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GOG.com Launches New Indie Developer Portal

Eschalon Book II Screenshot A

Good Old Indie Games

With the game industry at large battling it out to court independent game developers, GOG.com has thrown its hat into the ring. Originally a home for the video games of yore, GOG will now also offer fledgling developers with another choice of digital distribution venue.

So what makes GOG.com’s arrangement unique? If a dev team so chooses, they can get an advance on royalties. This could be a highly attractive feature for any project nearing the bottom of the budget barrel yet still has some last minute polish to apply. The slight catch is that rather than the standard 70/30 sales split (with the lion’s share going to the dev team) the initial divide would instead be 60/40 for a period that lasts until the loan is repaid. Any project that makes use of the portal may also be presented as a featured title, and GOG is suggesting that they will provide a kind of hands-on, personalized marketing that may not be available through larger online storefronts.

It’s also great news for lovers of indie games: Yet another major player has concluded that not only is indie gaming not going away, it is increasingly becoming instrumental in shaping the future of video games.

(Source: TechCrunch)