Customer Reviews

Business & Legal Primer for Game Development

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am an attorney who only occasionally encounters intellectual property issues stemming from "gaming" in my practice. However, like most males my age, I'm fascinated by the video game industry, and in particular, video game development. I picked up this book to learn a little bit more about gaming issues--partly in the hopes of expanding my practice, partly in an effort to learn more about the industry--and ended up buying this primer on a whim. It turned out to be a great decision...not only does this book provide the astute, rock-solid legal analysis I would expect from a legal primer, it also gives an amazing and exciting inside look at the world of development.

The primer begins with a good-natured and insightful perspective on starting your own game company, winds its way through the trials of day-to-day business operations and ends up with some shared experiences from those who have "made it" in the world of video game development, including the co-founders of GameLab. In between, well-researched and easy-to-understand legal advice is dispensed on a wide range of pertinent topics, including intellecual property law, contract law, taxation and even the current state of law in virtual worlds.

In short, this primer is an affirmatively *enjoyable* read--a rarity among legal primers, as I can unfortunately attest--and a must-read for would-be developers and anyone else who wants to really understand the ins and outs of video game development. I plan on recommending it not only to my clients but to anyone who is even remotely interested in learning more about the gaming industry.

If you are even thinking of forming a company in the computer gaming industry, or if you're an outside developer presenting a game to a company, here is a wealth of information. Of course, as one of the contributor says, 'if you have $10 million already and you are starting a game company, then you can afford to hire a lawyer to do all this work for you.' But just to double check the work he is doing you still should read this book.

This book really has two sections. First is about starting a company. This is on all the general business parts like creating a legal business entity, renting an office, hiring staff, product and market analysis, raising capital, etc.

But then comes the second part that is specific to the gaming industry, especially the intellectual property that you are creating as you define characters, the art aspects of how the game looks, and the contracts you will need to have in place with your developers or with a game distribution company if you use them.

There's another aspect that could fit under either of these two as they are not standard for most businesses but not restricted to games either, this includes selling internationally, paying international taxes and so on.

Basically, as the title of this book says, it's a 'Primer,' that is, a general introduction that will enable you to know what you're talking about but not enough to consider yourself an attorney.

This book provides an essential introduction to every aspect of the game industry, and how to successfully navigate the creation or growth of a company. While some of the examples, such as the sample Publisher-Developer agreement, are written from a publisher's perspective, the author acknowledges that and there is plenty of info for developers as well. The coverage of a range of issues, including IP and taxation, from the field's leading practitioners, make this an important foundation for anyone who's serious about the video game industry.

For anyone interested in understanding the business of video game development this book should be on the top of your list of things to read first. Written for the person trying to get into game development or the person in game development looking to start out on their own. It combines both the business and the legal fundamentals that you need to know to get started in video game development. Includes analysis of publishing agreements and EULA's that are extremely helpful to any game developer. Also includes things you need to know to protect your intellectual property rights and what kinds of things in video games can be protected. The book is not overly complicated and in fact it is written to be easy and fun to read. The authors are all experts in the fields of business and law of video games and you can tell they had a good time writing this book. One of the most interesting chapters includes helpful suggestions from leaders in the video game industry on things that they wish they would have known starting out as game developers. Overall this book is a must for game developers and fun reading for anyone that is interested in understanding the business of games.

This is one amazing book. It quite literally addresses every possible business and legal issue for the game industry. Not only that, the information in this book is applicable to really any software or software intensive company. A+

This book was invaluable to me in learning about doing business in the video game industry and the concerns that a game development team will face.

While many books which discuss the video game industry will waver in their accuracy on any given subtopic due to the limited expertise of the speaker, this volume avoids that problem by having each chapter written by a different author, each with particular knowledge and experience with their chapter's subject. The Primer is written by more than a dozen experts, including game developers, business persons and law professors, each talking in plain English about the problems and solutions to difficulties and issues that will arise over the course of developing a game and starting a development company.

As a student, I have read a lot of textbooks in the last few years and being interested in the game industry I regularly read magazines and articles on game development. This book is neither of those. It is informative and helpful without being long-winded or wordy, serious in its expertise and insight but fun in its approach and writing. In short, it is the type of reading you will enjoy doing while learning the things you want and need to know about business and legal issues which arise in game development.

This book is unlike all other lawschool books. it is fun and interesting to read. this book also gives insight from people in the videogame law field. in fact i had the pleasure of being a student of two of the authors in the book.

This book is a compilation of information by a number of prominent video game lawyers and businessmen. There is a lot of information in the book, and as far as I know it's all accurate. Much of it is common sense, but some of it is very technical.

The only problem is that lawyers love to talk. About 1/3 of each chapter is important information, the other 2/3 are usually jokes and silly examples.

Even so, this is a good book for learning the basics. The section on Intellectual Property is very significant, as is the section on video game contracts.

Tax laws and things like that are always in flux, and that is one of the things that the book covers, but even if they do change slightly, this will book will prepare you for the basics.

In general, this book is great for the student or gamer who wants a clue about what it's like to run a business.

For anyone who has an MBA, or is actually thinking about running a business, you should probably already know these things, or else have hired someone who knows them to do the accounting and legal work for you.

- The authors of the early chapters talk to you as if you're in highschool.
- Since most chapters are written by different authors, most material is redundant.
- Instead of getting to the point, they try to soften the material with anecdotes and jokes that are mostly immaterial and detract from the information I seek.
- Lists a whole bunch of contracts that are apparently required for a startup, then suggest talking to a lawyer, such as Buy/Sell char Contact. Then why did I buy this book?

+ Great reference for taxing, IP, and some contracts.

Skip all the other chapters and just look at taxing, Intellectual Property stuff, and contracts. That's where the value of the book is.

Superb book. Enormously Practical text. The best intellectual property law and game development book on the market. A very healthy read. may change your whole perspective on business, games and life.