A Royal Pain
Some Hard Truths About Royalties
This article is from about 18 months ago. I have to say that I have seen some improvement in the issues discussed, mainly because the systems at midsize publishers have improved, and also because I’m working with larger publishers more. I considered not republishing this piece, as it is more topical than is typical for GameTek, reacting to a specific grievance at that time. However, issues remain - just a few days ago I had to chase down an advance that was supposed to be sent months ago. So I have decided to go ahead and repost this.
Recently (again, this was in November 2021) the designers and publishers of Three Kingdoms Redux and Race for the Chinese Zodiac posted about an issue they're having with Berserk Games, the publishers of the online gaming platform Tabletop Simulator.
The full thread goes into the details, but in summary the designers made an agreement with Berserk to add their games to Tabletop Simulator, for a royalty. At first everything was paid on time, but gradually things got slower, and came to a halt in 2021. Emails went unanswered, royalties went unpaid.
It looks like this particular story will have a satisfactory ending. Berserk ultimately posted on the thread, apologizing and saying they were improving their systems for paying royalties. I hope it all works out.
Update: It did not work out. Here’s the latest from October 2022:
We have been sending Berserk Games monthly, sometimes more frequent, e-mail reminders since February 2022. There was a reply on 13th August 2022 claiming "We have had technical issues in generating the Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 reports, but they are on their way and you should expect them around the end of next week." That did not transpire by the end of the following week, so we kept up the reminder e-mails. We finally received another reply on 24th September 2022 with the Q4 2021 sales report, to which we sent back the invoice within 24 hours. Nothing since.
We are owed payment for Q4 2021, and are owed the sales reports for Q1 2022, Q2 2022 and Q3 2022.
We are not understanding how it can literally take Berserk Games years to solve "technical issues", since these issues surfaced quite a long time ago and got progressively worse over time.
This problem struck a real chord with me. In my experience, payment of royalties is a huge problem in the board game industry, and one that is rarely spoken about.
To be blunt - I have had royalty payment problems with every single board game publisher I have worked with.
The issues varied in severity. With some, royalties were paid a month or two late. With others it was years.
To be clear, I only have direct experience with the publishers I've dealt with. But I have spoken about this with other designers, and they all have similar stories. I'm sure there are publishers who consistently pay royalties on time without getting chased, but I am confident this problem is endemic to the industry.
I do not believe that the issues I had with my publishers was malicious, in that they were deliberately were trying to steal money from me.
The problem, in my opinion, is one of priorities. Whenever I reached out to publishers to ask about late payments, the excuse was always something along the lines of "we're so sorry, but we're a small team and have been really busy with X" - where X could be going to a trade show, launching a new game, dealing with shipping issues, whatever.
But the message was clear. The designer, and paying royalties is a very low priority for them.
We all make choices in life, and those choices show what we consider important. By putting royalties last, these publishers are showing that they are putting designers last.
As a business owner, I understand that the sales side of a business looms large. And that it's not fun to write checks and pay money. But it's about respect and fairness.
Even though I have a platform to speak from, and friendships with many of these publishers, I still had issues. If I have issues, then I can only imagine what new designers, with little clout, are going through. The issue between the Singaporean designers of Three Kingdoms and Chinese Zodiac and Berserk, where their emails and attempts to contact Berserk went ignored, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Designers naturally don't want to rock the boat, for fear of being branded as someone who is difficult to work with. You also have little leverage. If I'm a printer, I can refuse to ship the goods if I don't get paid. As a designer, if I don't get royalties my only threat is to pull the license.
But as the industry grows, I think it is important that these issues be spoken about openly. If a publisher gets a reputation as being a slow-payer on royalties, perhaps designers will be less likely to offer games to them, and that will incentivize them to get their act together.
In contrast, I've worked with several different book publishers. In all cases, I have never had an issue with royalty payments. They all have paid on time without prompting.
Perhaps part of this is the immaturity of the game publishing industry. I have seen that as game publishers I work with grow in sophistication these issues tend to shrink in frequency.
Designers, you need to stand up for yourself, starting with the contract. Your contract should specify precisely when royalties should be paid.
I have been offered contracts that say, for example, that royalties are paid twice a year, for periods covering Jan-June, and July-Dec. But they didn't say how soon after the end of the period the royalty is paid. You should insist on a specific timeframe. For example: royalties must be paid within 30 days after the end of the period.
In that particular case I insisted on a timeframe, and the contract was modified.
I have a tickler repeating reminder on my calendar for a week after royalties should have been paid. If I haven't received them, then I immediately reach out to the publisher. Don't be afraid to do that.
Finally, if you aren't getting good answers, go public with your problem.
If you don't want to do that, feel free to reach out to me directly (geoff@ludology.net) and I can act as your advocate either publicly or behind the scenes.
The industry needs to do better.