What is the history of 'developers' and 'publishers' in the game industry?



In the video game industry, there are “developers” who develop the games themselves, and “publishers” who sell and advertise the games, and the game business is operated by playing respective roles. One company,

Apogee Software, has contributed significantly to the birth of this developer/publisher.

Indie history: How shareware helped build Epic Games | Engadget
https://www.engadget.com/indie-video-games-publishing-epic-id-devolver-apogee-gathering-of-developers-150002664.html

Founded in 1987, Apogee Software was originally a company that sells MS-DOS- based games created by its founder, Scott Miller . When Miller was in his late twenties, he brought his game to Infocom , a famous software company such as the ' Zoke ' series, and he was refused. At that time, Miller launched Apogee Software and published a game on the Internet community in the style of 'please donate.' However, sales did not reach 10,000 dollars (about 1.1 million yen).

From this one case, Mr. Miller comes to devise a sales form. 'Kingdom of Kroz' released by Miller on Apogee Software in 1987 was a large volume adventure game with 60 stages, but Miller tries to divide it into three parts. Miller released the first of these free of charge and sold the remaining two episodes for a fee.

You can see what kind of game Miller's 'Kingdom of Kroz' was by watching the following movie.

Kingdom of Kroz I gameplay (PC Game, 1988)-YouTube


According to Mr. Miller's guess, about 1 to 2% of the people who played the first free work purchased the second work and later, but still earned a considerable profit. Initially, 'Kingdom of Kroz' was only sold by check, but later it can be used for telephone orders using a credit card. At the peak of the year, sales reached 2000 dollars a week (about 220,000 yen).

Realizing the potential of the gaming business, Miller quit his job in 1990 and concentrates on Apogee Software. At that time, he thought that he could not catch up with the development by himself, so he started searching for 'a game developer who sells games from Apogee Software'.

In this way, Miller found four people, John Romero , Adrian Carmack , Tom Hall , and John D. Carmack . These four founded id Software and later created the legendary FPS game series ' DOOM '. Romero and four others developed a game called ' Commander Keen '. I left Apogee Software as a publisher to sell.

Commander Keen 1 (1991, MS-DOS)-Marooned on Mars (Full Longplay)[720p60]-YouTube


The first commander 'Commander Keen' recorded sales of 20,000 dollars (about 2.2 million yen) in one month, and Mr. Romero and others turned into full-time creators. id Software released Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, which was described as 'a monumental game that established FPS as a genre' after selling several games with Apogee Software as a publisher. Wolfenstein 3D has been a blockbuster hit with over $200,000 in monthly sales for over a year.

Wolfenstein 3D Full Playthrough (DOS)-YouTube


In the early 90's Activision and Electronic Arts were also doing publishing activities, but Activision and Electronic Arts managed intellectual property rights as part of the publishing contract. Therefore, it seems that there was a strange phenomenon that developers could not make a sequel to the game that their company made.

On the other hand, Apogee Software did not conclude a contract for intellectual property rights, but only acted as a marketing agent. As a result, id Software will grow exponentially throughout the 90s.

That's where Epic Games first came to world-famous Fort Fort . Apogee Software renamed 3D Realms and partnered with publishers like Epic Games to create a new publisher called Gathering of Developers . At the time of the establishment of Gathering of Developers, Mr. Miller publishes 'Advice for Developers' entitled ' The Ten Commandments of Developers'. According to the Ten Commandments of developers, 'Intellectual property rights should not be sold.' 'Commercialization plan rights should not be sold to publishers.' 'Generally, a studio with no track record starts at 15% royalty. 'Up to 50% depending on sales,' 'If you contract with a publisher, you will get an average of $750,000 (about 81 million yen), and a studio with a hit work will receive $ 2 million (about 220 million yen) as advance payment 'We will be paid', so we disclosed in detail even contract information that would not normally be disclosed, so that the developer can make a fair contract.

As with Miller, Epic Games is also making a developer-focused deal. In March 2020, Epic Games signed a contract with three developers, genDESIGN, Playdead and Remedy Entertainment, that 'The developer has 100% intellectual property rights' It includes up to 100% cost of go-to-market costs across all publishing costs' and 'Developers get at least 50% of total profit.'



The Epic Games store , a game distribution platform operated by Epic Games , has an agreement that '12% of sales will be received by the Epic Games store and 88% by the developer.' On the other hand, Steam, which is the world's largest game sales platform, has a contract that developers can only receive 70% of the sales (the distribution ratio fluctuates from 75% to 80% depending on the sales), compared to the Epic Games store. And 'a platform that developers can't earn'.

The management policy of the Epic Games store is based on the intention of Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games. Upon the launch of Sweeney CEO of Epic Games store, ' revenue-sharing (profit distribution rate) is good, want to make the developer's convenience is high Store' and says .

Sweeney said, “If the dominant game store adopts a profit sharing ratio that is more detrimental to creators than its competitors, then the only thing a creator can do to lower the price of a game is to avoid a dominant store. That's our ultimate goal!”, indicating our desire to increase our share of the Epic Games store to prevent Steam's monopoly on the market, which offers a high profit share.




To that end, Sweeney is implementing a strategy of 'making the Epic Games store itself more attractive'. At the core of this strategy are methods of ' delivering free games every week ' and ' delivering exclusive titles '. However, there has been a lot of criticism about the method of 'delivering an exclusive title.'

Regarding the distribution of the exclusive title, Sweeney said on Twitter, ``If Steam promises all publishers and developers a profit sharing ratio of 88% (equivalent to the Epic Games store) permanently, Epic Games We will immediately stop the exclusive sales contract and consider 'selling Epic Games games on Steam'.' Steam said it would be okay to discontinue exclusive titles if it rectifies overvalued royalties and improves developer treatment.




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in Web Service,   Game, Posted by darkhorse_log