Just for the record, I wanted to state that I am not a fanboy of Illwinter Games nor have I ever played Dom2. I am also not stating that anyone should just be happy with what many think is an expansion pack (which I understand given what I've only seen from screenshots of the previous version).
With that said, I've been thinking about the plight of indie developers and the general opinion that the gaming community believes that we need more of them for new and original games. However, it seems like an indie developer can't meet our expectations with current graphics technology and teams of programmers/testers to make it all happen.
Here's a snipet from from a Troika game developer:
Now, I believe this was a from a Troika developer with full retail box/manual/advertising from their publisher. So, I guess I could understand the arrangement, but this doesn't really apply to Illwinter/Shrapnel since they seem to only be selling this directly right now.To help everyone better understand, I will explain Publisher funding vs. Developer return process. I'm going to simplify it a lot, but this is more or less how it works.... and it's really quite amazing...
After they agree to fund your game for 6 million, you begin production. They give you 500k a month upon receiving, reviewing, and approving your milestone. They are basically checking every month to make sure the game is actually being made and going in a good direction Fair enough. To keep things easy, let's say the game ships on time and they've given you a clean 6 million bucks.
Ready?.... You get 10% of the royalties of the game! So like if the game sells 1 million units at Electronics Boutique for 50 bucks a piece, you get 5 million dollars coming back at you right?!??!
WRONG
EB bought the game for 40 dollars and sells it for 50. Now the publisher takes away their expenses of producing the full color manual and the pretty box and such which we'll say is 10 bucks (usually more like 7, but let's keep the math easy). So now we are down to 30 bucks, and you get 10% of that... 3 bucks.... but WAIT!!!
Your 3 dollars doesn't go into your pocket, your 3 bucks goes to pay back the publisher what you borrowed to make the game. They did give you 6 million dollars. So before the developer see's a check in the mail, you would have to sell 2 million units!!!!! So the developer before the developer gets a check, the publisher gets 30 million dollars coming in.
So, assuming that $15 is for the manual and shipping (just a guess for round math), that leaves $40. So, maybe Shrapnel gets 65%, that would leave Illwinter with $14 per unit sold. Finally, if this is a niche market, I'm going to assume 2,000 units for now.
14 X 2000 = $28,000
Frankly, I don't understand how any game developer makes very much money in the industry. I was technical support for Three-Sixty Pacific back in the early nineties and they eventually went bankrupt. This was from a niche wargaming company with a Hall of Fame game (Harpoon) and three games (V for Victory series) in the top 5 Strategy/War game section in CGW in 1991 or so.
Finally, I will be buying the game since I would rather give my money to an indie developer that's making an effort even if it comes across as "charity" to others.