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[dhondon]

Found this great post today that explains this mystery:
http://alicebessoni.tumblr.com/post/117118471190/why-wont-artists-accept-revenue-share-royalties

Thoughts?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think this can work with friends who know and trust each other, and with people who have a history of finishing good games. however, it's often used by "idea guys" who are making their over-ambitious first game, and don't plan on doing any work themselves and instead telling everyone else what to do and giving them like 5% each, and those people are people to avoid at all costs

[cynicalsandel]

Was it really a mystery? This is common sense.

Rev share has no guarantees. For reasons completely outside of my control, said game could not be finished and I will get nothing out of it. Even if it does get finished, it might not make any money. I have to put my faith in a couple of goons that my time won't be wasted.

As Paul said, the only situation in which it could work is with a friend. I'm not going to trust a stranger with that much of my time.

[Vilanat]

As with anything else in life, sweeping statements and preconditioned assumptions and decisions are not something to aspire to.

Let's put it simply, while the number of developers who got nothing out of a rev share system is extremely large, the number of developers who got comfortably paid from freelancing or even working for a fixed rate/salary for indie teams is still far lower than those who have got rich/got-way-above-average-salary from said payment model.

I know of more than a couple of Devs who achieved a comfortable and secured future only thanks to their faith, trust or more importantly, keen sense of future potential out of a stranger dev/game.

[jbadams]

...the number of developers who got comfortably paid from freelancing or even working for a fixed rate/salary for indie teams is still far lower than those who have got rich/got-way-above-average-salary from said payment model.

Citation needed?

Obviously revenue share can sometimes work out well, and the author of the article even acknowledges that such agreements will be taken under the right conditions in the first sentence of the post.


An option some people seem to miss is that a developer can pay a contractor with a non-refundable, recoupable advance on future royalties so that more of the financial risk is shifted back to the developer rather than the artist.