Because we see a lot of questions regarding this subject in this forum but little in terms of solutions there seems to be a gap in the market for a new model which allows a developer to self-publish his or her games in retail. The way it works is that Xing Interactive will act as agents for: a) CD replication (if required) b) Packaging design (if required) c) P.R. and Promotions (if required) d) Logistics (if required) and last but not least: e) Sales and distribution For 10% of the invoice value of every unit sold Xing Interactive will provide this service, leaving the developer in full control of everything. You pay for CD replication etc. but you benefit from our bulk contracts and established pricing structures without any mark-ups. We have established sales channels in 32 countries worldwide and although not every title can go in every channel it will be possible to work with us to optimise your chances. If you are interested then please contact Alex de Vries at alex@xinginteractive.nl for more information.

No offense, Alex, but this sounds rather suspect. I don't see much in the way of profit margins for your company from this...which suggests to me that this is not the entire deal.

Why would you take 10% when you could get 40-50% or even more? I realize the risk for you is lesser, but on this plan, I see almost no upside for your company.

Why would this be suspect? We do not invest anything in this except time to sell and a few pointers to how best produce and design the product. We take 10% from what we sell as opposed to a higher share if we published it for a developer. Then it's our money invested in replication etc.. If this isn't interesting to anyone then fine with me but my impression was that many developers think a publisher just needs to put games in stores. Well that's exactly what we offer. So they pay for replication etc. and we sell it.

I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but I think marketing a product (competent marketing, at least) would require more than ten percent of invoice price--assuming you didn't want to make any profit whatsoever, I'd at least double it.

Of course, you could be using shoddy marketing tactics--I don't know, I don't publish with you.

You're entitled to your opinion like everyone else but 10% as a sales rep fee is quite normal in this industry. I think you still do nt realise that all we do is the pitch to the retailers and take the orders. The rest is all the responsibility of the self-publishing developer. We pitch new titles on a regular basis so the extra product doesn't require a separate sales meeting or "shoddy marketing tactics" like you mentioned. Essentially we do this for a few other publishers in our channels already and it works well so why shouldn't we give the chance to a few of the indie developers who have ambition as well? Maybe we could ask for 20% instead of 10% but we're just following industry standards like I said.

Oh and by the way, marketing a product and doing a sales pitch are 2 different things ;-) We only present the products and take orders. If a developer wants us to do marketing and P.R. they hire either our services or the services of a separate agency. Essence of our offer is: we do not do anything for you that you don't want us to do or do not need us for.

Interesting. What kind of QA do you put potential clients' products through to maintain your reputation?

QA is minimal since our logo/name would not be on the box and therefore the product is never perceived as a Xing product by anyone. Retail buyers are picky so we'd do our best to guide developers who want to turn publisher to whether it's worth the effort to pitch a certain game or not. Of course we won't stop anyone from doing so if they insist but we're keen on helping them not to make the obvious mistakes. We've been around for a while so we know what to do and what not to do by now. And yes, we learned it the hard way in some cases too... ;-)

I'm not trying to critise you, however how is this new? Also what games have you distributed commercially? Have you any deals pending?

The concept isn't new, only the fact that we make it available to developers instead of just publishers. Since we work on a no cure, no pay model it's low risk for anyone involved. We have been in the business of publishing and distributing PC and Playstation games since mid 2001 to answer you question on our expertise.