Rev Share Reality Check: Why Splitting Profits Is a Game Developer's Nightmare
I won't deny that revshare projects seem very appealing tothe majority of people, including myself. I started doing my first rev shareprojects when I wrote my first books. I didn't have much experience back then,and having another person check your manuscript didn't seem like a bad idea,especially in my case since I'm not a native speaker. Fortunately, I was luckyenough to have a very experienced co-writer as my partner, and the books wewrote were great, let alone the partnership being smooth. Unfortunately, thingsdon't go that well in most cases, and if you’re thinking of doing revshare ingame dev, well, the challenge is on another level.
Most rev share projects I've joined over the years startwith a phrase like this: "We're going to split profits evenly," orthe person pitching the idea holds ownership of most of what's being produced.As we all understand, starting with the above mentality can never work out. Ifmy kid came and told me about it, I’d say it’s a bad business deal. But when itcomes down to making a rational choice yourself, you’ll do exactly what allpeople do. Let me elaborate.
I've never heard of a revshare project working without aproper plan. I must confess that even though I participated in several revshareprojects in the past, I did it knowing that the project would fail down theroad. You might be wondering why I participated in these projects despiteknowing they would fail. The answer is simple: The concept looked cool, and Iwanted to gain more experience. Even if the project failed, I would get theopportunity to expand my skill set and knowledge. Because, let's face it, inmost cases, rev share projects are on the same level as free projects in termsof profitability. I participated in jams and free projects only to advance myskill set, and rev share projects don’t differ that much for me.
I must confess; however, that revshare projects have a99.99% chance of failing. I will summarize why this is the case compared tofree projects and why I always preferred doing free projects. The deal is nevergood enough, and some people will do most of the work while others will slackoff. As you can understand, this creates disparity between the members becausethose who work more want a bigger cut of the pie – and rightfully so. What mostpeople don't realize is that most beginner projects have very little commercialvalue, and the chances of actually making a profit are negligible. The realityis that your first projects will generate below $500 in gross revenue. Is itworth going through all the trouble? Hell no, but people think their idea willmake millions without realizing the actual work that needs to be put into agame dev project. Therefore, when you gather people who care mainly aboutmaking something good and advancing their skill set, without caring for profit,the chances of completing a project are way higher, and you don't have to gothrough the painful process of negotiating revshare.
By all means, I'm not saying that people who want to makerevshare projects are bad in nature. It’s they think their amazing idea willgenerate a lot of revenue.
And if you’re still wondering why revshare worked for mybooks and why can’t it be replicated to game dev? Well, it's different to haveone person discussing the production and marketing of your book, but imaginedoing this for a complex project that requires 15 or 20 people working on it.It's pretty obvious that from a production standpoint, this won’t work.
I’m sure that some people out there have found a way to make rev share work with smaller teams, but I’ve never met one. Have you? Or is it simply that because we've heard people say rev share works, it has become an accepted belief?
