Licensing in Action

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Three years later, Double D is still alive and kicking. Its original IP game came out to critical acclaim and sales good enough to get a sequel development with Publisher A, who is in the middle of negotiating a film option on the property. The founders have been debating adding a second team, but aren't sure they really want to handle the exponential management hassles. At the same time, the group would like to leverage its current engine and AI for at least one more game before major changes are required. The founders decide to find out what the rest of the company is interested in working on. Dana sends out an e-mail asking people to submit game proposals compatible with Double D's current technology within the next two weeks. She disseminates the proposals a few days before an all hands meeting called to review the compa ny's options.

Dana opens the meeting by announcing that the meeting is to talk about potential projects as well as to hear what people think about expanding to 1.5 or 2 teams , which would probably be a prerequisite for developing any of the submissions.

The proposal that gets the most traction is based on an obscure comic book called ComicBook released by an independent publisher. Jean brought it into the office one day and a cult rapidly developed. The group seems enthusiastic enough about the project that Dana asks the propos al's author, a line producer named Lorne, if he wants to work up a top-line budget and spec so that Dana and the founders can evaluate what additional resources would be required to make the game.

Dusty comes into Dana's office after the meeting and expresses concern that Lorne's budget would be pretty inaccurate. "Yeah, I know," she tells Dusty, "but I think it's a good exercise for him, andmore importanthe'll need a lot of help from everyone to get it put together. I figure it'll be a pretty good indicator of just how motivated everyone is to make the game."

Pat comes in to the office and mentions that there is definitely a card-based game to be made out of the ComicBook property. The three of them discuss the possibility of buying the property and trying to develop it into several different media. Dana sends an e-mail to the founder group summarizing the ideas and seeing what people think about her talking to their IP attor ney, Jamie, about acquiring the ComicBook property .

Dana sends Jamie an e-mail explaining Double D's idea, along with the fact that Double D doesn't want to spend much money on the license or the drafting and negotiating fees because it is fronting the money to acquire the property without a development contract in hand. Jamie drafts a short form option agreement to use in approaching ComicBook's owner. (See end of chapter.)

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Game Development Business and Legal Guide
Game Development Business and Legal Guide (Premier Press Game Development)
ISBN: 1592000428
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 63

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