Larian’s Swen Vincke Talks Marketing Budgets

In a post on his personal blog, Larian Studios’ Swen Vincke discusses marketing budgets, and why developers’ would do best to oversee how they’re used, starting from the contracts they sign. The example he points out sounds like the stuff of nightmares to me:

The message to fellow developers require detail in your contracts, lots of detail. And don’t accept the message that the administrative overhead is too much. It’s the oldest trick in the book, and even if the person you are signing your contract with might be sincere , that doesn’t mean that all other people in his or her organization will be as sincere.

…

Otherwise you’ll encounter situations like – )Sure I went to a casino, but it was with the editor in chief of magazine X. We want to be in magazine X, right ? And the guy indeed likes strippers. But you got the article right ? Nobody wanted to write about your game otherwise) might be one of the arguments you hear.

Thanks RPGWatch.