When I posted the idea all I really envisioned was t-shirts and coffee mugs with the <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> logo on them, that's all. Even if the initial idea is expanded to include other things like pics of the DK striking badass poses with "If you think I'm bad, just wait 'til you HEAR me" written underneath him, I don't see it being a problem from a legal perspective. Larian is full of reasonable, intelligent people, and even if they have to split the take with Rhianna, I am sure it will still be enough to help them with their development costs.
Then again, they might consider doing something like this as selling out, and the idea will never see the light of day. Whatever happens, I know Larian will do what's best for Larian. I just don't want them to starve after all the effort they poured into this game.
Actually, Deon - it's a fabulous idea. Sorry if I gave the impression it wasn't because I mentioned the legal aspects. But you're right, having T-shirts bearing the <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> logo would be terrific, as well as other ideas people have shared. And I also agree with you about the reasonableness of both parties, Rhianna and the Larians. Perhaps this is something they have considered and are brainstorming the many ways in which they could merchandise their products. Maybe they want to wait until DD2. I don't know. But at any rate, I think you have an extremely feasible concept.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />Actually, I wish someone would do an article on the financial aspects of the games industry since that is something I have NEVER read an article on, despite my many years of loyalty to Gamespot and Avault. Maybe I will write to Geoff Keighley and ask him to do one... his
Behind the Games articles on Gamespot are nothing short of brilliant (at least I think so!).
I would like to know A) How much a lead designer on a computer game earns, B) how much the developer actually sees of the 40 or so dollars each game costs and C) how many programmers, animators, artists etc the average game takes, what their average salaries are and how much those salaries cost a developer in the 2 - 4 years it takes to produce a decent game.
And finally I would love to know from Larian themselves if they know how many copies BD has sold so far. I actually have no idea if there is a way to trace this so early, and if it is hard, then when they will know what the figures are. Failing that, how many copies did Divine Divinity sell and how much of a cut did they get out of it?
Seems to me the biggest cut always goes to the publisher and the dev is left with a much smaller portion of the pie than their efforts are deserving of, which leaves me worrying that making the game comes closer to breaking a small company like Larian than it does to allowing its employees to bathe in gold coins and relax in the lap of luxury in preparation for the sequel's creation.
As for the selling out argument, I am sorry, these people are in this to make money as much as they are in it to make games other people enjoy. So what if they capitalise on their success and dabble in a little merchandising, I thought that is what western society strives for, success and the ability to make more money out of it?
I am going to stop here before this turns into a full-blown rant. I just wanted to feed back some of my thoughts on this thread and its replies. Thanks for the feedback so far!
Don't apologize. Some of this information can be found in the business and financial pages of different magazines and newspapers. And I'm curious about all of the topics you included in your post. I do know from experience that counting sales can be a time consuming process because of there are various venues through which games are sold. I.e., through websites, in gaming stores and also the different ways people pay for the games they buy. With my publisher, the $$ comes from many different companies, websites and e-commerce. Sometimes they [the bean counters *g*] don't know the exact quantity sold because you also have to include any that are returned [by the retailer] to the publisher. It's the same way bookstores buy books. The ones they don't sell are returned to the publisher and often times, if they over-ordered, the author actually gets a chance to buy back their own work (if royalties have already been paid) for nominal fees. If that happens, then the author has the opportunity to sell those books on their own through their website, garage sales, (lol) or give-aways to family and friends. So, it's quite possible Larian won't know how many copies of BD have actually sold. It will probably take a few months to get an accurate figure and total amount of games that were sold.
I did read an article in Reuter's business section about the video game industry and total sales within the industry were close to $80 billion last year. (Maybe even higher than that.) That's a huge market. As to who gets what part of the pie, I know for the game I'm working on, I'll get a royalty which is a percentage of the total sales after it's published. I know this is how most print publishers pay their authors but I'm not sure how it works in the gaming industry for their programmers, head coordinator, lead designer and so on. I would be interested in seeing an article about this subject as well. If I were better informed, I'd love to write the article myself! LOL But I'm afraid I don't know enough nor do I have the contacts to do a proper search for information on a topic such as this. I'm much better writing reviews and stuff for Op/Ed pages of newspapers and magazines. (A lucrative way to get published, btw).
In any event, thanks for posting your ideas. I've really enjoyed this discussion and people's opinions. Good stuff!
Faralas <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mage.gif" alt="" />
