泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] A publisher can't have it both ways

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

A publisher can't have it both ways

 

Recently, the news that Ban Ki-moon announced that he would not run for the presidential election is the talk of the town. Sometimes we define ourselves by the expectations of the others. So many people around us make the wrong decision since they think too highly of themselves or don't have an accurate picture of their abilities, for example, an unsuccessful athlete-turned-entertainer or a failed entertainer-turned-entrepreneur. So in that sense, I support the former UN Secretary-General's position. The diplomatic expert probably doesn't have all the necessary qualities for a politician and it doesn't seem to fit for him to take part in local politics due to his lack of understanding of the domestic situation. I think it's comparable with legendary basketball icon Michael Jordan who tried to be a professional baseball player.

 

I have been hearing about video game publishers focusing on creating a video game for some time now. Publishers who are responsible for marketing, sales, and PR, etc. differ significantly from developers, although they are in the same industry. Furthermore, publishing a video game created by a developer that signed a contract with and publishing a video game made by colleagues working in the same office from morning till evening is different. A few film distributor did great at the box office with self-production movies. Marketing and sales must be based on objective data, however, it's not easy to remain objective about the self-contained project. Besides, game developers who have a rich game development environment tend to add game elements with zeal and avidity, which often increases the break-even point due to the increased amount of production costs and expenses and delays during the development process.

 

In spite of little chance of success, a video game company can be good at both publishing and developing a video game. A publisher which had great results from a self-contained project has no occasion to focus on a developer's less-profitable game and, similarly, the developer doesn't want to work with the publisher lacked sincerity. Every game maker wants their project to be the publisher's priority.

 

The management would change the future direction after careful consideration and I don't want to raise the questions about the decision. However, the publisher can't have it both ways realistically. It's wishful thinking. If the publisher decides to focus on the self-contained project, it needs to abandon the publishing game and put its nose down in only one task at a time to be successful. In contrast, if it wants to publish a developer's game, it is better to give up the self-contained game. Now is the time for domestic video game publishers to clarify their attitude. I expect them to choose between the two and focus on it.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui