Explain
and illustrate the contractual arrangements used within the games industry.
Produce a profile for each of the following:
Contractual
|
Employment
Development
License
NDA
Collaboration
|
Employment Contracts
The purpose of this contract is to set forth the terms of your
employment - what the company expects you to do for the company, and what the
company will do for you in return.
Employment contracts at game companies are pretty much like employment contracts at any other sort of company.
The game industry employment contract is likely to include clauses about benefits, confidentiality, about inventions, and about not competing with the company during or shortly after the term of employment.
Employment contracts at game companies are pretty much like employment contracts at any other sort of company.
The game industry employment contract is likely to include clauses about benefits, confidentiality, about inventions, and about not competing with the company during or shortly after the term of employment.
Development Agreements
Game publishers often hire game developers to create games for
them. This is an example of a Development agreement this says the terms of the
development deal between each the developer and the publishers.
This part of the
agreement out much the publisher will pay the developer, what
timeframe the developer has to develop the game, and if there will be
royalties, what the royalty rate is.
It's important to
clarify whether the publisher owns the Intellectual property over the content or if the developer owns it.
The developing
company has to promise it won't use anybody else's code and the
publishing company has also pledge that it has the right to ask developer to
create this particular game.
License Agreements
When a publisher wants to make a game about a movie or
something, the publisher and the movie IP owner execute a contract spelling out
the terms of the license.
What's Being Licensed - The contract spells out exactly what the publisher is getting
the rights to use.
What The License Can Be Used For - The contract probably specifies that the publisher only has
the right to make a game that works on the Xbox, Playstation and the PC,
Territory - The contract
specifies what parts of the world the publisher's game will be published in.
Publishers always want worldwide rights, of course - but licensors often charge
more for that so many of the larger companies go for worldwide rights or rights where more popular countries play video games.
Term - The contract
probably doesn't run forever. Most license agreements run no more than 5 years.
NDA and Confidentiality Agreements
Non-Disclosure Agreements are a One party, in order to do business with the other party, has to discuss a secret of some kind or a plan to make a particular game maybe even a process for making games, or a business deal that hasn't yet been
publicly announced, and has to tell this secret to the other party.
The other party must agree not to disclose the information or data given to them - to keep it confidential if this pledge is broken, it will be the result to the first party. In such an event, dire things will happen in a court of law to the second party such as law suits or worse.
The other party must agree not to disclose the information or data given to them - to keep it confidential if this pledge is broken, it will be the result to the first party. In such an event, dire things will happen in a court of law to the second party such as law suits or worse.
Collaboration Agreements
The above types of contracts cover the most frequent types of
contract in the mainstream game industry.
However a lot of people are building indie game projects, and for those folks a very important need is an agreement that covers the all-important issues of ownership and compensation in the creation of games that exist outside of the mainstream industry. Games that might or might not ever generate any money.
The majority of indie projects may fail, and a huge factor in those failures is who owns what, who's supposed to do what, and who's going to get what this is important to show what people can use once the project disbands.
A collaboration agreement sets forth in clear terms how the indie or hobby project is managed and controlled, who owns the IP, how the game is intended to be used, how any possible income is to be handled, and how termination of the project is to be handled.
However a lot of people are building indie game projects, and for those folks a very important need is an agreement that covers the all-important issues of ownership and compensation in the creation of games that exist outside of the mainstream industry. Games that might or might not ever generate any money.
The majority of indie projects may fail, and a huge factor in those failures is who owns what, who's supposed to do what, and who's going to get what this is important to show what people can use once the project disbands.
A collaboration agreement sets forth in clear terms how the indie or hobby project is managed and controlled, who owns the IP, how the game is intended to be used, how any possible income is to be handled, and how termination of the project is to be handled.
No comments:
Post a Comment