Is anyone else annoyed with the reviews on AppStore that always say Chillingo makes great games, when they're only the ones PUBLISHING games? How come nobody ever realizes the actual dev, most of the time; its company name shows right when you boot up the game. . . . Then again, there are a lot of idiots who submit reviews to apps on the AppStore. Anyone agree? (sorry if this is in the wrong forum)
I've said many times that this is why as an imminent developer, I would never use a publisher. I'd rather learn and do everything myself and build my own brand than lose any chance of that happening by using a publisher. Nobody pays attention to the opening splash screens enough to differentiate who the publisher is and who the developer is. All people see is "Chillingo" (or whomever the publisher is) so that's what they respond to. To me, the services they offer couldn't begin to make up for the loss of potential to create your own brand and loss of income to whatever cut they take off the profits. There are others who feel differently, but to me that's a sacrifice I couldn't ever bring myself to make.
Well the thing is, the average App Store shopper is not quite informed as the members of Toucharcade are. I do get annoyed by this sometimes though, as it seems the actual developers aren't really getting credit for their hard work on their game. If I developed a game, I definitely wouldn't get it published by firm such as Chillingo, because in my opinion, if a game is good enough it will eventually get the attention it deserves.
Yep its very annoying, but you just got to get used to it. There are many uninitiated people out there.
Yeah, this grinds my gears a bit, but the developers still get recognition from the people who matter -- the people actually involved in the community. The people who actually know what they're talking about, and are savvy with this stuff. The average consumer will dish out credit to whoever's got the biggest logo in the finished product, but informed consumers will pay respects where respects are due. Publishers provide a fantastic service, but most people who care know that they don't actually develop the game. Hence the title, "publisher." As far as I can see, it doesn't matter a great deal, in that it's somewhat of a partnership between the publisher and developer that helps the applications in the app store become so successful, and I'm quite sure that developers know what they're getting into when they sign over the distributing rights to a third party. Personally, if I ever become a developer, I probably won't use a publisher, because I would like to make a name for myself, and it's hard to do that when you've got a big, well-known logo taking all the spotlight away from your own. But, I don't see it as an issue, because it's really up to the developers.
Do developers make a deal with Chillingo so their app gets noticed? Most Chillingo published games end up in the top 50 games.
That's Chillingo's selling point as a publisher: Visibility and publicity. However, they tend to have certain standards such that the sort of games they agree to publish are of high enough quality that, to me, they could stand well on their own two feet anyway. That's one of the reasons Chillingo has so many games that hit the top lists: They're all games that are good enough to have done that anyway. They just got some extra marketing oomph to make it a lock.
