Wait, with so many licenses, how much $ is Telltale getting?

[hplikelike]

If they need to pay royalties to Valve, Brothers Chap, Steve Purcell, AND Penney Arcade, plus the thing's only $5, that doesn't seem like much room for profit.

[RAnthonyMahan]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the profits will be split evenly. So for every $5 copy sold, a dollar goes to Telltale, and a dollar for each of the four licensors.

It seems Telltale really didn't make this game for profit as much as they did because they thought the idea was fun and just wanted to see it happen. You've got to respect a game company willing to try that.

[PainDealer]

I think they did it only for laughs and for those who'd really appreciate it.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by hplikelike

If they need to pay royalties to Valve, Brothers Chap, Steve Purcell, AND Penney Arcade, plus the thing's only $5, that doesn't seem like much room for profit.

Obviously a deal was figured out that everyone involved liked, or we wouldn't be making the game Don't worry.

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by hplikelike

If they need to pay royalties to Valve, Brothers Chap, Steve Purcell, AND Penney Arcade, plus the thing's only $5, that doesn't seem like much room for profit.

Royalties are typically a percentage, aren't they? So I don't see what the price changes, if they pay X% of the profits in royalties, they do so whether it costs 5 bucks or 50 bucks.

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by PainDealer

I think they did it only for laughs and for those who'd really appreciate it.

They are a company. A company with investors, employees, costs, and a need to keep up AT LEAST enough money to continue operating as a going concern. Even the COOLEST businesses need to expect(or at least HOPE) to make a profit on the things they work on because otherwise they won't continue existing.

They added these characters and other licenses because they think the game will sell more with them than it would without them. They got the Team Fortress item agreement for more or less the same reason. Notice the HUGE number of sales that the game has gotten since the TF2 item announcement. Is it just a gift to the fans? No, not really. I mean, it serves that purpose as well, sure, and I'm by no means going to say that they're bad for doing it because it's not evil marketing at all, but it IS marketing all the same. There's going to be a healthy profit split up amongst the various companies, and for all the companies it works as pretty insidious advertising, especially for the non-TF2 properties(2 of which Telltale is selling products from) due to the need to play the games enough to gain access to the TF2 items(and that audience being probably the largest one buying Poker Night). Everybody in this project hopes to make more money than they put in, and that's okay, because they have to.