Last year I gave a lecture at the Gamer Tech Law conference in Seattle with the rather ambitious title of “Going Global: legal and business issues for international games development and distribution”. As you can imagine, that’s a lot to cover – even in a lecture directed at other lawyers. Anyway, below is the lecture I delivered, in which I talked the audience through international angles on: contracts, IP, distribution structures, consumer protection, advertising, age ratings and privacy. Enjoy! Continue reading An international legal guide to games development and distribution
Category: Development
Don’t leave money on the (legal) table
When you’re contracting with someone else, think wider than your product’s immediate revenue stream potential. That’s what I want to write about in this post. We see too many contracts where the product owner is partnering up with another guy without thinking as far as he/she could about what the value they’re giving away. Let’s say that it’s a games developer partnering with a publisher, or a software developer signing a distribution agreement with a distributor. They could be leaving money on the table by not thinking wider (and being sharper in the contract, which is what it all comes down to). Continue reading Don’t leave money on the (legal) table
Timegate beats Southpeak in Section 8 lawsuit
Timegame Studios, developer of the Section 8 first person shooter, has just won an interesting lawsuit against publisher SouthPeak Interactive (via Houston Press and Courthouse News). The case is a useful reminder of both the strength and weaknesses of arbitration, as well giving us some useful practical tips for drafting good publishing agreements (skip to the end of the post for that). I’ve written a summary of the case below. Continue reading Timegate beats Southpeak in Section 8 lawsuit