Originally posted by Svartalf
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Is LGP Going The Way Of Loki Software?
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Originally posted by LinuxID10T View PostI personally didn't think the last two were worth it, but the first one... Seriously, it would be pretty cool to have Fallout for Linux
As it stands, I think we're all going to find that we're going to differ on what is good/no-good and the ratios I'm giving here are going to be close to the same for other people.
I agree we've got problems, guys. I've not got all the answers, as much as I wish I did. Some of these issues could be answered with substantively more money than Michael Simms has poured into things here; a PowerBall big jackpot win would leave one flush enough with cash to do it with current circumstances. But that's pipedreaming there. I've got more than I can probably ever handle solo with that wishlist thread catch we've gotten- and I'm not wholly sure how a porting consortium of devs accross international lines would even work right at the moment. Might work well, might not work worth a flip.
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Originally posted by Svartalf View PostSome of these issues could be answered with substantively more money than Michael Simms has poured into things here; a PowerBall big jackpot win would leave one flush enough with cash to do it with current circumstances.Test signature
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Originally posted by curaga View PostI always wonder where the 20:1 piracy figures come from, because whenever I think of checking that I usually can't find a single LGP game shared anywhere.
Just now a search for "linux" at TBP has 1 LGP title, out of 79 hits.
Before accusing me of failing morals because of the above, consider that I haven't pirated a single computer game in years. :P
Just so you know, I'm not the one asking for or demanding DRM- I'm someone that detests the whole concept and thinks it's a waste of time and resources on both the developer's and the customer's side of things. I've not seen a thin dime for Ballistics yet because of things I mentioned in this thread though.
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Originally posted by LinuxID10T View PostMaybe you could... Drop the price to $5.00 USD on the small games and $10.00 USD on the large ones, and watch your sales rise through the roof.
It doesn't work along the ways that most people think they do.
You pay an up-front amount of money to get the right to produce said port unless you go to an Indie like I've done and get a percentage of Linux proceeds deal with them. This amount varies but is in the solid 5 figures range for the class of games LGP have been able to get. It's in the 6's for things like the stuff we keep getting requests for. That is before you get to even start and it comes out of your hide and has to come back somewhere if you're even going to break even.
Then you do your development work to move it over. Some titles are cleanly written and take minimal effort to get up and going (Caster, for example...) and others aren't so nice (**cough** Disciples 2...**cough**). That means you have a time to port there that could be short or long- about like you see with LGP right now. Now you have to PAY these people unless they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts (yeah...riiight...)- so you need to account for that as well. It's typically an hourly rate or you cut a commission deal like LGP does, which would be a generous cut of the proceeds...if the title sells decently.
At that point, you might be at a point where you need to put copies up for download or purchase in meatspace. If you make meatspace stuff, you'll need to get in touch with a duplicator to press the CD's/DVD's and to package them up. Figure at least 1-2 dollars per copy for that if you're doing meatspace stuff. It should be noted that not all royalty deals for porting/publication allow you to provide downloadable content versions of the title; as often as not you've got to get a separate deal for that one.
Once you've made up your copies to be sold, you immediately owe per-unit royalties. This is one of the things that killed Loki games- it's what cost them over a quarter mil to iD over Quake 3:Arena. In that case, Loki pressed entirely TOO many of the copies, screwed up their delivery logistics and had most everyone buy the Windows SKU and "patch" it. (There is a reason why I do probably carry on a bit more than I ought to about that subject...we had a shot THEN to have it all come together and people in the community unwittingly let everyone else down because of "I want it NOW" thinking...) You owe this up-front, really, again, like the source code access cost you. They cut you a smidge of slack on the delivery of that money so you press and pray the title sells reasonably well or the publisher/studio cuts you some more slack- or you're flush enough with cash to spend that money as well.
In the end, the access royalties and per-unit royalties end up being that $5-10 you refer to as being a magic price. It certainly won't cover developer costs, duplicator costs, or...god forbid, profits.
Why does GoG sell it for those amounts? Because they're an industry insider (CD Projekct runs the company in question...) and the titles they're selling are off the back-inventory that was previously not being published or sold at the time they scored the deal. The studio or publisher has already made back everything they were going to through the normal channels and they're letting GoG sell them at the low prices they are and online so they can mine that last smidge of potential profits out of the titles in question. I'm hopeful to wedge us into that space so we can at least get decent titles at fair prices that while they're AAA titles of yesteryear, they're still fun and very much worth what they're asking for them. That way we can get better sales figures for Linux as a potential market for the other players in the industry.
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Whatever
Well, whatever.
I'm personally happy with what LGP provides. I didn't care for the DRM either, but I was able to live with it. Now that I understand why the DRM is there in the first place, I have even less a problem with it.
I, unfortunately, didn't know LGP even existed until they had that big sale not too far back and saw a news posting on it (probably on phoronix, I don't think slashdot even posted anything up about that sale). Until then, I had no idea. I promptly purchased X3 and Jets 'n Guns.
I received X3 in a timely manager, but Jets 'n Guns I didn't receive until months later, and when I finally did get it (after sending some emails back and forth), it was for the regular price and not the sale price. I wouldn't have put up with this from any regular company. But I made an exception for a linux company (in particular, a linux game company).
I tried the Shadowgrounds: survivor demo, loved it, and ordered it as well as the previous Shadowgrounds game. This time around I received games quickly with no issues. Fortunately, it seems my issue with Jets 'n Guns was a fluke, and not a common occurrence.
While this isn't entirely off topic, I have some comments and questions:
I don't mind paying more money for native linux games, because I'm more than happy to have... native linux games. In fact, I'd like to buy more.
To recap, I currently have:
X3
Shadowgrounds
Shadowgrounds: Survivor
Jets 'n Guns
Can anyone recommend some more good titles for me to buy?
LGP team, can you PLEASE patch your shadowground games to run properly on 64-bit linux? I'm tired of having to explicitly point these games to use the correct gtk libraries (ie, the ones that ship with the game). This would be TRIVIAL to fix. If there's a shortage of manpower, I'd be willing to help with the fix personally.
For X3, does someone know of a functional and (this is important) left-handed friendly flight stick? This has kept me from playing the game pased 45 minutes. I like the game a lot so far, but my current flight stick is too anemic for how I want to play the game, and all the others I see that are good enough are strictly for right-handers.
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