Cost of Universe (Homeworld)

[Jason_Miao]

Through happenstance, I happened to find this:

http://www.indiegogo.com/save-homeworld?c=home


Given the terms of the fundraiser, there's a lot to be cautious about (although if they do end up being legit, that's great news).  But I'm mostly curious about their stated initial target.  Is $50,000 a realistic target to acquire the rights to a game series?  How much do rights go for, anyway?

[Grahf]

I actually wrote about this a few days ago.

To answer your question about just how much money it will take, it's unknown to a great extent. teamPixel is using anything they get from the crowdfunding to supplement what they've already gathered. Likewise, no price is set for the rights, they'll merely go to the highest bidder in the auction.

teamPixel might get the franchise, but only if a larger company doesn't show interest in it. We all tend to root for the underdog, but I don't think that there's any way that an indie dev could beat an offer from a truly interested mainstream group. If there were only tentative "see if you can get it on the cheap" bids, then sure, but otherwise, I kind of doubt it.

[Jason_Miao]

For Homeworld in particular, of course the price is unknown, since it's an auction.  But my question isn't Homeworld-specific: How much does a transfer of a underutilized series usually cost?  There has to be some typically reasonable range, since if it's too high, the eventual game won't realize enough of a profit to make it worthwhile, and if it's too low, most owners wouldn't really want to sell.

[Grahf]

Oh. I misunderstood the question, sorry.

I can't give any solid evidence, but if I were to speculate I would say that teamPixel seem to be wanting to operate within the quarter to half million dollar range, and that might be with substantial risk considering the worry from Homeworld fans that they may not do the series justice.

Strange as it is to say though, with the attention that the franchise has drawn, a larger company may be interested in acquiring the rights for a higher margin simply because there seems to be a fanbase eager for a new instalment. That isn't to say the teamPixel has shot itself in the foot, but it still seems like a distinct possibility.

[Dracos]

For Homeworld in particular, of course the price is unknown, since it's an auction.  But my question isn't Homeworld-specific: How much does a transfer of a underutilized series usually cost?  There has to be some typically reasonable range, since if it's too high, the eventual game won't realize enough of a profit to make it worthwhile, and if it's too low, most owners wouldn't really want to sell.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/23/thq-bid-winners-prices-and-runners-up/

Most IP doesn't move hands for less than a million.  It might sound like much, but actualizing a AAA team these days is usually at least 10 million per year (Space, hardware, utilities, legal, manpower) and easily goes much higher than that.  Not having enough to actualize on it means it's not a serious sale to begin with.  It's just handing it as an underpriced asset to likely sit in another person's hands unused just the same.

Sure, sometimes companies let underutilized IP go for a song of a hundred grand or so, but it's rare as at that price the odds are still better to wait and see if someone serious will show up.  Basically, with the numbers they're quoting, the only reason they get it is if nobody else cares.

Somehow, I don't see them having much of a real chance at the property at those prices.  Even if they do, it doesn't sound like they

[Jason_Miao]

Grahf: No worries.  In my initial post, I wasn't at my most articulate.


Drac: 1M doesn't sound like too much, to be honest, given the kinds of numbers that float around in the computer game industry, and how much various forms of intellectual property rights can be worth in other industries.

I was already pretty skeptical about a bunch of webdevs who wanted to do Homeworld as their first major game (and while they say they have game dev experience, no links/cites to those games?  Hell, I wrote pong in Pascal, but this doesn't mean I'm qualified to code Homeworld 3).  But from what Drac is saying, this is worse: it's utter lack of business plan.

That, and a fundraising plan that just gives whatever money was pledged to the fundraisers whether or not any targets were met...

[Grahf]

That, and a fundraising plan that just gives whatever money was pledged to the fundraisers whether or not any targets were met...

Yeah, that certainly got alarm bells going off in my head. I know they tried to justify it by saying that was the only method they could choose that would let them change the end date, but still, it's just unsavoury.