A common question developers ask is: “How much does it cost to hire a lawyer to help with a publishing agreement?” The typical (and frustrating) lawyer’s answer is: “It depends.”
While every situation is different, this article will give you a clearer idea of the typical costs involved when working with a video game lawyer on publishing agreements.
Which elements have an influence on the costs?
The actual costs of legal assistance for publishing agreements depend on several factors, including contract length, financial investment, and the type of game. Below we’ll explore the main elements that can affect your lawyer’s fees.
How long is the agreement?
The length and formatting of your video game publishing agreement directly affect legal costs. For example, reviewingI a contract of 70 pages written in font size 4 requires more effort than a contract of only 8 pages in a regular font size. Simply put, the longer and denser the contract, the more hours your lawyer need to spend reviewing it.
How big is the investment of the publisher?
The higher the publisher’s financial investment, the more detailed and complex the contract will typically be. This makes sense: the more money at stake, the greater the publisher wants to carefully manage their risk. For you as a developer, this also means it becomes even more important to assess the contract.
Is it an online or offline game?
With online games, additional considerations come into play, such as server hosting responsibilities and the technical support of the online environment. This makes online publishing agreements for online games more complex than for offline games, often requiring more lawyer time to review and negotiate.
Is it a self-developed IP or is there a licensed IP?
If your game is based on a licensed IP, the publishing agreement must reflect the conditions set out in the original license. For example, restrictions around creative use and distribution. A lawyer will need to carefully ensure these licensing terms are respected and properly integrated into your publishing agreement, which can increase review time and costs.
Do the developer and the publisher agree with each other (and have all important topics been discussed in advance)?
Negotiation time depends heavily on whether the developer and publisher are already on the same page. If both parties have discussed and agreed on key terms in advance, the contract process is usually smoother and faster. After all, if everything is discussed, a contract is nothing more than a record of what the parties have already agreed upon.
On the other hand, if important assumptions or expectations haven’t been addressed, the draft publishing agreement may go through multiple rounds of revisions, which leads to higher legal costs.
Costs at Deviant Legal
Based on the contracts we have reviewed at Deviant Legal, a general ‘ball park’ for the costs of a lawyer is that it will usually be somewhere between €800 and €3,000 (excluding VAT).
It is good to know that Deviant Legal does not choose to use standardized prices when assessing and negotiating publishing agreements.
The reason for this is that we want to see what a reasonable price would be on a case-by-case basis. We do not want to scare off developers in advance. That does, however, not mean that we do not provide clear information about the costs in advance. We believe it is important that we find a way together to see what works for our clients.
At Deviant Legal, we will ask you to send us the draft of the agreement in advance. Based on this draft, we will then provide a price quote, in which we often use a maximum price for reviewing and discussing the agreement with you.
We also understand that not every studio has the budget to pay a lawyer. If your publishing agreement includes a signing milestone (a payment triggered once the contract is signed), we can arrange for the invoice to be sent after you receive that milestone payment. If, for any reason, the deal falls through, we’ll work with you to find a fair solution.
At Deviant Legal, our goal is to support developers and help make great games possible. That’s why we aim to keep our services accessible, whether you’re an indie studio or a larger developer negotiating a major publishing deal.
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