From James D Pollock <xxxxxx@postoffice.worldnet.att.net>
Date
At 12:01 PM 7/20/01 -0400, you wrote:
>You are definitely correct in saying that there are better games for
>different systems that would have sold more that they could have chosen
>to release. I'm not exactly sure why they would have chosen to release
>two FMV games, and yeah they did only get mediocre reviews, but I still
>give them credit for doing something ballsy like that. While it may
>not have been the best financial move they made, I still think that I
>would like to show my support by purchasing a game from them.
I can tell you EXACTLY why they released two FMV games instead of any of
the other games they could have done: They were able to find them, and
able to close the deal.
There are lots of games out there that COULD be ported over to the States
with little or no translation, but... picture the game company that owns
a finished but unreleased title, or a title that could be released in the
states with little or no localization. What does it take to seal the deal?
First, they have to cover the cost of the executive who negotiates the deal.
Then, they need to cover the cost of the lawyers who make sure the deal has
all the right legal terms, and this is NOT a deal like anything else the
company has done so it's not just a case of taking the boilerplate contract
and typing in the right names and numbers. Finally, we'd need to pay
someone to make sure that the terms of the contract were being followed.
Does the licensing fee paid by a publisher cover all these costs and allow
a profit? For most dead systems, the answer is no.
Also, most games cannot be dropped into the public domain because of the
trademark issues, so old dead games stay dead.