(Shocking) News!!!!!

[AMF]

WEll, I just bought Dom II, so I'll be able to weigh in on that at some point...what a fool I am. There goes the rest of the year I think...

[DeadZone]

Will said:
Ah, but does Strategy First do so? If the contract says SF has exclusive rights to publish the next five titles of the series, then it doesn't matter if Shrapnel does contracts per-game; Strategy First gets SEV, SEVI, SEVII, SEVIII, and SEIX. Only after all that can MM and Shrapnel make the triumphant return with SEX.

Doesn't matter what SFs policy is, as the deal has to be agreed mutually, meaning that Aaron would hold most of the playing cards (he is providing the money maker), meaning he would only have agreed if he was happy enough with it

Plus most contracts of this sort will have a break deal incase either side decide the contract is no longer worth it

[Captain Kwok]

Also note that MM is covering all development costs as well, so that alone gives him better $ and control than the usual deal - and the contract I'd say would be for SE:V only and not future releases.

[Azselendor]

In order for SFI to have a contract with MM for several games already, that means they will mroe than likely be investing into the development of the rest of the series. Similar to how Ubisoft, EA games, and such has been running

I think it's more likely its game-by-game.

[David E. Gervais]

I don't think that Development Funding is part of SFI's business model any more. They off-loaded all their development to MiST Land awhile ago. Although I get the impression that they still have 'creative control' on those projects. (more like an 'if you build it (for us) we guarantee publishing' sort of deal.)

So, I wouldn't worry about 'future' products from Aaron, everything will depend on how well sales of SE5 goes and the results of that are still a long ways off. Personally I think SE5 is going to be a roaring success.

Cheers!

[Atrocities]

I don't mean to revive this thread or anything, or to pore salt on an open wound, but one of the developers behind GalCiv had some very enlightening things to say about how strategy first stroked them out of a lot of money.

Given that Strategy First didn't pay royalties they owed us for most of the retail sales of Galactic Civilizations worldwide, I hope they have better luck with Strategy First than we've had.

There is more, in post #7, he explains how they ripped them off.

LINK

In a nut shell he said that SF was a middle man and that they kept most of the revenue generated from the world wide sales of Gal Civ. They basically cheated Stardock and laid claim to the title as if they owned it.

I would be heart sick if Strategy First robbed Malfador the way they robbed Stardock. Blind.

[Randallw]

How dare they criticise SE! . . If that is the kind of illeducated people SF attracts we are better off without them. When SE5 comes out we must be careful to keep Intel to ourselves. If they are worthy of our company they can find us themselves.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

In my eyes the reason why MOO comes up in conversations and SE doesn't according to these guys, is that though SE is better than MOO, it is a niche game and therefore doesn't attract that much attention to itself. Moreover, there has been just about no marketing at all for SE.

And if S1st both
-ripped money off StarDock AND
-is bankrupt,
I guess that they have a REALLY poor accounting deptment. I mean, you withhold quite substantial amounts of money from a developer and then you go bankrupt?

[RudyHuxtable]

Yea, THAT takes skill.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

And that skill is rare. They could market it, hire themselves out to make companies go bankrupt for tax purposes!