Sponsor's conditions

[jonathansario]

Hi.

A sponsor recently took interest in sponsoring my game. I feel real happy about it because its the very first flash game I ever made and its also the first time I'm getting sponsored. :) Problem is theres a condition I don't understand.

The sponsor has a condition that he will upload it to two portals, NG and Kong, and will claim ownership of the game on those two portals. I don't know what that means since I don't think I'm not allowed to post the sponsored game on other portals other than NG and Kong under my ownership.

Its a Primary License so what does this mean? Does he just post it under his user account on NG and Kong or is he going to claim he made the game?

I've asked him about it and still waiting for a reply but I wanted to get other developer's opinions about this condition.

Thanks.

Oh, its a sponsor through FGL, btw.

[ImpendingRiot]

I'd be a little on the cautious side. Many sponsors might ask for permission to upload your game using one of their sponsor accounts, but the wording of "Ownership" is a little concerning. Most sponsorships are about branding, not ownership. If you aren't careful with your terms, they could gain ownership of whatever character or content you made. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just saying be aware of it and make sure that the offer is good enough for you to go that route.

[Fion]

It most likely means that the sponsor has an account on both Newgrounds and Kongregate and they will upload using those accounts but they will not claim to have made the game themselves, even if that is their intention no amount of money given can make doing such a thing legal, a game will forever be "made by you" unless you are employed by a company when you make it then it becomes made by the company.

However I would question the worth of the sponsor submitting without you, I feel personally the price should be relatively high for them to do that because it takes away some of the credit from you. I find usually with games submitted by sponsors they are games made by people who are under contract with those sponsors ala John Cooney and that con artist guy who I believe were/are both under contracts with armor games.

At the very least have the sponsor co-author you here on newgrounds, although I don't think you can have co-authors over at Kongregate.

Good luck with your game.

[Fion]

At 9/13/10 07:35 PM, ImpendingRiot wrote: "Ownership"

I think to take ownership of IP the agreement (by law) has to be fairly specific. ie "By taking our payment you surrender your rights over character X and theme Y".

[MichaelJ]

I wouldn't sell your game to him anyway; if he wanted it, he would be replying to your questions right away. Really, you need to be careful with some of the guys on FLG, do background checks. (especially if he is from India, that's a red flag)
Still, with a primary license, you get payed for the game, and people know that you made it, but it is basically his.

[jonathansario]

He did say though that nothing on the game will be changed and I have my name on it along with links to my site.

But just to be sure, I'll wait for him to reply. I only PMed him yesterday so I'll wait a week. He is market level 4 on FGL and has sponsored two games from FGL already but I'm not experienced enough to know how credible that is.

[ProfessorFlash]

Kongregate gives ad revenue to the person who submitted the game, so I think the sponsors wants that to himself. I personally wouldn't take this kind of deal. It's your game, you should submit it and if the sponsors has account on newgrounds you can co-author him if he wants. But then again I don't know how much he is paying for this deal. I guess it's your choice to make if the amount of money is high enough to warrant this kind of credit losing.

[4urentertainment]

At 9/14/10 12:14 AM, ProfessorFlash wrote:

I agree with ProfessorFlash, it's your game, and it's a primary license not an exclusive deal or selling the IP's. It's your right to submit it to NG and Kong and start getting known. Otherwise, people will just assume the sponsor was the one that made the game.

[GustTheASGuy]

Ask to clarify the meaning of the 'ownership'. The rest means the sponsor wants to submit your games to portals themselves, that's normal. A primary license means you retain rights to sell the game to other sites after a certain time period after release.

[polym]

The things about sponsors is that it's redundant..

The whole idea is to get you publicity and to give you a share of money that's earned by the sponsor. Anyway you look at it, you'd probably end up making more money yourself if you marketed the game on your own than by the sponsor. The whole concept is designed to rip you off, especially those without any credibility, such as websites that steal flash games or people who want to start their own portal websites without any integrity.

[citricsquid]

At 9/18/10 04:53 PM, polym wrote: The things about sponsors is that it's redundant..

incorrect, completely 100% incorrect. Sponsors take a gamble by paying upfront with no guarantees, they don't know how much they're going to make back. I'd like to see how many game creators you can find who've had a flash not sponsored and made $4k on it from adverts, which is not an "out there" figure for a flash to be sponsored at.

If you honestly think sponsors are ripping people off, you ought to re-evaluate your understanding of the flash "industry". Sponsors take a gamble by paying up front, sometimes they make more money back and sometimes they lose money, just because they make more for themselves than the user would have done w/ adverts that doesn't make it a scam.

If someone says to you "here is $1000 for x, or I can let you take the proceeds of x, it may be more than $1000 or it may be less, would you like a guaranteed sum or would you like to gamble?" would you say the gamble is a scam?