Comments on: I Don’t Get This Big Fish Games Logic… (Their Employees Cannot Help Selling Their Games?)

By: MrPhil

MrPhil — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:17:43 +0000

I think Jay hits the head on the nail. “It’s not Big Fish Games that he is competing against, it’s other affiliates… there could be accusations of Big Fish favoring Jake’s affiliation because he works for them.”

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:39:33 +0000

Some good points there, thanks!

By: Steven Egan

Steven Egan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:30:56 +0000

I think it comes down to hassle prevention. Whether real or imagined, there are hassles that are supposedly being avoided with that method. At least that’s what it’s sounding like to me.

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:01:33 +0000

(I was just trying to make a funnyish comment there ;)

There might be some business deals… but that still wouldn’t make much sense. If Jake become phenomenally successful, like so what – how come other affiliates could think it’s because he is BFG guy? And everybody is free to stop using the affiliate system :)

I don’t quite understand the logic… but maybe it’s just me.

By: Ovogame

Ovogame — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:37:24 +0000

Juuso, read again Jay post… You didn’t get it… It makes perfect sense now, and this explanation made this acceptable.

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:23:15 +0000

So… basically they don’t trust they people? :)

By: Jay Kint

Jay Kint — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:29:22 +0000

It’s not Big Fish Games that he is competing against, it’s other affiliates. It’s mostly for transparency. Say Jake were to become phenomenally successful through his affiliation. If other affiliates were to find out, there could be accusations of Big Fish favoring Jake’s affiliation because he works for them.

There was a similar case with Epic Megagames. Silicon Knights (at least I think it was them) accused them of neglecting the Unreal Engine in favor of their own games, Gears of War and Unreal Tournament Does Epic favor their own game studios and games over their licensees? Probably not, but it can seem that way to a dissatisfied licensee.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:09:42 +0000

I’m pretty sure when it was explained to me it sounded reasonable, but I can’t remember the exact specifics now – it may have been the fact that they (we) are very team oriented so if someone is trying to make money from affiliate sales then they essentially take away from the team. Another reason is that they want employees not to get distracted with other stuff so they can focus on working for BFG properly. So these reasons aren’t directly related to the making of affiliate sales but more to do with the company culture that is being fostered i.e. teamwork and gunning for the company – that kind of thing. From that point of view it makes sense.

By: Phillip Zedalis

Phillip Zedalis — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:52:38 +0000

Employees are designed to serve the best interest of the company. It’s in the best interest for the company to make 100% on every sale as opposed to 75%. Instead of being an affiliate – he can merely blog that he works there and send people to them where they would get 100%.

It’s difficult to be in business and be an employee at the same time – especially in the same industry. I’m not sure why you are so surprised that this would be a cause of concern.

Lastly, nobody likes affiliates. They are merely a means to an end – you’ll take the 75% revenue over 0% – and so you allow affiliates. They certainly don’t want to employ one and work with him daily.