[IGDA_indies] Self publishing and download.com

[Jon Bonnell]

Go for it.  You can do it, but you’ll be spending A LOT of time selling.
You’ll have to sell to each manage of each store individually to put your
game on the shelf.  Store Manager have the right (limited right) to put
local product on the shelves that didn’t come from the corporate buyer, but
that means you need to walk every store and beg.  After that, you’ll need to
drive to the next town and start all over again.

 

So, realistically that won’t work.  Sure, you might sell a couple 100 this
way
 maybe.

 

Now, if you can get lucky (and I truly mean that) you might get your game
into a chain through their buyer.  But, unless you know someone in that
chain that can directly introduce you to the corporate buyer, you chances
are slim to none.  But let’s say you do.  Now your requirements just became
say 20 units per store.  That’s 20 units times 1000 stores or 20,000 units.
Seeing dollar signs?  Don’t.  The chain will first want AT LEAST 60 days
payment terms.  So, you need to come up with £6000 for production costs
(plus shipping).  Ok, £6000 isn’t so much for the your share of the retail
pie (let’s say since there is no middle man you make 20% off retail or $9.95
per unit) £199,000.  That’s a pretty solid return on investment


 

Oh, but the retailer won’t want to pay you if it doesn’t sell.  You’ll have
to take back what doesn’t sell or take your cut on the final selling price
(if they put it in the bargain bin).  So, to insure you sell you’ll need to
MARKET.  Frankly one ad in one magazine is going to eat QUICKLY into that
199,000 and to truly blanket your market you’ll be advancing cash to the
magazines, etc, long before you get it.

 

Basically, you see my point.  For the small indie there is just no way to
make this work. Savage and Spartan both got publishers to handle this stuff.
Heck, even id, when it came to distribution, didn’t do it itself (Activision
is handling Doom 3 and that game almost could sell itself).

 

  _____  

From: indies-bounces at igda.org [mailto:indies-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of
Ronald Hobbs
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 5:29 PM
To: 'Indie SIG mailing list'
Subject: [IGDA_indies] Self publishing and download.com

 

If no-ones minds a stupid question that has irritate me ever since I saw
dexterity.com


 

How come there’s a perception that indie games have to be distributed via
the internet? Why can’t I simply print some CD’s and sell them instead? A
professional print for CD’s is only about £300 for 1000 CDs.

 

Why can I not bribe some store official at Game or PC World or whatever to
stick my boxes right up there next to the latest EA release? Hell why do we
have to publish in a software store why not be as Independent in our
marketing and distribution as we are in our development? Why not get a toy
store to stock you kids games, or a model store to stock your war-game?
Surely people that would buy our games don’t just go to a software store?

 

I don’t see why we should always think of indie games as the small, simple
ones that you can download off the web. Did games like Savage and Spartan
not prove that you could be an indie and still get it on the shelves? 

 

I wonder just how much of the general public views indie games as the small
puzzle/platform variety that you can download off a thousand sites and not
pay a cent for, and I personally feel that this view is encouraged by indies
themselves. Why are indies consoling themselves to casual gaming markets and
not out there exploring new markets?

 

 

 

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