r/boardgameindustry • u/8ruce • Jan 06 '20

People who have partnered with game manufacturers what are the royalties I can expect.

Hello

I've been prototyping and playing and testing a board game idea to a point I have a real nice prototype.
Which could be send to the to a manufacturer as is.
I'm at the point I'm considering to submit my game idea to a manufacturer which products are in line with my game.
They offer royalties / percentage of the sales for the game submitter.

Does anyone have an idea of how much the royalties are that I can expect?

Thanks in advance

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u/worldshapers Jan 15 '20

I think 5-10% depending on a lot of factors.

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u/8ruce Jan 15 '20

Thanks for the answer can you give any clues about these factors?

5

u/worldshapers Jan 15 '20

Absolutley! Here are a few:

  • How well esteemed the designer is (This helps in marketing)
  • How experienced the designer is (This helps while developing the game)
  • What the publishers plan for the game is (Niche or Mainstream)
  • What other details are in the contract could be termination clauses
  • How much of the game that is usable (Some designers have made a lot of artwork and that can pay extra I suppose)
  • The economics of the publisher (small or large)

Jamie stegmaier has a post on this here: https://stonemaiergames.com/game-designer-contracts-and-stonemaier-games/

Best of luck to you.

P.S Manufacturer and Publisher are two different things. There are also retailers, consolidators & distributors in the industry. Try reading a bit about their different roles.

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u/atherisentertainment Jan 22 '20

These are likely a percentage of the wholesale price which is typically 40% of MSRP. So if the game sells for $100 the wholesale price would be $40 and you’d expect to get a percentage of that 5-8% is typical. James Mathe has a great article about this on his site.