Often in development, a typeface gets approved early and becomes part of the interface without a ton of thought beyond the look and function. Months or years later, a studio may discover that the font license never allowed distribution inside a commercial game or that a renewal of the font license changed the rules for …
Contracts are full of magic words, and two of my favorites words are ‘perpetual’ and ‘exclusive.’ In a grant of rights, ‘Perpetual’ speaks to how long that grant lasts. ‘Exclusive’ turns on whether anyone else, including the creator who made the work, can ever use that work again. Each word does a lot more work …
‘Perpetual’ and ‘Exclusive’: Two Magic Words Doing More Than First Appears Read More »
Marketing a game is becoming ever more important as platforms get flooded with new games daily. Developers, especially those with smaller marketing budgets, have to get increasingly creative with how they market their games, lest they get pushed to the back of the search results. With great creativity comes great responsibility. There are an infinite …
Roblox has had a busy stretch. A new payments product, continued growth overseas, a noticeably different investor base, and an announcement that could change what “Roblox” means as a platform. Here is what each one means for the people actually building on top of it. Roblox Wallet: A Payments Product With More Questions Than Answers …
Post-Roblox Developer Conference Debrief: Four Things We’re Watching Read More »
My favorite board game, Agricola, has been turned into a mobile game app twice. The first time, Lookout Games had rights in the board game and, presumably, entered into a license agreement with Playdek to develop the mobile app. The result was an excellent adaptation of the board game with a few bugs. Later, Asmodee …
An indemnification clause is a provision in an agreement that shifts risk from one party to another. In a game development agreement, it often appears near the end of the document and receives less attention than payment terms or ownership rights because it looks like legal jargon. But when a dispute arises, this clause can …
Indemnification Clauses in Game Development Contracts Read More »
On August 12, Twitch shifted the default settings on every channel so that a broad range of content (including live streams, VODs, clips, highlights, and the text and images on a channel) can be used to train Amazon’s generative AI models unless a creator opts out. The shift has drawn plenty of attention from the …
Twitch’s New AI Terms Affect Developers, Too: How to Mitigate Risks to Game IP Read More »
Gaming is an ever-evolving industry that seems to shift and reinvent itself every day. Big news or changes in industry conditions can directly impact publishing deals, so publishers, developers and content creators will want to look at any deals they have in place (or that they’re negotiating) when that news hits. One event impacting the …
What Happens to a Publishing Deal When Conditions Change? Read More »
Here’s a common scenario game studios may be familiar with: a contractor and studio meet, decide they want to work together, and then begin a short evaluation period so both can test the working relationship. The evaluation goes well and they agree to continue. A few extra requests get added here and there. Weeks later, …
Many game developers dream of starting a game studio. For some, that has always been the goal. For others, recent layoffs have created the opportunity to build something new. Launching a studio is exciting, but a few early legal decisions can shape everything that follows. Getting these issues right from the beginning can prevent expensive …
Starting a Game Studio: 5 Legal Issues to Get Right First Read More »