White Nights St.Petersburg: how to choose a publisher and not make a mistake?

How to choose the right publisher and what to pay attention to – Andrey Zimenko, head of the Mobile publishing department at the WG Labs External Project Curation laboratory, told at White Nights St.Petersburg 2016.

WG Labs – publishing initiative Wargaming.net . The laboratory was launched in July last year. The company needed its own publishing house because “there was a desire to do something besides tanks and ships,” according to Zimenko.

Own experience in the promotion of games allowed the company to gain expertise. So what Wargaming.net knows what the publisher gives to the developer, and vice versa.

On the part of the developer, a product, money, project knowledge and a talented team are invested in the project. From the publisher’s side – promo, audience, ability to acquire users, business development skills. In addition, the publisher solves problems with game support, monetization and localization.

In other words, the main task of the publisher is to attract an audience and reduce the fee for the acquisition of users.

However, a lot depends on the type of game.

If the project is paid or casual, then the publisher may not be needed, – says Zimenko. Here the work of a publisher, as a rule, boils down to promotion, work with the community and business development in general. These tasks can be solved by the developer himself.

Projects that definitely benefit from having a publisher – midcore or hardcore. Here the publisher can give more, since these projects, as a rule, need large-scale localization.

You need to show the project to the publisher when you have real metrics on hand. Zimenko advises to start communicating long before that, because a) publishing procedures take time and b) publishers have their own pipe lines.

The point to consider when working with a publisher is the possible risks. Zimenko noted that even if the publisher is chosen correctly and everything is fine with the project, the game may not come out, “stay on the shelf.” This happens when the publisher is not as interested in publishing the game as the developer.

If, at the same time, the publisher has requested exclusive publishing rights, the developer risks being left with nothing at all – without a released game and without the ability to launch it himself. Therefore, Zimenko advised to make sure that the contribution and profit in the project from both sides are approximately the same.

In addition, everything should be spelled out in the contract, including the developer’s profit. The publisher may not have obligations, but then it is necessary to provide options for exiting the transaction. Or agree on non-exclusive rights in order to be able to launch the project independently.

In conclusion, Zimenko told what projects WG Labs itself is ready to publish. If we talk about mobile projects, these are freeplay, “games-services”, midcore, PvP and MMO. The lab even has a special offer for mobile. The game that the team deems suitable for publication will be given an advertising budget of up to $ 30 thousand at the softlonch stage. If all the planned indicators (engagement, retention, etc.) can be achieved, then the project will receive a publishing contract.

Zimenko stressed that only projects ready for launch are accepted for consideration. The WG Labs team is not ready to consider the ideas of games and alpha versions.

Let’s add that so far only one of the publicly announced projects at WG Labs is ready to launch. This is a Gods & Glory game from Friday’s Games, the authors of Montezuma 3. The project won the award for the best game design at White Nights Moscow 2015. Zimenko noted that Gods & Glory gained 100 thousand installations during the softlonch. The release is scheduled for the 3rd quarter of 2016. The laboratory plans to launch several projects a year from among the most suitable ones.