bring on a PR company that charges a flat fee rather than publisher who takes a percentage of your sales.
Going the publisher route brings in my opinion only benefits. A lot of people will buy your game simply because they trust in the publishers quality guidlines. Of course he will take a huge ammount of the income, but on the other hand the game can be priced higher when the publisher's brand is well known. And your game will be mentioned on every website, even on TA. I'm a developer who loves developing games, but I have no idea of marketing. So let do the marketing someone who knows what to do.
After careful consideration, we decided to opt out the publisher route. We were approached by a couple of BIG names and for a while there we were very tempted but the reason we got into this was to form our own indie gaming company. The 3 of us want to grow as a team and company. Getting published by another company, with their name on the app store, kind of hinders our goals. It'll be a bumpy road for a while, but I think in the end we did what was best for our small team's future!
No worries Hodapp. I'm not suggesting that banner-ads are worthless, simply that they are not particularly valuable as a direct sales-channel. As a branding tool I think it carries a lot of value. As you can see I am putting what (little) money I have where my mouth is in this respect. (Also: happy you noticed!) My main point was simply in regards to what advantages a publisher has compared to a small indie-dev: the fact that they "always" have something new to sell just around the corner. This reduces the financial risk when pre-ordering ad-spots on sites such as T.A.
Nick, The next time you or anyone else ends up with pre-bought ad space without a new app ready-to-promote, perhaps you could consider renting the spot to another developer? Phil
That's not a bad idea and I did actually try to pursue it from the other side once, when one of the forum-members stated that their banner-ad wasn't of any use to them. (It didn't amount to anything though).
