Game development Distribution agreements this can have a significant influence price. One important consideration on sales. The favourable positioning in this respect is controlling when a of a game on a platform (as in a distributor is permitted to introduce physical retail outlet) as well as any discounting, as going too early may features in a distributor’s marketing give the impression of low sales, communications can be hugely while too late may irreversibly desirable for a publisher, but will depress demand. often come at a price. A licence for any trade marks will also need Data provision to be given to the distributor by A vital element in commercial the relevant rights holder to enable decision making is access to the promotion of the game by data. The key types of data that the distributor. are relevant are sales and revenue, Revenue share and pricing as well as detailed marketing and promotional data. On digital Ultimately, the main issue under a platforms, this is accessed via the distributor agreement will be the seller account and determining share of revenue from sales via who has control over, and access the distributor that each of the to, the seller account is an distributors and the developer/ important element of the publisher receive. Many platforms distribution agreement. charge fixed rates across the board, For physical distribution, the provision but in other scenarios this will be of such data should be adequately open to negotiation. Where fixed, covered to ensure the developer and the publisher and/or developer will publisher have enough information still have the opportunity to influence to form the basis of their commercial the amount of money received per decision making. Control over the sale by having a say in the sale seller account also enables control 47