Email from Chillingo
TouchTiltGames
Member Posts: 1,162
Just wondered if any of you have received an email from leading mobile game publisher, Chillingo? If so, what is your experience?
Their roster is quite big including Angry Birds. They're interested in potentially handling the publishing of my not-even-released-yet Rodent Rage on the iPad. They want an adhoc :0
Their roster is quite big including Angry Birds. They're interested in potentially handling the publishing of my not-even-released-yet Rodent Rage on the iPad. They want an adhoc :0
Comments
But if they've already showing interest in your game, why share the glory? "What's in it for me?" That's an important part of negotiations. What do they offer that you can't do yourself?
It's like a distraction. It happened to me with Packt publishing. Instead of working on the GameSalad textbook and the games, I was wasting time with pointless dialogue.
http://gamesalad.com/forums/search.php?search=chillingo
Maybe they're like a baseball scout... looking for power hitters. HA HA.
As far as there terms go it will be a 50% split and you will be hard pushed to get lower.
You lose control of so many things, checking sales (you can check sales but data is pretty low), promo codes, price reduction/increase etc etc.
On the up side they have a pretty big contact list for press/review sites.
They wont spend any money on your game as far as banners and extra marketing until it becomes a hit.
I hear they hire and fire a lot of staff so make sure you get someone that's been there a while and has already had a successful game under there belt, don't go for a newbie that's been there a week...ask what have they marketed and how well it did.
You will still have to take screen shots, do a video, write your press release etc etc.
Let us know how it turns out.
They emailed me after Bumps got to #29 Top Paid to say congrats on my marketing and also said i did a better job than they could of done so you can do it with a lot of hard marketing and contacts so don't be so eager to throw away 50%.
I would send an email to Touch Arcade and other sites to see if there interested, if they feature your upcoming game they will feature when it's released so if you can get enough hype with features on the big sites there's no point in using Chillingo (I'm 99% sure it will be Click Gamer btw, there B label with apparently the same team marketing because Chillingo is there AAA brand).
Hope this helps.
Darren.
Darren.
People find marketing and hype hard, i for one find marketing a real chore and didn't really understand how important it was until the last couple of years.
Marketing is more important than your game imo.
I'm sure Chillingo/Click Gamer have a stream of games lined up.
Ohh and i forgot to mention they take all the games there interested in and have a meeting so just because they show initial interest if the board vote no you will have to self publish or find another publisher.
Darren.
One thing with marketing is that I own Aeropause Games..we've been around since '05 and have a ton of contacts in the game industry. We're not a mobile game specific site, but we do get a fair amount of traffic. So there's that to fall on if I wanted.
Yes i forgot about your site, great site indeed.
Darren.
Actually I did email you earlier today but you answered my Q's here
Good games sell on their own...You don't need Chillingo.
Their internal marketing strategy obviously is to broaden their brand recognition...not support your game. In other words...you are paying them to increase THEIR brand name exposure.
if you were Chillingo...wouldn't you want to recruit a bunch of small devs to pay you to release a game for them? And if it a hit...you (meaning Chillingo) get the glory.
I suggest accepting the offer if you think your game will do mediocre at best...as their exposure could help. But if you have a strong game...definitely release it on your own.
But I also agree...nibble on their hook for a while first...as they may have some good advice to offer to polish the game up even better...as Utopian suggests.
Its easy to make general assumptions about a very complex business model that noone really quite understands yet
however, I do agree though to the extent that some small companies do just fine without a publisher.
Mika Mobile clearly competes well against gameloft with OMG pirates and zombiville.
.... The big However is that you know those guys don't just write a good game and watch it sell.
A lot of people including myself, with a descent background in marketing just dont know that all the right steps.
And until someone has sold a million apps neither do they.
Companies like chillingo know how to keep games like sneezies on the ranks.
I have also heard nothing but great things about how hard the team at chillingo works for their clients and pays on time!
They also dont want a game out until it meets their standards. So be prepared for a lot of feedback but.... feedback from people who know what they are doing.
Darren.
P.S. I'm not against Chillingo (we might use them again) just trying to warn you about the pitfalls.
I'd think they would be a little more on top than that.
I suppose i would still sign on the line if i had the chance though.....
Anyways I still need a good game though.
I'm surprised no one was busting down the doors for Tuba Legend lol
they have a good brand by now... I'm still not sure what GS is going to offer us if they become our publisher, but if thats what they want to be then I think any information about any publisher is good to have as we are the developpers