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GDC - The Importance of Self-Publishing
Eric Zimmerman, head of the Gamelab development project, has announced on the eve of the Game Developer's Conference that they're moving to a self-published format. From the article: "I think we have something else to offer ... and we've decided that it's hard finding partners that share this kind of vision and that want to take the risks that we're talking about to really create new sorts of games. And additionally we're working in a field right now of online games with a downloadable distribution model, which means that we can self-publish. It's relatively straightforward for a small company to publish."
The promise of the internet is that we all become publishers (if we choose)...from news, blogs, games, music, and movies....this is the "New Economy". The "Old Economy" is dominated by the gatekeepers, the middlemen--the ones that own the means of distribution, starting with railroads.
Let freedom ring!
"You have the option of insanity. I do not. And that makes me crazy!" - Brian to Angela, My So-Called Life
Go public, rake in every kind of startup money, shell out some mainstream games and wait for the buy out. Sell them the brand and head off with the dough.
Then take the buy out money and go for #1. And THEN start to make the games you like!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Self-publishing really is the only way to go if you're an independent developer and you'd actually like to make a sizable percentage of the profits. Although I hate to use the term publish, as it has become so ambiguous in the game industry. The common perception of a "publisher" is the company who pays for the development and marketing of the game, as while the industry would be much better off if publishers just published, ie...print and distribute the physical media the games are stored on.
As for Valve, steam would be great if it were open source, cross platform, and DRM free....it's a shame no one's came up with an alternative yet...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
We almost had a major publisher for A Tale in the Desert. They projected around 30,000 subscribers. Now, 3 years after release, the actual amount of money we put in our pockets each month is just a bit less with ~1300 subscribers than we would have made with a large publisher at 30,000.
;)
And, no bureaucracy, no suits second-guessing me, and I can try any crazy thing in the game that I want. My advice: If you can self-publish, do it. If you can't, find a way that you can