Ill get straight to it. After whatever agreement has been made, how would YOU know they arent stealing money from you? Say i was accepted by Ketchapp...Im guessing they will want my source code so they can inject their own ads in game. Then as people play, they pay you whatever cut you both agreed on. BUT, without having access to their ad account, how do you know they arent lying about how much was made? It could make x amount and they could just pay you some small amount and CLAIM it made x amount. Right?
Well this is in fact an obvious doubt.In short the answer is we can't know .But look at the brighter side, a struggling developer who gives /spends a good amount of time developing apps and games with a hard work doesn't end up on limelight but soon you get a helping hand from popular publishers,who publishes your game and do all their marketing without spending any money from the developer and helps you to achieve your dream.To that developer every money earned since would be a valuable treasure no matter if the developer feels that the publisher is stealing .The developer must stay with the belief that a reputed company will not do these nasty stuff as it might tarnish their name one day.Its just like working in a company where you help them achieve their dream and they pay you amount which make you feel is quiet less compared to what you did for the company and one fine morning you get kicked out. But remember its through your skills they achieved what they achieved so if they are stealing let them but if the amount you get say a percentage what you get is enough for you enjoy and don't stop being what you are make tons of apps/games publish them with their support or by time people might have recognized your name along with publishers name and they will start searching your app. After all its digital apart from publisher even users could steal it by injecting ads outside store.All we small developers must remember is "Little drops of water makes a mighty Ocean" .I always envy Iron man 3 movie last scene where the character destroys what he build for sake of others but he says, no matter what they take they know that he is Ironman . Hope this motivates young devs...Its from an experience..If you don't like the rules follow the rules ,reach the top and change the rules Happy developing and let the thought of losing vanish and help all devs create quiet interesting and amazing games/apps.
well i can tell you one thing - nanovation WILL steal your money. they have done it to me, and they have done it to another person that started a post on this forum.
Bold claim. If it was to happen to me i would have heaps of evidence. Screenshots, emails, messages etc.
Ketchapp is part of Ubisoft and cheating developers would just be bad for business and a major corporation typically isn’t that stupid. The other publishers just seem to come and go rather quickly. You should also have access to analytics and control the intellectual property so you can walk if there is a breach of contract.
Like other mentioned, we can't know for sure, but generally the income is significantly more with a publisher at a point it doesn't matter if they are stealing a bit, still it's not acceptable if it's the case, imo I prefer self-publishing but that's another story.
Voodoo pay you a sum of money upfront within 7 days of your game going live. They continue to make the payment for upto 9 months in total. After that time, you dont get anything. You do get any bonus payments should your app reach the top 10/50 on the store. The problem with this method is - say you have a game that strikes the jackpot like Color Switch, they could potentially make 10x what they pay you per month in ad revenue. I guess it's the trade off right now and given that publishing is now becoming the 'go to' route to get noticed, expect dirty tricks to appear (not that I am saying Voodoo have any dirty tricks) - just generally speaking.
That's why Voodoo's games look like they're half finished. I don't know how long their strategy will last.