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Aventurine still have no distributor or publisher
Let's get this straight. AudioVisual did not sign any kind of legal contract with Aventurine stating they will distribute anything for them. They issued a Memorandum of Understand (MoU).
It's just something that says we MIGHT do something for you sometime. We're CONSIDERING doing something for you... sometime. It can be broken at any time. It's not a legal agreement.
Which brings up a real doozy of a question.
Why did this AudioVisual company not jump at the chance to sign up to distribute this amazing game 5 months before a commercial launch?
Why? Well isn't it obvious? Because what they were shown did not impress them enough to sign on the dotted line.
The fact they had nothing to show AudioVisual that would make them sign a binding agreement 5 months away from a commercial launch is pretty fucken scary. It just indicates that they really don't have much of anything yet otherwise this company would of signed right up. AudioVisual has a reputation to protect. They're not going to just distribute any bullshit.
Just like all of us.. AudioVisual is waiting for something actually concrete themselves. Who knows how long they'll wait around..
Comments
PS: How the fuck can you sign something when the 'final' product is not finalized? There is still a Beta that's pending. How could they sign a deal for a product that will undergo small or more extensive changes?
Use your brain
Like the rest of video game publishers do?
lol you're joking right? Publishers always sign deals befoe the product is finished. But of course only if the product is shown to be quality. It doesn't matter if it isn't 100% finished.
And either way , 5 months to a commercial launch a game should be 100% finished and in beta testing.
so you are aware of all the stages of an agreement between a game developer and a publisher (or any company in general)?
RFQ->MoU (optional)-> Contract
an MoU is an intermediate agreement when further actions are required before signing a contract.
AVE is not ready yet for this deal; they have to form a new division within the company that will handle online gaming. That takes time and costs money. And they need to make sure that this new division will actually work once formed. Thus the use of an MoU.
I take back my initial comment; it's not trolling, it's ignorance.
There is no deal. How many times do we have to repeat this? What they signed is a Memorandum of Understanding or Letter of Intent or call it whatever you want. But it is no contract. No legal binding. No product. Just a way to start discussions about a business cooperation. Which apparently will never materialize.
ER some games (cough cough, AOC) are almost 2 months past launch and I'd put it about 85% "finished" so I'm not sure your argument holds weighjt.
Also, your comment about publishers only signing if product is shown to be quality, ask SOE about GnH and how well that quality product turned out. (wait, for that matter, how about VG, Matrix Online etc)
But I will agree, the publishing deal wasn't really announced in any major gaming news source, and you would think if there was a solid one, they'd be busy promoting the game in their own self-interest to increase sales.
The lack of promotion would lead one to think maybe theres a bit of hesitation on the part of the publishers to move forward.
All just part of the mystery and mystique of the game that's not really allowed to be called Dark Fall.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If this AudioVisual company was shown an amazing product they would have signed the deal a long time ago. No matter if they haven't formed any new division yet because the quality of the product would assure them success.
That company is not a small company. They could open up a new gaming division very fast if they felt like it or if the product warranted it.
They would of signed an agreement already to secure distribution rights and then went ahead and got everything rolling. But the fact is --- they haven't signed anything even after they were shown the product so they obviously are not in a very big hurry to secure it for themselves or care if someone else takes it.
Ya and the further actions required are for Aventurine to actually have a commercial quality product otherwise they would have already signed a contract and skipped that step completely.
Darkfall should already be in deep public beta testing right now. It's very obvious that there's no way it's going to launch this year and AudioVisual knows that too. They just know it better because they saw it first hand.
well, sorry but the announcement states that they will form a new division.
Let's sue Darkfall/AVE together with Funcom! -.^ Give them some time...
You know it, the best way to realize your dreams is waking up and start moving, never lose hope and always keep up.
Holy cow dude, you are either very naive or very young and know nothing about the business world. But according to your profile it says your 30 years old, so.....
well, sorry but the announcement states that they will form a new division.
"They will" and "they have already" are two very different things.
Nothing is guranteed with someone that you don't even have a legal binding contract signed with yet.
There's obviously something that is stopping them from siging on board 100% and I really don't think it's them having to form any new game division first.
If they were really 100% positive that they will be forming this new game division , and Darkfall is a solid product , then they would have already signed.
30 years old and into the corporate shitty business, that should tell you something...
*
about forming a new division in a company: do you have ANY idea what a bureaucratic mess that thing is? How many approvals, official applications etc you need from the Ministry of Commerce in order to be granted permission to sell the friggin' product?
really there is no point in discussing with people that don't trust an official announcement made to the stock holders...let's say you are pathologically suspicious of anything Aventurine does or says and call it a day...
* remember, stress-testing is not done yet, the game might be unplayable or have serious bugs. THERE IS NO END PRODUCT at the moment while Beta is pending...(note the underlined word, there is a product but not finalized)
Didn't they also make an announcement to their shareholders?
You realise publishers essentially only print and distribute CDs? As far I have read, they are primarily going for digital distribution anyway.
I agree, this is another pointless "sky is falling" thread from someone not thinking things through.
This is a nice change of tune from your first post, it's great you're being a good sport about it.
Now for the first question of this part, yes. MoU are rare in video game development, while RFPs less so. Most people go straight for the contract in the majority of cases. Granted, that's with established publishers that have a working infrastructure and know what they're doing, sometimes. (Case in point, when Eidos signed a deal for 6 games with Ion Storm before they even finished furnishing their office)
The entire point has been that AVE is not ready for the deal, thus there is no deal yet, which is what the supporters argue against time and time again. It's good to see you have realized it though. Now the reason for this is up to speculation, what isn't is that they have no deal yet, even you have admitted it. The new division might be necessary for the publishing and distribution of the game, but it isn't necessary to make a deal. Were they truly committed and convinced, they'd just sign a contract and include the new division in its stipulations. But they don't sign it, either because they're not convinced by Aventurine to commit, or they're not convinced by their own ability to successfully create a new division and publish and distribute the game to commit. The point, again, is that they have not committed to anything, and that there's no deal. That doesn't mean they won't commit or that there won't be a deal in the future, but at the moment there's nothing solid.
No one's mistrusting AVE's official press release, we're just stating what it says. The supporters are the ones blowing it out of proportion to make it out to be some sort of deal to publish Darkfall Online.
What does the last paragraph have to do with anything? Publishing deals are sometimes signed before there's a playable version, or even a design document (e.g. Ion Storm), much less a feature complete game.
First, If Darkfall was any good, AVE would not have signed a MoU but a legal contract to make sure they are the official distributor. But for some reason, they dont give a /$$/ about distributing Darkfall, they may or may not do it in the future.
Second, AVE never announced anything about Darkfall to their shareholders, they announced they will start a gaming division to fight the CD pirates.
Fact 1 : Darkfall still has no distributor after years of years of searching.
Fact 2 : Game is feature complete and releasing in less than 5 months.
Fact 3 : No one has any proof this game is real !!
Stop the madness! Darkfall has had a publisher since 2002!
http://pc.ign.com/articles/380/380319p1.html
This is a great example of a troll that is not worth replying to because they're unable to be objective about anything - if Darkfall were printed on CD and available in shops they would still cry vapor because their local store was sold out when they went to buy it.
Not to defend Darkfall ..
You produce an Alpha meet with publishers or a publisher , you get funds, sometimes people within the company get investment or investors to help you to beta state. The publisher has the right to pull out at any point , a dependng on the contract , you might have to repay what they gave you.
In 2002 ~ 2004 , repayment to the publisher , would have been highly likely. 2k to 2005 was the golden age of risk , bad investment , some companies wrote off entire projects (Mission front online , Mechwarrior online , Earth and Beyond , Ultima Online 2 , Dragon Empire etc) Euro especially was caught up in bad investment of video games , the only to survive I believe was AO.
So today , a publisher is responsiblle for alot , Ncsoft says it takes 6 months to 8 months to setup servers in a new region , or find someone who does this. So AV is probly finding out how much this is going to cost them , and where to setup servers.
Then you got CSR , AV might be setup to handle a few thousand complaints , as Funcom showed a bad launch with 300k newbies slamming your game made them feel happy. So AV is probly working on CSR or outsourcing to someone.
Then you need a payment system , even if you take credit cards , you probly want other forms of payment.
*drones on
While I think Darkfall wont be released this year , its plausable the publisher is getting all this stuff together.
Exactly. So there's really no reason to issue an MoU if you are 100% sure you're moving ahead rather than to just sign a contract and proceed if you have a clause that states you can pull out at any time.
They are obviously waiting on something or hesitant. And I still think it's because Aventurine doesn't have a commercial grade product yet.
And the fact that Tasos and these bunch are so gung ho about "controlling" every single aspect of their project may also be the problem. A publisher or distributor will never allow you to say what is what when THEY are the ones publishing and putting their names on your stuff.
That atitude will never get them anywhere or any publisher. Unless of course your Blizzard.
I work in the commercial world and the company I work for *always* issues a MoU as the first order of business when negotiating with a new client of significance. It's standard practise... no need for conspiracy theories...
So, your company always follows those MoUs by letter? Or sometimes things don't really work out?
They serve as a basis for the subsequent contract basically. I have no clue as to the legal significance of a memo of cooperation under the Greek legal system. By inference the fact they made an announcement to the market that they were intending to enter the game distribution business and were setting up an entire new division suggests they are strongly committed. You just don't make stock-sensitive announcements like that on a whim.
Since my sarcastic post was ignored, let me just spell it out. This is not the first 'publisher' for Darkfall, and the old deal was 'signed'. This situation is more realistic since we have an established company involved, but the deal does not appear to be written in stone just yet. And that is the first rule with Darkfall - until something is done, it isnt done, and may not even be close to done.
I would also remind folks that AVE would cover only Europe, which serves only a fraction of their potential subscribers.
I think you are misunderstanding something. No one is saying that they're doing it on a whim, or that they're not negotiating, or that MoU don't serve as the basis for a subsequent contract, or that they won't do what they claimed to have interest in doing. What people are saying is that until there's something final, there is no deal. As long as the possibility of it not going through remains, it is not a certainty. Until they have a contract or something unambigously solid regarding the publishing of Darkfall, you can't state as fact that they have a publishing deal for Darkfall. MoU, negotiations? Yeah. Deal? No, not yet. I think they will though.
To put it in perspective, I can have a lot of interest in a project of yours, I could tell you "Hey, that looks interesting, I really want to give you some money to help you along, in return for some of the profits" and inform the people I represent about my interest, and while it does mean chances are good that I will follow up on it, until I write you the check you have nothing (from me).