 Mike Wilson’s divine
dream of a developer-owned publisher is now a reality. Combine one ego-drenched name, a
tossed salad of the hottest polygon spatterers in Texas, seven zeros of financing and the
resulting synergy is the Gathering of Developers. Behind the primped PR-gloss of what game
companies want you to hear, GameSlice Editor-in-Chief Geoff Keighley unearths the
undeniably fascinating tale of why this We-Are-The-World-esque concoction of developers is
a suit-driven game publisher’s worst nightmare, and a hard-core gamer’s ultimate
fantasy.
Feedback - January
21
We've heard from hundreds of gamers about the Gathering of Developers,
and we wanted to start posting some feedback here on the site. We are going to
update this page again in the very near future, so read on and send your comments to feedback@gameslice.com. Thanks for reading.
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A Lack of Resources?
Seth Krieg Writes:
"What
happens when funds become scarce?" asks one GameSlice reader.
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First off, the idea behind g.o.d. is a good one. I'm not so
sure throwing CEOs from 5 different companies into a publishing bag together is a
good idea. What happens when the so called governing body can't decide where funds should
go? What happens when funds become scarce? What projects get picked up and which ones
don't? This factor looks to create almost as much animosity as it does allow creative
freedom. Pretty soon, the $40 million that g.o.d. currently has [ed - no funding is
secured as of yet] begins to look like less and less money. A venture of this
magnitude, especially with no established titles hitting the market soon, doesn't seem
like the "God-like" idea everyone is cracking it up to be.
The solidarity being shown by everyone involved is a bit of a rouse, but overall
though, I think g.o.d. has the potential to leave a very big mark on the gaming industry;
it's what happens in the following year that dictates whether that potential is fulfilled.
While I'm all for GOD at present I think it is going to take a lot of careful planning to
make sure there are no screwups with what goes where and where does what.
Strong Words
Ryan Wetherill Writes:
I think this is a great concept, but only if it works. Ideals
rarely exist in real life. I hope this is one of those ideals.
Any Dill Pickle Could Have
Distributed Quake
Jeff Linske sends us our
favorite piece of feedback thus far:
First let me say that I hope it does NOT fail. I want developers to
succeed and deliver me and the rest of the gaming public the best games possible.
And I want them to profit so that they may be inspired to make more great games.
But here is why I feel that the Gathering is destined to fail.
Mike Wilson, the brains behind the whole thing, has made some strategic mistakes in his
reasoning. First he believes that "publishers take all the money."
What he seems to forget is that they also take all of the risk! He has a skewed view
of the gaming business, having worked at Id
which could do no wrong. Not every game sells 500,000+ games a pop. There is
substantial risk.
Next you have distribution. You need a hit to get in the doors. EA,
Activision, Eidos, Microprose, etc. have all had the hit to get in the door. Foreign
distribution is even trickier. Wilson may think he knows distribution, after all he
was integral to the overall marketing of Quake. Big Deal! Any dill pickle
could have distributed Quake! And that whole credit card encryption thing was really awful
in my opinion. If they do a deal with GT they will pay. There is a nice drain
on some of the money, although better to have professional distribution than do it
themselves. It would be money well spent.
But Wilson promises creative freedom! Developers will no longer have to rush their
products out due to publishers demands! Yeah, right! First, I think that the
industry learned a bit about rushed games. The business is too competitive to
release garbage nowadays (though trash has been and always will be released). Has
Microprose been rushing Falcon 4.0? Is Unreal or Prey being forced out the door?
Daikatana has been bumped from last November to this March and has just been bumped again! |
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Dill Pickle Continued...And look at all
of our talent! Gee, that is great. Your biggest asset truly is your
development talent. Here is why it will become a major liability: ego. First
it will manifest itself in competitiveness, next words will be spoken, then not spoken,
then it will come down to money. Great companies have often done well with solo
talent- Bullfrog with Peter Molyneux, Microprose with Sid Meir, Origin with Richard
Garriott, etc. Sure these companies had many other talented people, but put a bunch
together and see what you get.
As for the money, what are you guys going to do, give Pop-Top the same equity share as 3d
Realms? Nope, and when Pop-Top has a game that does better than 3DR they are going
to want more money. Then the fighting starts. Then your major talent personnel
boogies on out to do his own thing all over again (as in Molyneux and Meir's case). [ed
- it's our understanding that all the founding developers have very similar deals,
possibly avoiding the above-mentioned scenario].
Speaking of money, now that you are the developer and distributor/publisher you begin to
have some risk. And you will have your flops. Eventually you will have two in
a row which will not make expectations. Then you will learn the meaning of the term
"Cash Flow" (hardly a problem at Id, and probably not a problem when picking up
that $10,000,000 check from Eidos when Wilson was at Ion Storm). It means that you
have bills to pay, and you need money to pay them. It means you have to put just a
bit of pressure on the guys to get that game out by Christmas. Then a bit more
pressure, and more. More fighting begins. Suddenly you look a lot like one of
those damned
publishers.
Other problems include trying to screw the publishers who are supposed to be getting games
from these developers through previous contract (didn't you say that there weren't going
to be any problems?). Nice way to start a business. Be careful the bridges you
burn.
Then there is the GoD acronym. I could care less, but do you think it just might
piss someone off? There are a couple of people out there who ain't gonna like that.
And might not buy the games. Why start out alienating potential customers? [ed
- God says that they aren't planning on using the g.o.d. acronym on any product boxes, and
would much rather be referred to as "the Gathering" or "Gathering of
Developers."]
Wilson also makes a comment about not having an MBA around handing out ideas. Maybe
a business type is a GOOD thing to have when you are RUNNING A BUSINESS! A game may
be nothing without creative genius and talented programmers but if your business doesn't
make money then what is the point?
And Wilson mentions that Id won't yet deal with them since they are not yet up and
running. Then what? Maybe they come, maybe not. Do you think that they
are so upset with Activision? Did Activision botch the marketing? I don't think so!
Do you think that Id got the best royalty deal in the business? You bet! I think
those guys are happy making games and letting someone else do the publishing, as are many
developers. [ed - id is known around the industry for being very control-oriented with
their publishers. Although Activision may have published Quake 2, id had near total
control.]
Perhaps most disturbing is that all of the talk about creativity and freedom and stability
seems like a smokescreen. The reality is that it is all about MONEY! Not
inherently bad but, to coin (and bastardize) an old WKRP adage, "greed kills,
Herb."
The whole Gathering thing looks great on paper, but makes little sense after a bit of
scrutiny. The developers are taking risks with publishing which creates business
problems which can only detract from the developers creative focus. If the house is
successful, it will grow and grow until you have all the departments and staff (and costs
and deadlines) of a publisher! Back to square one. And if they go public-
whoa, buddy- you can forget all that extra freedom cause it's time to make the quarter and
instead of answering to a publisher you answer to a few thousand shareholders.
Rounding up money will not be GoD's first major problem; I suspect it will be their last
problem. Good luck, GoD! You are going to need it.
Click here to read Mike Wilson's response to this feedback
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