From: runehy@dhhalden.no (RUNE HYLDMO)
Subject: Re: Developing for Lynx (was Re: lets face it)
Organization: Ostfold College
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 07:55:59 GMT

In article <wiley.727393874@wiley> wiley@wiley.b11.ingr.com (Dave Wiley) writes:
>From: wiley@wiley.b11.ingr.com (Dave Wiley)
>Subject: Developing for Lynx (was Re: lets face it)
>Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1993 21:51:14 GMT
>>In article <93012.123521SML108@psuvm.psu.edu> <SML108@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>>Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 12:35:21 EST
>>>From: <SML108@psuvm.psu.edu>
>>>Subject: Re: lets face it
>>>
>>>Well, Atari treats its developers like crap...  Plain and simple...  They
>>>drove away all the original Epyx lynx programmers first.
>
>runehy@dhhalden.no (RUNE HYLDMO) writes:
>
>>ATARI DOES give 15 % royalty to the developer for each game. They licence 
>>the game from the developer and they have never licensed less than 50 000 
>>units of a game so far. Lets sum up and say that 15 % wil be about 3 dollars 
>>per game and that an underestimated sum. 50 000 multiplied with 3 is 
>>  	
>>	$ 150 000
>
>>That should pay for the puney $ 5 000 and a little party afterwards don't 
>>you think????
>
>I'm a little confused.  If this $150,000 figure were even ball-park
>accurate, why aren't there more games?   Okay, so many many people don't
>want to pony up $5000 on a lark, but what about the people who have
>written successful games?  If one project netted over $100,000 there
>should be strong motivation to bust a brain writing as more as possible --
>sequels, new games, whatever.  But this just doesn't seem to happen. 
>So what's the catch?
>
>--
>david wiley               "If God did not exist, it would be necessary
>Intergraph Corporation     to invent him."
>205-730-6390                                                - Voltaire
>wiley@wiley.b11.ingr.com


Atari has three policies on marketing the lynx games. 

1. The developer buys the cartridges only and make the packing and 
advertise plus distribute it themselves. This is for the greedy firms, or 
the big firms who can do it properly and want ALL the money. Very risky...

2. The developer buys the cartridges and packing, and distribute it 
   themselves. This is not for the small firms. To make it you must have 
   a good sum of money.

3. The developer licence their game to Atari corp. and receives 15 % royalty.
   Atari stands for marketing and distribution etc. This is the safe-route, 
   but also the one who gives you least profit. 

The reason for many of the developers to not make a second game is that it 
may have used the option 1 or 2 and haven't made enough money cos they have 
not sold enough games. Maybe the game was to lousy. Remember nobody has 
used even half the Lynx capability. I mean zoom and rotate...where is it. 
If you make a good game people buy it. Another reason is that the developer 
has used the money from the profit to buy dev.kits for Nintendo where there 
is even more money to earn. Greed is a que word here. To be a registrated 
nintendo developer one must pay between $ 15 000 and $ 30 000. A Lynx 
devkit isn't too expencive is it? One last thing. If you got $ 150 000 
wouldn't you have relaxed for a while?

This is catches I can think of. Besides the fact that you must posess a LOT 
of patience when you are dealing with Atari.

Can someone please tell me if Storms over Doria will be released?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings 

Rune Hyldmo



 
Newsgroups: alt.games.lynx