Elerond

How come everyone is so sure the IP will belong to Paradox? Tyranny is a Paradox owned trademark. Pillars of Eternity is an Obsidian owned one. While that is not an absolute indicator, especially for Paradox*, it's usually a good one for how things stand IP wise, and the publisher owning the IP is most usual practice. *historically at least a lot of Paradox games have reverted to the developer- Penumbra, Mount & Blade, Elven Legacy, Lead and Gold; probably 6 years after publication since AKP'43 got pulled from GOG six years after its initial release. Whether that's still true or true for Tyranny is impossible to tell, as you'd have to wait six years to find out. Paradox owning the game's most important IP, which is trademark to it's name, there isn't really ways to sell game anywhere without Paradox giving their permission. Obsidian probably owns some IP rights over the game, like for example technical solutions over Unity that give them ability make the game, they also probably have ownership over at least some of the art assets used in the game. But Paradox probably has permanent license to use these in the game and its marketing, and Obsidian gets lump sum or percentage compensation or combination of two as payment of use of their IPs.

Quite optimistic words.

How come everyone is so sure the IP will belong to Paradox? It say so in http://www.tyrannygame.com/ if you scroll bottom of the page Tyranny™ is a trademark of Paradox Interactive. All rights reserved. 2016 Paradox Interactive

if you buy champion or royal edition of PoE or upgrade your current version to one of them you get whole documentary.

[..] Developers pay for that announcement in GOG, but I think it is included in their regular fee. There is probably options to get more coverage in the store with additional fees. [..] In there I am saying that I think that regular percentage that developers pay for GOG covers GOG's promotion on their site and I speculate that GOG may offer additional coverage for those who pay more. So in other words developers that sell their games in GOG pay for GOG to promote, as part of their platform fee, but I don't know for sure if that is the case, which is why I put doubt in my sentence by adding I think.

Amazon has far more in common with bricks and mortar stores than any gaming etailer has. Really though, you were pretty definite about a fee being charged, and explicit about GOG charging a fee so you'll have to come up with better evidence than that if you want to prove it. I can't even remember marketing fees and the like being implied for GOG/ steam let alone outright stated as happening. And let's be honest, I'm not steam's #1 fan so I would love them to be doing such things since I could then use terms like and 'Embrace, Extend, Extort' about them; but I very much doubt they or GOG are doing any such thing. PR nightmare and, as above, 99% of estore game marketing is pre order/ release/ sales rather than day to day marketing. I am pretty sure that I didn't specify any stores and I even tried not to imply any store. I specifically tried to keep my post so that I only speak in generally about things. Please be nice and point where I have said that specifically GOG is charging a fee, so that I can fix my post. EDIT: I asked about paying promotion on Steam and there isn't currently direct option to pay for Valve to get promotion in Steam storefront. Which is currently controlled by Valve's curator algorithm that based on certain things (like reviews, user reviews, Steam curators, game library, etc. factors ) decides which games are shown in front page.

Do you have any evidence that digital stores do that? I know that high street physical stores of the E(lectronics)B(outique) or Walmart ilk did but then the model there is distinctly different and involves physical stock with handling costs and physical locations and staff with significant day to day costs, with everything taking up limited space. 99% of marketing at estores like GOG/ Steam consists of pre order/ launch day/ sales; and there is no physical space to take up, physical billboards that need fabricating or someone to put them up etc etc. The only thing that even approaches a store fee I'm aware of is steam's charge for Greenlight, and that was mainly to stop joke games being entered. I did look myself, briefly, but if there's anything about it it's buried in a million 'dota 2 marketplace market fees' type stuff. I can't say for sure when it comes to Steam, Origin, GOG etc. because I have never sold anything in them. But in Amazon you can pay to get you product promoted and lot of other similar web stores do same. And those promotions usually work quite well as your products are displayed/emailed/shown in other web pages (amazon ads) to everybody that have looked similar products in amazon or other places that amazon owns. So I would be somewhat surprised if game stores don't do same.

Paradox (Obsidian) did test quite lot of different stores with PoE. On this forums we have seen some results of that (like people complaining that GOG version didn't have achievements and cloud saves and how patches were late and how there was no beta patches for GOG version etc. Problems with Mac App store version, how patches are very late for DRM free dvd version and how there is no expansion for it, problems in upgrading to higher tier editions in gog versions, how there are virtual no origin version owners in these forums [this of course maybe because of fact that KS backers got their copies in Steam or GOG] etc.). Paradox probably will use data and experience they have gathered with PoE to decide if they release or not Tyranny to GOG and other stores.

Long time/short time don't really matter (for publishers), what matters is how many copies that coverage averagely sells. Many indie developers say that day on Steam front page moves more copies than they usually can sell in week/month (depending on size and popularity of said developer). GOG started to shift their focus to new and newer games during release of Witcher 2. But for example last year when I asked my friend why he didn't buy PoE from GOG, he answered "oh I though that GOG sells only old games". One example I admit, but I have seen similar comments in all around internet, so they have not yet been fully successful in getting public know shift on their focus. GOG dedication for old games has diminished in past several years quite lot, of course there is only limited amount of old games to release, but there are quite lot of old games that I would like to see in GOG (or in some other place that is willing to make them work on new computers without needing to see lot of effort) but interest to bring those old classics seems to be quite low these days. One thing that probably increases GOG's allure today is Steam's over saturation by all short of questionable quality indie games, that have made at least some indie developers seek other avenues to sell their games.

Marketing is something that you need to do if you want to sell copies, if you don't get lottery jack pot and get your product become viral sensation for some reason other than marketing. Developers pay for that announcement in GOG, but I think it is included in their regular fee. There is probably options to get more coverage in the store with additional fees. GOG offers that promotion because they want developers and publisher to release their products also there, and it has worked to some extend to lure indie developers in, but larger studios and publishers have yet mostly used GOG as place where they re-release their games to get bit more out of them. Although that is somewhat result from GOG originally focusing on old games, which let them to build their customer base by offering products that really nobody else was offering, but it has created them imago that they now try to shake off as they try to get more new releases in their service.

Visibility in stores that sell hundreds/thousands of products don't usually come free. Stores are paid by splitting sales percentages, i.e. sharing profits. It's not free sure, but that's expected. You don't need to pay anything upfront to them though. So I'm not sure what you mean by "marketing fees". It's the first time I hear about it. Stores are paid percentage for every copy they sell, but if you want them to promote your game you can be quite sure that you need to pay them extra to do so. Of course there are cases where stores offer to promote your product if your sell it through them but in those cases you usually have product that store things that will bring them new customers, which is why they are paying to you to get your customers to use their store. And of course sometimes stores just do independent marketing for products that they think their existing customer base will be interested in. As for example in scenario where you want to your product be shown in store's adds in web pages outside of said store for example YouTube ads by said store then that store will most likely make you pay for such promotion, by direct fee or by higher percentage of sales or some other way. Because said store has lots of products which makers/publishers/developers/etc. want their products be the ones that are show in those ads, because those ads are thing that usually increase sales of shown products significantly. Also number of products that can be shown on those ads are very limited, which increases value of getting your product in those ads. And usually product makers/developers/publishers/etc. want to promote/market their products because it isn't enough that it is in store if nobody knows that it is there.

Yeah, because there are no such things like marketing fees, etc when signing a distribution agreement What are "marketing fees"? Signing legal agreements has lawyers' fees if anything which is a one time thing. Visibility in stores that sell hundreds/thousands of products don't usually come free.

There was quite lot articles in gaming magazines how Obsidian had made new web page that told that they will soon announced something and that announcement was their Kickstarter campaign for Project Eternity (later renamed to Pillars of Eternity)

You find some answers to your questions from here http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66254-update-79-graphics-and-rendering/

Tyranny™ is a trademark of Paradox Interactive. All rights reserved. 2016 Paradox Interactive

Major selling point of GOG is DRM-free distribution, so significant amount of GOG users don't use Steam. Anyway, simply having the game in multiple stores increases discoverability and potential reach. Sadly it isn't that significant in reality, especially after all Steam isn't DRM tosh that goes around internet forums (even GOG's own). In theory multiple store add discoverability, but even with that sad reality is that Steam has such dominance that if you get coverage there then other store's effect on your games discoverability is quite insignificant. Other stores are good if your game don't get coverage in Steam. And Paradox has good relationship with Steam and all their games get significant coverage there. And for potential additional reach to people that don't buy game from Steam significance is still questionable. I have been big supporter of GOG from beginning and bought couple hundred games from there in past 8 years, but during that time it is also become quite clear that GOG can't compete really with Steam when it comes to new games. But hopefully their new branding, galaxy and other things that they have done will let them attract enough customers to start give even little challenge for Steam and its suffocating dominance in PC market. Maybe couple big hits more from CD Project will give them enough status.

Demolition Man predicts that there is 100% change that Arnold Schwarzenegger will win presidency. That is the one prediction that I am betting on.

What about growth of Steam's competitors? That's surely happening every year. Do Obsidian have numbers for sales percentages per distributor? Would that be enough to bust the exclusivity logic? My expectation is that it's already at the point when not using more distributors means significant amount of lost sales. Locking game in Steam don't necessary cut sales, because even though people may prefer to use different distributors if such option exist that preference don't necessary mean that they will not buy the game from Steam if it is only store that sells the game. So loss comes only from those people that will not buy game if Steam is its only distributor. Although Tyranny to non-Steam distributors is simpler thing than with many other Paradox titles as number Steam features that it use is nearly non-existent in comparison, lack of use of features like steam match making, or steam workshop make releasing games in non-steam stores much easier and simpler process and as single player game there isn't even threat of dividing player base.

I think you bit underestimate how big studio Obsidian Entertainment actually is or how many people worked on PoE in your estimates how many projects they can develop in same time. Also Tyranny seems to use tech (custom shaders, light mapping and etc. things) that Obsidian made over Unity to allow them to do the things they wanted to do, as Unity3D is created 3d environments in mind and its features didn't support everything that Obsidian needed for game like PoE that uses prerendered backgrounds and nearly everything happens on single 2d plane.

Microsoft will let game developers run their own e-sports tournaments in Xbox Live MS seems to want move to offer services instead of platforms

Obsidian should just for you put in option to solve any situation with pepper gas drone(s)

"Killed" is perfectly acceptable, in fact it's the proper term, when anyone dies unexpectedly, whether it's accidental or premeditated. Another person doesn't have to be involved. Whether a tree fell on them, someone shot them, or they were in a car and a drunk driver ran into them, killed is appropriate in all those circumstances. So if i die because of heart attack i was killed? seems strange to me, but oh well It can be said that you were killed by heart failure. But most often you see killed by used when there is person or object that does the killing.