Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaconda
Why Shrapnel does not distribute the game(s) to computer game stores is something I have wondered for a while now? They did it still with D2 because I got mine from Helsinki back in the days.
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Shrapnel Games was formed by an indie developer to provide publishing for indie developers.
There are two basic types of publisher. Marketing and Shelfware, or Publicity and Distribution. The first one involves the company putting out quite abit of money before sales which means a long pay-back period before the developer sees any profit. The second one involves much less initial layout of funds allowing the publisher and developer to share profits almost immediately. The first one does allow for the possibility of a much larger eventual income but its also a larger gamble. The first one also requires more staff.
A number of developers have gone with the publicize and distribute companies in order to develop a following, then jumped to a marketing/shelfware company for their 3rd or 4th products. Some make it, some dont. Of course its good for us either way.
At least thats what Ive seen in the last decade or so.