Saw that Xenoclone and BigBadBrush mentioned us in this thread (and thanks for the kind comments). It's off the topic of Chillingo's acquisition, but Appy is entering the field as a publisher. The All-In-1 ZombieBox was our first release in our "Appy Spotlight" line, and others will follow. We don't have the scale of Chillingo (nor do we now have the scale of their bank account, after this morning!) but we are interested in working with indie developers to help bring their games to market. We have a little bit of reach to help get games launched but like everything with Appy Entertainment, it's a work in progress! Interested developers should drop us a line. Congrats to Chillingo on their acquisition!
oh I JUST heard about this right now. Anyone else feel like they coulda held out for a little more, considering the ngmoco thing?
Without knowing their cash flow or debt level it's hard to say if holding out would have increased their price, or reduced it. The ngmoco deal got the dominoes going. Chillingo won't be the last acquisition this year, I am sure. It's consolidation time!
I guess (after a touch of research) there's quite a big difference in the worth of the Chillingo deal vs the ngmoco one.... the ngmoco one means the acquisitor (that a word?) actually is buying some properties, and I'll expect maybe some studio(s). With Chillingo, it looks more like they will have access to (presumably control of) all of their network. So in many ways this is apples and oranges to compare the two. who is next? Will ubi eyeball gameloft? What will activision do? it's definitely a great time to be high-profile...
My gut tells me it's a great time to be Backflip! (we have NO insight if anything is brewing over there, just connecting the dots)
Sigh, already I guess? Consolidation is happening with the big game companies (next-gen games I'm talking about), I was hoping the mobile industry was gonna stay more indie for longer. Then again when I see a guy Matt Rix with Trainyard, it inspires me that a pure indie can beat the big boys. I guess it's time for you to shine Appy guys!
The App Store is still the best market out there for indie guys to do it on their own. Ian Marsh's Pocket Frogs was in the top thirty grossing iPhone apps last time I checked, and I'm pretty sure Ian is still a three man shop. A great game idea, well-executed, and with a little support from Apple can still turn into indie gold, and I think it will stay that way even after this period of consolidation. The money coming into the business right now is an admission that this is a viable market and that it is time for traditional publishers to buy what they have thus far been unable to create on their own. Big publishers will crowd out the little guys to some degree, but they will also attract new buyers into the market, so there will still be opportunities for indies. We've just got to be smarter, more focused, and luckier than ever!
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/20/angry-birds-chillingo/ There you go. Directly from the Angry Birds guys. You don't need publishers.
ahhh... he is just butthurt from all the $$$$ they have to fork over to Chillingo every day that AB is sitting up there on the chart (and seeing the $20mil that they are getting from EA, particularly because of AB, is pouring salt into the wound)/ He probably figures that what Chillingo did for them was so minimal compared to what they could have done themselves, and had they known better, they'd've stuck to putting it out themselves straightaway. Truth is, unless you've carefully documented the stream of events somehow, there's just no way to tell in that particular case whether Chillingo being attached to AB made any kind of difference at all. It's very likely that the TouchArcade guys were so taken by the initial trailer/etc for AB and the coverage that generated on this very site was it's direct path to success. I don't have any idea if Chillingo even had any part in that (A trailer like that, releasing when it did, from any joe schmoe would probably have got some attention over here at that time) Anyway, pardon my usual long-windedness. The point is, "publishers" as such may not be necessary anymore - but marketing, promotion and networking is absolutely essential for some time now, in spite of whatever is being shown in some product, and what is typically defined as a publisher often has a large amount to do with all of that (as opposed to many devs who just release something on their own, put up a youtub handcam video, email a couple of blogs, and call it a day)
I think the problem for us Indie developers is that we are now required to have marketing degrees as well as being game designers/coders/artists etc. It is great if Apple picks your product and helps you along, but if they don't? Arkinvade for example is a pretty good game, but our sales are limping along. What can we do to promote it? We can throw money at it/advertise etc, but these produce unknown returns. My advice is to sign with a publisher if you can (so long as they don't ask for cash up front). It is so hard to stand out on the App store we need all the help we can get. I managed to find a top PR firm that will represent us for our next game, Cow-a-Pult, and we agreed a %. Something is better than nothing in todays world!
Apparently the EA acquisition doesn't seem to change much in the short term according to this dev who is being published by them: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/10340#post-60137
A publisher is a blessing because it is very difficult to get traction for your app and especially offset development costs. Every deal is different, and tends to be more in their favor unless you are a seasoned vet or have a high volume game. They often help with marketing, but make sure to get that on paper. You usually have to allow them to submit the app which makes changing prices on a whim difficult, and the publisher usually has a QA team that checks your title before it goes off to Apple to be checked. May take longer, but your game usually has some bugs they catch. Good Luck!
The other advantage is that the publisher will usually have a lot of industry experience and they can really help with the development of the game. You should listen to what they have to say, so your collective ambitions can be attained.
I am afraid that I cannot mention it at this stage, because contract terms are being discussed. They handle the PR for several large games companies as well as film and TV promotion as well (So I am hoping I get invited to a few premiers). It is all an experiment at the moment (as is the whole development thing), but we are confident (based on their previous campaigns) that they can generate stories in the national press and across several websites etc. Fingers crossed. We are scheduled for a January release date so we shall see.....
And today Apple features Big Bad Flower in it's very first week, without a publisher anywhere in the equation ... so you see, Indies can still find a little gold on their own. Congrats!
aww Thanks Appy for the mention I do have to add though that my eyes have really really dark circles underneath them from lack of sleep and long nights of dedication to marketing (which I'm learning along the way).
So was Blue Hole 3D, a well reviewed game from a month ago. It still struggled in overall publicity and sales. If a publisher had marketed it with a namebrand banner there's no doubt it would have done better.
