does anyone know how much publishers charge for prebuilt games funded by outside inverstors other than the publisher. i know that if the publisher funds the game, they usually take aobut 80% of the gross profit. so what about if they dont fund it, and we just pay for the publishing towards the end?

It depends on what exactly you want the publisher to do vs what you will be doing/paying for (development, marketing, sales, production, PR, distribution). It also depends on the quality/price point of the game. At full price your investment in development is large and a publisher may match that for marketing, production etc (or you can pay these costs). At the bedget end of the market publishers often REQUIRE you to fund development and even then they don''t end up giving you a great deal.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant

The publisher is always the gatekeeper to the retail stores. Since this essentially is the hardest part of the entire process (placement in retail) and the demand vs. supply ratio is in the advantage of the publishers they can pretty much determine whether you make 1%, 10% or 50% of the profits. It''s not as easy as "I have a game, now I only need someone to put it in stores for me". Usually works the other way round "I can place something in 6 weeks, which developer gives us the best product at the cheapest price?".