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Forums - Sales Discussion - "Journey Becomes Profitable, ThatGameCompany Starts Receiving Royalties"

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AmishGramish on 02 July 2013
HikenNoAce said:
AmishGramish said:
Okay, it'll just be easier if I make a bulk response to everyone instead of just responding to each quote:
(For anyone seeing this who doesn't know already, I'm the Community Manager for thatgamecompany.)

@cmeese:
I just want to note that CouchSurfing.org received more money from Benchmark than TGC did.
Anyways, we're self-publishing our next game. We're trying to be completely independent of any publishers, but it doesn't mean that we won't be with a publisher on a specific platform or completely for a future title.
The funding deal was that Benchmark own part of TGC, so they in turn own part of our next title. But, just like Sony, they are funding us to go our own way with development, so they aren't trying to change anything or forcing us to have any partnerships with various companies.


So, you want to be independent and yet sold part of the company? Why not sell part of the company to Sony then?


Selling part of the company to venture capitalists is extremely different than selling to a console holder.

A console holder will make more money in the long run by keeping studios exclusive to their platforms, and a VC will make more money in the long run by making sure the games sell as much as possible/by making the company look as pleasing as possible for future investors.

Most of the time, VCs will let the people running the company keep running the company as they have been doing or will have someone be on a board, monitoring and sometimes managing some of the more major aspects of business.  It's like asking your grandparents to invest in your company.  They'll put in a small amount (compared to selling part of the company to someone who gains major control of the company), but they'll let you do almost everything.  Grandma or Grandpa might chime in with info on how to do specific things, but they usually don't tell you who to hire, how much to pay, which products to make, etc.



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HikenNoAce on 02 July 2013
AmishGramish said:
HikenNoAce said:
AmishGramish said:
Okay, it'll just be easier if I make a bulk response to everyone instead of just responding to each quote:
(For anyone seeing this who doesn't know already, I'm the Community Manager for thatgamecompany.)

@cmeese:
I just want to note that CouchSurfing.org received more money from Benchmark than TGC did.
Anyways, we're self-publishing our next game. We're trying to be completely independent of any publishers, but it doesn't mean that we won't be with a publisher on a specific platform or completely for a future title.
The funding deal was that Benchmark own part of TGC, so they in turn own part of our next title. But, just like Sony, they are funding us to go our own way with development, so they aren't trying to change anything or forcing us to have any partnerships with various companies.


So, you want to be independent and yet sold part of the company? Why not sell part of the company to Sony then?


Selling part of the company to venture capitalists is extremely different than selling to a console holder.

A console holder will make more money in the long run by keeping studios exclusive to their platforms, and a VC will make more money in the long run by making sure the games sell as much as possible/by making the company look as pleasing as possible for future investors.

Most of the time, VCs will let the people running the company keep running the company as they have been doing or will have someone be on a board, monitoring and sometimes managing some of the more major aspects of business.  It's like asking your grandparents to invest in your company.  They'll put in a small amount (compared to selling part of the company to someone who gains major control of the company), but they'll let you do almost everything.  Grandma or Grandpa might chime in with info on how to do specific things, but they usually don't tell you who to hire, how much to pay, which products to make, etc.

Thanks for the clarification Amish. Just curious - will you still be developing for the Sony systems going forward?