[vworld-tech] Graphics engine question

[Jeremy Noetzelman]

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, ceo wrote:

> Read carefully the garagegames license, which has for years contained
> some nasty "exclusivity rights" which came perilously close to "only GG
> is allowed to publish your game; if GG doesn't like it, no-one else is
> allowed to publish it; the royalty rate GG will charge on your game is
> decided by GG ..." (NB: I don't recall the actual terms, but IIRC they
> were restrictive enough that they could easily prevent you from ever
> publishing the game, on a whim).
>
> I also recall a VERY high compulsory / minimum royalty rate payable to
> GG if you try and sell your torque-based game.

To be fair, they removed those restrictions and such a year or two ago.
The current model is royalty free.  If you opt to publish with them,
you'll execute a seperate contract outlining the normal stuff like royalty
rates, exclusivity, etc.

> Fair enough, but their habit of advertising it as "only costs $99" when
> in fact it always costs many thousands to commercial outfits, just in
> the form of royalties, strikes many people as dishonest.

If your company or your publisher has 500k in annual revenue, you'll have
to pay a one time 10k license fee, royalty free.  Not too bad, I don't
think, from a pure dollars and cents perspective.

> ...and all this may have changed by now :), given how many people were
> angry at the gulf between the marketing and the contract, so YMMV...

The riots outside their offices may have had something to do with it ;)