作者：Pete Lewin

关于游戏，发行协议应该是你将签订的最重要的合同之一。一份良好的发行协议将成就长期的合作关系与成果的游戏，但是糟糕的发行协议却将导致无休止的争辩，失衡的版税分配，模糊的截止期限以及游戏/IP所有权归属。

我相信大多数发行商都不是有意将人们锁进一份糟糕的合同中。但是在一些重要时刻，如合同签订前，这些文书中的细节却经常未得到人们的认真对待（不管是开发者还是发行商）。开发者有责任去协商一份最合适的发行协议，而不应该总是认为自己所面对的合同便是绝对公平或100%反应了之前口头的协议。

发行协议通常都很复杂，除非你之前已经经历过许多次这样的过程，否则最好还是找一位专业顾问去帮助你（如律师，顾问，业务顾问，资深独立开发者等等）。而对于那些仍想自己处理这一事宜的人，我希望写下这份指南去帮助你们明确那些在协商发行协议时应该考虑到的内容。

合同前阶段事宜

为什么你需要发行商？

在考虑与发行商合作前，你必须明确你希望从这种合作中获得什么。而为了回答这一问题你必须清楚发行商的主要手段。而不同发行商的手段又不同，但主要包括：

1.财务（通常是面向初创游戏，提供资金和/或移植）；

2.分销（在货架上出售实体内容以及提高数字商店的曝光度）；

3.PR/市场营销（包括出席产业中的活动）；

4.接洽（业务，生成，社交媒体，网络上的影响者等等）；

5.制造（真正生产游戏的实体盒装产品）；

6.开发（联合开发移植）；

7.本土化（面向其它区域翻译并调整游戏内容）；

8.QA；

9.平台提交；

10.年龄分级（如果是在欧洲或北美意外的国家发行的话就会很复杂，特别是在亚洲国家）；

11.提供开发工具；

12.等等。

你是否需要发行商？

一旦你清楚了自己想要什么，下一步便是问自己是否真的需要发行商去实现这一切，如是否存在其它方法让你不用将游戏的版税/一些使用权分发出去？例如是否有其它可行的募集资金的方法（游戏邦注：如众筹，UK Games Fund，Wellcome Trust，向朋友/其他开发者借钱）？如果你只是创造一款面向Steam/主机的数字游戏，你是否还需要一个分销合作伙伴？你是面向哪些国家发行的，那么你是否需要来自像亚洲等区域的专家（这是很难自己做到的）？你是否需要发行商的专业技能去进行市场营销和PR工作，是否有社交媒体/PR代理也能做好这些工作？你是否能够自己做好这些事？

最后一点很重要。尽管你能自己做好这些事，但是你也要记得这将耗费你大量时间。你也将因为时间的不足而不能真正致力于游戏开发中。所以你要记得，优秀的发行商已经执行了无数次这样的工作，所以他们能够最大化地减少问题的产生并确保工作具有效能。独自发行游戏真的是非常困难的一件事，你需要仔细思考自己是否真的能够做到所有需要做的事。

你需要选择怎样的发行商？

如果你已经决定将寻找发行商，那么下一步便是为自己和游戏找到最合适的发行商。发行商拥有各种规格，性质，所以找到合适的发行商也需要你投入许多精力。首先，你需要确保你所寻找的发行商拥有你需要的东西，如发行商是否提供资金支持？他们是否在你的目标国家拥有合作伙伴？他们是否在你的目标平台上拥有经验？他们之前的市场营销做得怎样（是否具有影响力）？他们现有的游戏目录以及声誉是否和你所创造的游戏类型相匹配？

你可以在网上找到许多有关发行商的信息，不管是通过发行商自己的网站，开发者博客，Gamasutra的文章还是谷歌搜索。同时你也不要害怕去联系那些与目标发行商曾经合作过的开发者们，特别是那些游戏不是卖的很好或者拥有糟糕的开发周期的开发者们（这些开发者往往能够提供给你更好的意见）。

合同

一旦你了解了一些发行商的做法，你便可以开始研究协议的各种细节了。当提到发行协议，你必须考虑四个最重要的方面：1）知识产权，2）财务分配；3）时间表，4）终止权利与结果。

1）知识产权

“如果游戏是你的宝贝，那么知识产权便是它的灵魂。”

我非常喜欢这样的形容，因为它完美地阐述了知识产权的重要性。不管谁拥有知识产权都能够完全控制使用游戏去做什么。所以当你在协商一份发行协议时，知识产权必须是你优先考虑的内容。

所以我的建议是，开发者最好能够保留自己游戏完整的知识产权。尽管这里并不存在硬性规定。如果保留知识产权将不能保证资金所得，而放弃知识产权能带给你大量的开发预算，你们便需要好好进行协商。而最终的选择还是取决于你自己的情况（例如你是否需要这份协议去保持工作室的运行），这款游戏对于你的重要性（也许这并不是你最主要的授权内容），以及最重要的在剩下的发行协议中你将获得/放弃哪些其它权利。

即使你保留了知识产权，你还需要留心哪些内容？

即使你保留了游戏的知识产权，你也有可能不小心将更多权益交出去，而这也会大大限制你对游戏的主导权。因为尽管你拥有着自己的游戏，但是为了让发行商能够做他们需要做的事，你需要赋予他们一定的权利。而当这种授权条件较为模糊或范围较广时，你便会遭遇各种问题—-所以明确的授权描述便非常重要，甚至每个单词都有可能创造出不同结果。当面对授权时，你应该谨慎考虑以下内容：

1.平台：授权包括哪些平台？即使你只创造了一个主机版本，你也仍需要考虑你之后可能要涉及的其它平台（游戏邦注：如PC，VR，TV等等）的权利以及不同的发行商（甚至是独立发行）。同时需要具有针对性，即如果你只是考虑iOS手机权利，就不要将所有“手机”权利都分出去。如果游戏只是关于XB1和PS4，也不要同意涵盖所有“主机”。

2.独占权：你所给出的权利是独占还是非独占？大多数情况下合同中的内容都是关于独占权，即意味着别人将不能再做你授权给发行商的这些事，这当然也包括你自己！所以如果你正在创造一款手机游戏并且将PC发行独占权给予了发行商，你之后便不能独立发行游戏的PC版本，你只能通过这个发行商去发行这些内容。

3.区域：大多数情况下发行商都会要求获得游戏的“世界”范围授权。但是开发者通常都只想给予特定区域的授权（特别是关于亚洲市场）。开发者需要考虑各种情况，如当前发行商没有在某些外国市场发行游戏的经验。而从国家管理角度来看，当前的中国市场一直在发生变化，所以找到当地的合作伙伴对于打算在此发行游戏的外国发行商来说非常重要。

4.持续时间：给予发行商的授权期限应该是在发行协议的有效期内（在协议终止前通常会有一个最小条款的自动更新）。所以这一条最好清楚地写明，不要使用像“永久”或“无限”之类的单词。

5.之后的作品（续集之类）：给予发行商的授权只包含这一款游戏，或者它是否也包含像子游戏，续集，前传，衍生作品，DLC等等内容？这些内容可以基于各种不同方式进行修饰，所以开发者必须认真阅读相关条款。关于平台，你必须确保能够留住之后一些项目的权利。

6.附属权利/开发：除了游戏发行权外，你是否将“开发”或“附属”权利也给了发行商（这都是一些较含糊但却有关非游戏产品，如商品，动画，电视，电影，书籍等内容）。在授予这些权利前，你必须问清楚发行商是否计划制作这些非游戏产品。如果他们不打算这么做，你最好前留住这些权利。

这部分内容是为了确保你能够100%了解你将给予别人的权利是什么。如果你不清楚它们代表什么，或觉得某些内容范围太广或定义不明确，请提出疑问并要求修改合同。

如果你交出了知识产权，你是否还有办法去改变自己的立场？

如果你决定交出知识产权，你仍可以基于一些方法与发行商协商有关未来项目的授权。例如：

1.ROFO/ROFR/ROLR/ROLO：它们分别代表1）第一次提供，2）第一次拒绝，3）最后一次拒绝以及4）最后一次提供的权利。这些术语代表的是不同的内容，而你经常会遇到的则是ROFO。如果你交出了知识产权但你和对方协商了ROFO，这便意味着如果发行商想要基于你的游戏IP去发行续集/其它产品，他们就必须将首次开发工作交付给你们。合同通常会说明你将与发行商协商一段特定时期去达成再次开发协议。如果未达成任何协议，发行商将能在其它地方使用IP。换句话说便是，ROFO并不能保证你将参与未来项目或获得收益，但是他们至少会事先询问你的意见。

2.复归权：这一条款不是很常见，但它通常意味着如果你交出了知识产权，但发行商未在特定时期内（如3至5年）创造续集内容，那么知识产权便会回到最初的开发者手上。

总结：知识产权始终是一个非常重要的话题，而我也始终认为开发者应该保留这一权利。虽然上述内容始终声称知识产权的重要性，但是你也有可能1）即使拥有知识产权但却仍会无意识地失去对于自己IP的控制，2）即使交出了知识产权但却仍能参与之后关于IP的一些决定。换句话说，你不能模糊任何有关知识产权的内容，因为合同上的所有内容都可能影响到知识产权的实际操作，你必须全面地去浏览合同内容。

2）财务

财务条款是你第二需要认真阅读的内容。你需要考虑的内容包括：

1.收益分配：你和发行商各自想保留怎样的收益分配？我被问过无数次“通常的发行商收益分配是怎样的？”，而关于这一问题的答案则需要考虑到许多不同元素，即你需要给出20%至70%不等的收益。这是一个很艰难的讨价还价过程！

2.收益流：所以你已经同意了有关游戏销售的收益分配，但关于其它地方，如DLC，IAP，续集，T恤，书籍，电视节目或电影等所创造的收益又要如何分配？不管你交出了怎样的权利，你都需要明确开发这些内容所创造的收益要如何处理，有时候这将被总结成一个百分比或者将给予不同收益流进行不同划分。

3.总收益/净收益：当你明确了自己将获得多少比例的收益后，你还需要讨论实际的百分比。是关于总收益还是净收益？如果是净收益，协议中的“净收益”又是如何定义的，如在计算你的百分比之前发行商扣除了多少费用？开发者应该仔细浏览这些内容并对像“其它成本”等模糊的术语提出疑问，并要求作出相应修改。

4.付款时间：你何时能够真正获得收益分配？是以月为单位还是以季度为单位？还是在你提交账单给发行商的30天内？你何时可以真正提交账单—-是在收到发行商所寄来的版税报告之后吗？如果这样的话发行商何时该寄给你版税报告？基于付款时间的措辞以及扣除多少成本，你可能会在游戏发行后3至6个月才能收到钱，即使你的游戏卖的非常好！

5.版税报告：确保你能够收到这份报告并能够理解里面的内容。办税报告至少需要详细列出每个区域的每个平台所卖出的游戏数量，并分析其中的总收益，扣除内容以及最终开发者和发行商所获取的净收益。如果你不能理解其中的内容，请勇敢地咨询别人。

6.审计权：拥有审计权你便能够让专业的审计公司去检查发行商的账目以确保他们支付给你正确的版税数额。这通常是在不得已情况才放出的大招，但如果能将其写进合同中也是一种优势。

3）进度

进度是关于游戏的开发与投资的时间表，通常是在发行协议的最后部分。仔细浏览这些细节以确保这部分的有效陈述：

1.在每个进度中具体需要递交什么内容：是否包含alpha测试，beta测试，第一份可游戏内容，架构等等？每个阶段能够接受的漏洞程度是怎样的？应该呈现怎样的游戏功能/资产—-多人游戏，系统，完整的UI，配音等等？尽管现在不怎么流行详细写明这些内容，但是对于开发者来说这能够有效避免之后的争论，特别是关于最终游戏将包含怎样的功能之类的内容。你同时也应该要求包含“实质改变”条款，即意味着如果游戏范围在某一时刻发生巨大变化，那么时间/进度/支付方式将能够进行重新协商。

2.你何时能收到每个进度的费用：基于进度的付款将与一些静态日期联系在一起（如3月15日）或发行商基于进度任务所决定的时间（例如基于游戏架构）。开发者必须确保这些支付时间符合自己的现金流周转，例如如果你需要聘请员工或购买设备和软件，你便可以请求提前支付，并确保你的第一次付款不是在第一个进度阶段，否则你将没有足够的资金开始创造。同时你也需要为自己留些后路，即考虑到员工可能生病，创造可能出问题或需要花费比预期更长的时间，理念可能被废弃等等情况。

发行商的提交/接受程序是怎样的：对于那些付款与递交内容的“接受度”相关的进度，“接受度”到底指的是什么？

3.一般提交/接受过程是怎样的？发行商在什么情况下会拒绝一个进度？缺少特定功能还是具有太多漏洞（这便是为什么开发者必须明确每个阶段该递交什么样的内容的细节的原因）？发行商将花费多长时间去审核每个递交内容？这一时间是否会影响到你的下个进度？

4.如果发行商拒绝了递交内容该怎么办：如果发行商拒绝了递交内容，接下来该怎么办？发行商是否会提供拒绝的具体原因？开发者可以花费多长时间去解决这些问题？协议中同时也需要有一个条款去说明如果是发行商导致延迟，那剩下的进度就需要计算上这一延迟时间。

4）终止权与结果

尽管在建立良好工作关系的一开始去提终止权似乎有点不妥，但千万不要因此就忽视这点。毕竟合同的主要目的之一便是明确问题出现时该怎么去做。

在大多数发行协议中，终止权都将偏向于发行商，特别是在他们会提供开发资金的时候（这也是合理的，因为发行商将因为投资游戏而需要承担许多先前风险）。也就是说开发者需要仔细浏览一些终止权条款，如发行商是否违反了其中一些规定（违反支付规定，滥用你的IP等等）。

开发者必须尽可能仔细去阅读终止权内容，明确发行商是否在游戏发行前便拥有终止权？发行商是否拥有任何“为方便终止”的权利（如他们可以随时或毫无理由终止协议）？如果你不能即时递交进度内容或发行商多次拒绝递交内容，他们是否能够终止协议？

一份有效的发行协议必须明确说明如果出现终止将会发生什么。即开发者需要考虑：

你能否将IP带向其它发行商/自己致力于该IP？

你是否需要偿还至今为止所收到的开发资金？

如果在协议终止时你完成了部分进度内容，你是否能够收到这些内容的费用（是部分还是全额）？

如果你一开始交出了知识产权，在终止协议时你是否能拿回知识产权？

协议终止后发行商是否还会继续收到版税？

基于终止协议的对象不同，上述情况是否会发生不同？

这里不存在硬性规则，很多要点都是基于双方的协商，所以不要感到害羞并记得马上去考虑这些内容，不要拖延。根据我的经验，这也是在协商发行协议时请求专业顾问帮助的主要原因，因为他们能够清楚看到那些你可能会忽视的问题。

就这样了？

还没结束！大多数合同都会分成两部分—-有关“商业”条款的部分（如上述内容）以及有关所有法律事宜的内容，如保密性，赔偿，债务，担保，适用法律和权限等等，这将包含大量法律术语。如果不了解这些专业术语便很难理解这些内容。而这两部分都很重要，你必须同等对待法律条款与商业条款。

结论

1.始终明确你想从发行商那里获得什么，你是否真的需要发行商，如果需要，怎样的发行商最适合你。

2.在协商发行协议时考虑4个最重要部分，知识产权，财务，进度和终止权利与结果。

3.知识产权很重要。如果你保留了知识产权，不要因为模糊的授权内容而失去其中的控制权。如果你交出了知识产权，尝试去协商之后的产品开发。

4.关于财务，确保合同清楚写明你何时将获得多少付款。

5.确保合同上尽可能详细描述进度和接受程序，特别是关于每个进度需要递交的内容，你何时能得到付款，发行商在什么情况下会拒绝递交内容，那之后又会怎样。

6.不仅要考虑某一方会终止协议，也要考虑终止后的结果。

7.合同中总是包含许多法律事宜，这与商业条款一样重要。

建议

1、浏览合同！不要找任何不这么做的借口。

2.理解里面的内容。这是较为复杂的一步，因为合同总是比其它文书更细致，而如果你不确定某些条款的意思，请一定要询问发行商或朋友或家人。

3.要求书面合同，不要是通过发送邮件，Skype，IM或其它方式而获取合同，如果你需要作出改变，请确保最终签订的合同是改变后的内容。

4.给自己留出足够的时间。花足够的时间去审核并协商发行协议，可以是几周也可以是几个月。

5.区分需求与欲望。你不可能在合同中获得自己想要的一切，所以你最好侧重那些对自己真正重要的东西并在某些方面做出妥协。

6.携手共进。协商一份协议是双向的，你既需要足够现实，听取发行商的意见，也要将其与自己想要的平衡在一起。

7.不要纠结于某些特定要点，应该从整体上去浏览并理解协议/合同。

8.准备好离开。这并不简单，但你必须留给自己足够的余地让你能够大胆地说出“不”。

9.获得帮助。不管是来自朋友，家人还是其他开发者，顾问或者律师，果断地去寻求外部帮助；任何相关成本都比不上你最终签订一份糟糕的合同。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Publishing Agreement Pitfalls: A Practical Guide for Indie Devs

by Pete Lewin

A publishing deal is potentially one of the most important contracts you’ll ever enter into regarding your game. A good one can see long-term partnerships thrive and successful games brought to life, whereas a bad one can lead to bitter disputes about royalties, deadlines and even game / IP ownership.

I seriously believe that the vast majority of publishers out there aren’t intentionally looking to tie people into bad contracts. What I do think though is that the paperwork formalizing these deals isn’t always given the attention it deserves (by either devs or publishers) at the time when it’s needed the most – i.e. before signing. It’s a dev’s own responsibility to negotiate a good publishing agreement – don’t always just assume that the contract you’ve been given is fair or even 100% reflects what has been discussed verbally.

Publishing deals are more often than not fairly complex and unless you’ve been through the process several times before, there’s little substitute for getting a professional advisor involved (i.e. a lawyer, consultant, business advisor, veteran indie dev etc). However, for those still looking to go it alone, I wanted to put together this guide to help identify some of the things which you should normally think about when negotiating a publishing deal, and the resulting answers put into the contract.

PRE-CONTRACT STUFF

Why do you want a publisher?
Before thinking about partnering with a publisher, it’s important to be clear on what you actually want out of the relationship. To answer that, it’s important to know what publishers typically do. This varies from publisher to publisher (more on this later), but can include:

1.Finance (potentially for the initial game, completion funding and/or ports);

2.Distribution (getting physical copies on shelves and good digital store visibility);

3.PR / Marketing (including attendance at industry events);

4.Contacts (business, production, social media, online influencers etc);

5.Manufacturing (actually producing the physical boxed copies of a game);

6.Development (co-developing ports);

7.Localisation (translating and adapting your game’s content to other territories);

8.QA;

9.Platform Submission;

10.Age Ratings (which can be complicated if releasing outside EU/NA, particularly In Asia);

11.Providing dev kits;

12.Etc.

Do you need a publisher?

Once you’ve decided what you want, the next step is to ask yourself if you actually need a publisher to achieve these things – i.e. is there some alternative means out there which doesn’t involve giving away royalties/rights in your game. For example, are there any alternative funding options available (e.g. crowdfunding, the UK Games Fund, the Wellcome Trust, loans from friends/other devs)? Do you actually need a distribution partner if you’re only creating a digital-only Steam/console game? Which countries are you actually releasing in – do you need expertise in territories like Asia (which are notoriously difficult / impossible to pursue alone)? Do you need a publisher’s skill set for marketing and PR or are there any social media / PR agencies that could work equally as well? Could you even do some of these things yourself?

That last point is an important one. While it’s certainly possible to do some of these things yourself, remember that this is going to take time. A lot of time. Time which is keeping you from actually working on your game. And remember, a good publisher will have done this all multiple times before which should minimize mistakes and hopefully keep things as efficient as possible. Releasing a game solo is incredibly hard work – always think carefully about whether or not you can realistically achieve everything (including the business / admin stuff) that needs to be done.

If so, which publisher?

If you’ve decided to look for a publisher, the next step is finding the right publisher for you and your game. Publishers come in all shapes, sizes and personalities and finding the right one can take a fair amount of work. First off, you’ll want to make sure that the publishers (yes, plural – keep your options open) you’re actually targeting are known for offering the things you’ve decided you need – e.g. does that publisher actually offer completion funding? Do they actually have partners and connections in the foreign territories you want to reach? Do they have experience in the formats (physical/digital) on the platforms (consoles, PC etc) that you want to launch on? What have their previous marketing efforts looked like – were you impressed? Does their existing catalogue of titles and general reputation match up with the type of game you’re making?

You can find a huge amount of information about publishers online, whether through the publishers’ own websites, dev blogs, post-mortems on Gamasutra, generally Googling etc. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to previous devs who have worked with that publisher in the past – particularly those whose games may not have been the biggest sellers or that had troubled development cycles (those devs will give you a better insight into what the publisher is like when things aren’t necessarily going perfectly).

CONTRACT FUN

Once you’ve piqued the interest of a couple of publishers, it’s time to start getting into the details of the deal on the table. When it comes to publishing agreements, four of the most important areas to think about are: (1) Intellectual Property Rights; (2) Financials; (3) Milestones; and (4) Termination Rights and Consequences.

(1) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

“If a game is your baby, the intellectual property is its soul” – this great Gama piece.

I love this quote because it perfectly encapsulates the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) in a game. Whoever owns the IPRs basically has control over what is (and what isn’t) done with that game (but keep reading for exceptions to this!). As a result, IPR ownership should be one of the things at the front of your mind when negotiating a publishing deal.

My default position when advising clients is that devs should retain full IPR ownership in the game that is created. However, there are no hard and fast rules here. If you’re faced with retaining IPR ownership but not being able to secure funding on the one hand, but giving up IPR ownership and securing a substantial development budget, a fair rev share across all income streams from a proven publisher, it’s at least worth being open to the deal on the table. A lot comes down to your own personal circumstances (e.g. do you need this deal to keep the studio afloat), how important this game is to you (maybe it’s not one you see becoming your primary franchise) and importantly, what other rights you get/give away in the rest of the publishing agreement.

Even if you retain IPR ownership, what should you look out for?

Even if you retain IPR ownership in the game, there are still a number of ways you could accidentally give away more than you intend to, which can drastically limit your control over your own game! And that’s because even though you own your game, you’ll need to grant the publisher a ‘licence’ over this in order to legally permit the publisher to do all the good things they’re meant to do. Problems can arise though when the conditions of that licence are ambiguous or overly wide – the precise wording of a licence is very important and single words can make all the difference (no exaggeration!). When it comes to looking at licences, some of the things you should look out for include:

1.Platforms: which platforms does the licence cover? Even if you’re only actually creating a console version for release, you can still tie-up rights for other platforms (PC, VR, TV etc) that you might want to create later down the line and give to a different publisher (or even self-publish). Also, be as specific as possible – if you’re just giving iOS mobile rights, don’t agree to giving away all “mobile” rights. If it’s just XB1 and PS4, don’t agree to all “consoles”.

2.Exclusivity: are the rights you’re giving away exclusive or non-exclusive? In most cases it’ll be the former, which means that no one else can do those things which you’re exclusively granting to the publisher – this includes you yourself! So if you’re making a mobile game but also give away exclusive PC publishing rights to the publisher, you technically can’t self-release a PC version later down the line – you can only do so with that publisher.

3.Territory: In most cases the publisher will ask for a ‘worldwide’ licence over the game. However, it’s not uncommon for devs to look to carve out certain territories from the scope of a licence (particularly in relation to Asia). This can be valuable to devs for a number of reasons, including where the current publisher doesn’t actually have any experience publishing in those foreign territories. Things are changing a lot in China at the moment from a regulatory perspective making a local partner almost essential for foreign devs releasing their games there.

4.Duration: Licences to a publisher should only last for as long as the actual publishing agreement remains in effect (re which there’ll normally be a minimum term which automatically renews until terminated). This should be written clearly and words like ‘perpetual’, ‘indefinite’ etc removed.

5.Future Works (sequels etc): Does the licence to the publisher only cover this single game, or does it also include future works like spin-offs, sequels, prequels, derivative works, games ‘based on’ the first, DLC, cosmetics, etc? This can be dressed up in a number of ways (often quite confusingly so), so it’s important to read the wording carefully. As with platforms, the important thing is to make sure you’re not unintentionally locking away rights to future projects.

6.Ancillary Rights / ‘Exploitation’: In addition to game publishing rights, are you giving away any other ‘exploitation’ or ‘ancillary’ rights (which are both fairly nebulous terms but basically mean non-game products such as merchandise, comics, TV, film, books etc). Before giving these away, make sure to ask if the publisher actually plans on (and has experience) producing these non-game products. If they don’t, be cautious before locking up these potentially very valuable rights.

The moral of this section is to make sure you’re 100% clear with what rights you’re giving away. If you’re unclear what something means, think something is drafted too widely or is simply wrong, always question this and get the contract tidied up.

If you give up IPR ownership, is there anything you can do to improve your position?

If you decide to part ways with the IPR ownership, there are still a number of things you can look to negotiate which could give you some level of involvement in future projects in the franchise. For example:

1.ROFO / ROFR / ROLR / ROLO: these stand for Right of (i) first offer, (ii) first refusal, (iii) last refusal and (iv) last offer. These terms all mean subtly different things (which can be very important), but the one you’ll come across most often is a right of first offer (ROFO). If you give up your IPR but you negotiate a ROFO, this will normally mean (though it depends on the exact wording in the contract) that if the publisher wants to publisher a sequel/other product based on that game IP, they must first offer the development work to you. The contract will normally say that you’ll then enter negotiations with the publisher for a certain period of time (e.g. 30 days) to try and reach agreement re development terms. If no agreement can be reached, the publisher is free to take the IP elsewhere. In other words, a ROFO isn’t a guarantee that you’ll be involved in future projects or even get a rev share for those, but it normally means that you’ll at least be consulted.

2.Reversionary Rights: slightly less common nowadays, but a reversionary right normally means that if you give up your IPR but the publisher hasn’t made a sequel within a certain period of time (e.g. 3-5 years), then the IPR ownership reverts back to the original developer. The idea here is to try and prevent the warehousing of IPs.

Summary: IPR ownership is an incredibly important topic and my default position is that the devs should retain this. However, hopefully the above demonstrates that while IPR ownership is important, there are a number of ways in which you can (i) unintentionally lose control of your IP even if you own it, and (ii) gain some future involvement with the IP, even if you give up actual ownership. In other words, it’s important not to tunnel-vision on the idea of IP ownership alone, since everything else in the contract can have a major impact on how that IP ownership actually works in practice – always read the contract as a whole.

(2) FINANCIALS

The financial terms are the next that should be given your close attention. Things you’ll want to think about here include:

1.Revenue Share: What split of revenue do you keep and what does the publisher keep? A question I get asked a lot is “what’s a typical publisher rev share”, but the answer to that is so deal-specific and depends on a huge number of factors – you could be looking at giving up anywhere between 20-70% of your revenue. Be prepared and bargain hard!

2.Revenue Streams: So, you’ve agreed the rev split in relation to game sales, but what about revenue that is generated from elsewhere, such as DLC, cosmetic IAPs, sequels, t-shirts, books, tv shows, movies etc? Whatever rights you’re giving up, it needs to be clear how revenue made from the exploitation of these is handled – sometimes this can all be wrapped up into a single % figure, or different %s can be negotiated for different revenue streams.

3.Gross / Net: Once you’ve work out what share you’re keeping, it’s important to discuss what that’s actually a % of. Is that gross revenue or net? If it’s net, how is ‘net’ defined in the agreement – i.e. what ‘deductions’, ‘recoupments’ or expenses are getting taken off by the publisher before your % is calculated? Look at these carefully, ask for ambiguous terms such as “other costs” to be clarified, narrowed or removed as needed.

4.Payment Periods: When do you actually get paid your rev share? On a monthly or quarterly basis? Within 30 days of you submitting an invoice to publisher? When can you actually submit an invoice – only upon receipt of a royalty report from the publisher? If so, when will the publisher give you royalty reports? Depending on the payment period wording and what costs are being recouped (e.g. dev funding), it’s possible that you might not see any money at all until 3-6 post-release, even if the game sells well! Prepare for this and don’t hinge survivability on receiving royalties on day 1.

5.Royalty Reports: Make sure you get these and that you understand them. A royalty report should at least detail how many units were sold on which platforms, in which regions and give you a breakdown of gross revenue, deductions/recoupments and the division of net rev share between dev and publisher. If you don’t understand something here, don’t be afraid to ask.

6.Audit Rights: Having an audit right gives you the ability to send in a professional firm of auditors to check the publisher’s books/accounts to make sure it has been paying you the correct royalties. It’s normally only used as a last resort, but having the power written into the contract can be advantageous if things unfortunately start to go wrong.

(3) MILESTONES

The Milestones set out the development and funding timeline for a game and are normally found tucked away in the back of a publishing agreement in its ‘schedules’. Checking details here is crucial to make sure this section clearly sets out:

1.exactly what has to be delivered at each milestone: what actually constitutes an alpha, beta, first playable, submission build etc? What level of bugs is acceptable at each stage? What game features/assets should be present – multiplayer, save systems, full UI, voiceover etc? Although it’s less common nowadays to set these things out in massive detail, it’s still in the devs interest to do so as this reduces scope for arguments in the future – particularly re what features the final game will actually include. You should also look to include a “material change” clause, which basically means if the scope of the game drastically changes at any point, that time frames/milestones/payments etc should be renegotiated.

2.when you get paid for each milestone: milestone payments could be tied to static dates (e.g. 15 March) or to ‘acceptance’ by the publisher of a milestone’s ‘deliverable’ (i.e. the game build). It’s important to make sure that these payment time frames actually work for you from a cash flow perspective – if you need advance funding (i.e. on signing) in order to hire staff/buy equipment and software, make sure your first payment isn’t all the way at acceptance of the first milestone – otherwise you won’t have enough to get started. Also, re timings in general, always remember to build yourself in some leeway – staff get sick, things go wrong or take longer than expected, ideas get scrapped and added in etc.

what the publisher’s submission / acceptance procedure is: for those milestones where payment is tied to ‘acceptance’ of a deliverable, what does ‘acceptance’ actually mean?

3.What does the general submission / acceptance process look like? When can a publisher reject a milestone – lack of a particular feature / too many bugs (this is why it’s good to go into as much detail re what’s due at each stage)? How long does the publisher have to review each deliverable? Does this time eat into your next milestone?

4.what happens if there’s rejection: If the publisher rejects a deliverable, what happens next? Does the publisher have to give detailed reasons for the rejection? How long/how many chances does the dev get to remedy these problems? There should also be a clause in the agreement saying that if the publisher causes delay (by e.g. taking a long time in reviewing deliverables) then the remaining milestones are extended by the amount of delay incurred.

(4) TERMINATION RIGHTS AND CONSEQUENCES

Although it sounds negative to be thinking about termination rights/consequences at the start of a hopefully very positive working relationship, don’t let that stop you from being forward thinking. After all, one of the main purposes of contracts is to set out what happens when things go wrong.

In the majority of publishing agreements, termination rights will be weighted in favour of the publisher, particularly where it is providing development funding (which makes sense since the publisher assumes a lot of the up-front risk in investing in you/the game). That said, there are some termination rights which a developer should always look for, such as for serious breaches by publisher (e.g. payment defaults, misuse of your IP etc) and if the publisher goes into liquidation.

Make sure to read the publisher’s termination rights carefully as well as your own – does the publisher have additional termination rights prior to the commercial release of the game? Does the publisher have any ‘termination for convenience’ rights (i.e. it can terminate at any time for any – or no – reason)? Can the publisher terminate if you fail to submit a milestone on time or if it rejects a deliverable multiple times?

But it’s not just when either party can terminate that’s important – a good publishing agreement should set out clearly what happens in the event of termination. Things to think about there include:

Can you take the IP to another publisher/keep working on it yourself?

Do you have to repay any of the development funding to date?

If you’re part way through a milestone when the agreement terminates, do you get paid that milestone (in part or in full)?

If you originally gave up the IP, does this revert back to you in the event of termination?

Does the publisher continue to receive royalties for any period after termination?

Does any of the above vary depending on which party terminates the agreement?

There are no hard and fast rules here and a lot of these points will be open to negotiation – don’t be shy to negotiate and remember that now is the time to be thinking about these things, not later. And in my experience that’s one of the main reasons for getting a professional advisor involved in negotiating a publishing deal – they’re there to point out the tricky questions which can easily slip your mind while everything else is going on and to fight your corner as hard as possible.

THAT’S IT?

Not yet! Most contracts are softly divided into two halves – one that deals with the ‘commercial’ terms (like those above) and one that deals with all of the legal stuff like confidentiality, ‘indemnities’, ‘liabilities’, ‘warranties and representations’, governing law and jurisdiction etc, which will most likely be written in fairly hefty legalese. Unfortunately there’s no simple way around having these reviewed by someone who’s familiar with the terminology. But both parts are equally important and the legals should be given as much attention as the commercial parts of a deal. After all, in the event that something goes seriously wrong, it’s often the legals that will dictate how risk/liability is divided between the parties.

TL;DR

1.Always think carefully about what you want from a publisher, whether you actually need a publisher and, if so, which publisher is right for you.

2.Four of the most important areas to think about when negotiating a publishing agreement are (a) Intellectual Property, (b) Financials, (c) Milestones and (d) Termination Rights and Consequences.

3.IPR ownership is important. If you’re keeping your IP, don’t accidentally lose control of this through widely drafted licences. If you’re giving up your IP, try and negotiate some involvement over future exploitations (ROFOs etc).

4.For the financials, make sure there’s clarity over what and when you’re actually getting paid.

5.Be as detailed as possible when it comes to setting out the milestones and acceptance procedure, particularly regarding what’s due at each milestone, when you actually get paid, when the publisher can reject and what happens then.

6.Think carefully about not only when either party can terminate the agreement, but what the consequences of termination actually are.

7.There’s always a whole bunch of legal stuff in a contract which is just as important as the commercial terms (particularly in the event something goes wrong in the future).

TIPS

1.Read your contract! There’s never any excuse for not doing this.

2.Understand it. This one’s a little harder because some contracts are more clearly written than others, but if you’re ever unsure of what something means, ask the publisher or a friend or family member to help explain this. With contracts, the devil truly is in the detail.

3.Get it in writing. Not in emails, skype, IM or anything else – if you’ve requested a change/clarification, make sure this ends up in the contract you eventually sign.

4.Give yourself enough time. Always leave enough time for proper review and negotiation of a publishing agreement – this can range anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months.

5.Separate needs from wants. You’ll never get everything you want in the contract, so it’s important to focus on what’s important to you and being prepared to compromise on other points.

6.Work together. Negotiating a deal is a 2-way street – keep things civil, realistic, listen to the publisher’s side of things and balance that with what you’re asking for.

7.Tunnel Vision. Don’t tunnel vision on any particular point and always read and understand the deal/contract as a whole.

8.Be prepared to walk away. This isn’t always easy to do, but giving yourself enough options so that you actually have the power to say no is really important.

9.Get help. Whether this is from friends, family, other devs, consultants, advisors or lawyers – don’t be embarrassed to look for external help; any cost associated with this will be marginal in comparison to what you could be putting on the line with a bad contract. （source：gamasutra）