Something that has been on my mind for a while since i heard about pandemic being shut down . I was wondering if you buy a game from a developer that no longer exists where does the money go . I mean a cut of he profits go to the retailer . (or if its pre-owned all of it) but where does the rest of it go .
Like if i bought mercenaries 2 where does the money go . I was wondering if anyone knew the skinny on sales from games .
Where does the money go ?
" @RankRabbit said:Yep, since they were owned by EA, everyone working at Pandemic was just doing it for their paychecks. EA decides where the money goes. Seems unfair maybe, but I am sure it's "just business."" The Publisher, plain and simple. So in this case, EA. "its that simple .... oh "
When you buy a game, the money goes to the publisher, not the developer. In the case of Pandemic, the development studio is owned by EA. EA simply fund the development of pandemics games from its giant pile of money, and money from sales go into its giant pile of money. When pandemic gets shut down, nothing changes with regards to where the money from sales go.
It obviously gets slightly more complicated when the developer is independent from the publisher. There will be a contract between the dev and the publisher dictating the transfer of money. The publisher might fund the development in full, and give a very small percentage of profits to the developer. Or the developer might fund the game themselves and receive a larger chunk of the profits. I'd assume that provisions for what happens if the developer goes out of business will be written into the contract.
Depending on how the contract was written up during the development for the game they may still see money from it. It would be like actors receiving residuals for sales of movies 10+ years after release or TV shows being aired after they are canceled. That is a little different and a hell of a lot more complicated (when you consider syndication and what not) but you get the idea. I would imagine though that Pandemic only got paid a specific amount to complete the game, they may also have been paid by EA as general employees... but of course now that they are not...
" I don't think that the money gets partitioned on that immediate a level. Say Wal Mart buys 1000 copies of a game from the publisher. That's when the money gets divided up. Not when you buy a game from WalMart. At that point WalMart is keeping all the cash from your purchase. "Good call, I would think that is probably it too. Though I think in the essence of the post, for the most part as long as the Publisher owns the Developer then the publisher is the one getting, holding and managing the money. Doesn't seem "right" necessarily but that's got to be business huh?
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