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34: WGE MAG


WGE MAG: 35


to make developers aware they are eager for licensing deals. This is exactly why GameLicenses.com provides a simple risk-free environment for brand managers to make their brands, descriptions and videos available to game developers globally. Developers and brand owners get in touch and partnerships are formed, which means more deals are funded by publishers. It’s a win/win/win opportunity.


Game W


orld Game Executives recently sat down with Scott Kirk from


GameLicenses.com to discuss his site. This interview should prove interesting to all indie game developers who are looking to sell licenses to their games or buy a license to allow them to develop a game for a certain brand. In short, the site pairs developers with publishers and brand managers. GameLicenses. com is open to all platforms, which allows developers and publishers to buy and sell licensed brands for games across console, handheld and PC markets. Scott discusses the payment system during the interview and also answers a question on providing legal assistance.


In general terms, how would you describe GameLicenses.com? GameLicenses.com is a website that acts as an introduction service between video game publishers, developers and brand managers. It facilitates these introductions by allowing content owners/managers to post games and brands on the site, which then becomes automatically available to interested partners worldwide. In short, it is a marketplace to buy and sell video game licenses across all major platforms. Our custom licensing system allows publishers, developers and brand owners to globally trade licenses in distribution, development, funding, localization and more.


Licensing


How does GameLicenses.com benefit indie developers? Typically, large publishers handle all aspects of distribution for the developer including distribution in foreign countries. The problem is that these large publishers generally mitigate risk by limiting themselves to only distributing well-known brands. So the independent developer who has fresh new ideas is rarely given a chance. This is all about to change, as GameLicenses. com puts developers directly in touch with publishers while providing the tools and contacts to rollout their IP globally.


Is your system available for games on all platforms? Yes, our licensing system allows the developer to submit games for online, handheld, console, tablet, PC and mobile. No matter what platform you develop on, our system can accommodate it.


You’ve introduced brands to the site, why?


As mentioned, publishers limit their risk by working with well-known IP because they know games that people recognize simply sell better (and thus make more profit). However, game developers rarely know which brands are available for licensing, which platforms, what terms and even how to get in touch with the individual responsible for making the deals. Brand owners are also eager to make their IP available to game developers, but often don’t know how


What kind of licenses are available? Our custom licensing system is incredibly robust as it allows selling licenses for in-game marketing, rebranding, distribution, porting, funding for development and much more. Each license is completely customizable making the overall possibilities limitless. So whether you have a demo and you’re looking for funding, or you have an MMO and you’re looking for distribution partners globally, our licensing system can accommodate your needs.


What kind of publishers are you focusing on?


The obvious choice is to focus on publishers who help put games into the hands of the people that want to play them. However, there are other publishers that may not fit into this role. For example, there are many content producers who may be interested in


“Our custom licensing system is incredibly robust as it allows selling licenses for in-game marketing, rebranding, distribution, porting, funding for development and much more.”


purchasing a license to rebrand games, advertisers looking to turn games into their advergame and even other game developers looking to purchase your engine to make their own games. You can add as many, or as few, licenses as you want and make your game available to publishers of all kinds.


How does the payment system work? Are the licenses auctioned off to the highest bidder? Not necessarily. There are three different options for each license to allow customization on how a sale is made. You can set the license to Ask, Auction or Fixed price. Setting to Ask directs interested parties to a message form that requests them to


the developer. Whether it’s through press releases or contacting publishers directly, we get the message out to the people that want to know about it.


Do you share your commission with individuals that may help orchestrate a deal? Yes. We have a Game Licenses Operative program, a first in the video game licensing and services industry. Not only do we have the most extensive library of licenses per game available from our developers, now we also have the only Operatives program that allow operatives who make referrals to earn money too.


get in touch for further information. This is best used by individuals who are unsure exactly how much to charge for their licenses. Choosing the Auction option automatically creates an auction environment that allows third parties to bid on the license, however the highest bidder is not always the winner of each auction. The license owner may select a lesser offer because it comes from a partner who has better distribution opportunities, or they can choose to auction off non-exclusive rights for multiple regions and platforms. The Fixed Price option is for those who know exactly what they want, as it allows the developer to cut to the chase and define the definitive terms of an agreement.


All three options were designed specifically to increase the opportunities for each licensor and to promote partnerships between publishers, developers and brand owners.


I noticed you provide legal assistance to developers? True. Orchestrating deals with publishers and brand owners can be tricky and many indie developers are unaware of the potential pitfalls. Game publishers have their team of legal advisors to work on their behalf, but often game developers choose to go it alone as they do not have anyone looking after their own interests, which inevitably results in an unfavourable deal or worse. However, now indie developers can have access to our experienced lawyers on an as needed basis. Our lawyers offer flat rates for each task, which allows developers to know exactly how much they will be paying ahead of time, rather than other


lawyers who may keep the budget open ended and delay proceedings to increase their billable hours. To be clear, GameLicenses.com does not earn any revenue from these transactions and is providing this as a service purely for the benefit of indie developers.


How does GameLicenses.com generate revenue? There are several ways we generate revenue, based on commission and advertising. We take a 10% commission on every license sold that resulted from an introduction on our website. The benefit to this business model is if a license isn’t sold, and the developer doesn’t earn any money, then we don’t either. It’s a no-risk situation for the developer.


“If our users have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them, after all we are building this site for them and feedback is always appreciated.”


We also have advertising-only options that allow companies to better have enhanced listings or advertise their external websites/products to our user base.


Do you promote licenses on your website or do you approach publishers directly on behalf of the developers?


For games that we believe publishers would have a significant amount of interest in, we do pound the pavement and contact publishers on behalf of


We believe that while our promotional and marketing activities are good, they are nothing when compared to the power of the community. Word of mouth has long been known to be the most successful of all marketing tactics because it shows real people who are proud enough to stand behind a company’s core activities and beliefs and tell others that yes, I can recommend their services to others. This is our way of rewarding their loyalty. As we see it, there really is no better way to show our thanks but to allow those participating to share in our success.


What are your plans for the future? Good question as we have many plans to expand our reach. We’re initially focusing on creating a strong user base as that will be imperative to the sites long term success. We’ll be doing that by trying to get the message out there that we’re around, and localizing our website for other languages to increase multi-region partnership opportunities. If our users have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them, after all we are building this site for them and feedback is always appreciated.


Thanks for taking time to speak with WGE Scott.


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