unpaid invoices

GazInfinity

Hi All Im a solo games developer who just over 2 years ago had my game published with a publisher. For the first year I received my royalties more or less on time but since then its been nothing but trouble and now its rapidly approaching a year since my last payment and now they are not responding to my emails despite still sending me the sales reports which I have to invoice.

I am preparing an email threatening legal action but the situation is complicated as even after over 2 years they still haven't sent me a contract to sign despite numerous requests and that despite the lack of a contract they had invested money into the porting of the game to different handsets and gave me £7000 to help fund development so Im concerned if it did come to court they would site that fact and I would some how end up owing them money.

My percentage share is 20% which up until now has only earned me £8000 in those 2 and a half years, of which I have so far only received about £5000

Im really struggling finically as I develop my next game, so Im in dire need of the money Im owed just to pay the bills, Any help and advice greatly appreciated.

johnmcga

This is not legal advice and although I've had to deal with slow payers before, it's never been over the duration you describe or with such an uncommunicative client. So take this as food for thought rather than a definite course of action. Having said that, here's what I'd probably do:

First of all, pick up the phone and call them. Emails are easy to ignore, but a call might help you establish what's going on. If they're a bigger company, try and speak to your contact and also contact their finance department.

I'd look to get a feel for why they've not paid. Are they in financial trouble themselves? Is their finance department incompetent? Have the people you dealt with left the company without passing your details on?

I would then send them a final demand for the outstanding amount. Give them a strict deadline on payment - say seven days. Send it by registered post - not email - so you get proof that it was received.

While waiting for that deadline, and given the lack of a contract, I'd go back through my records to try and find anything that documents the agreement.

Do you have anything on paper that stipulates your arrangement? Is there an email chain that describes the percentage and schedule for royalty payments?

I'd also go and read up at https://payontime.co.uk/, which has some useful information about dealing with late payers.

Personally, I would hold off either charging interest or threatening legal action unless you're totally sure you never want to work with them again. (After this, I can quite understand that you might never want to, but it's worth considering because you'd probably burn your bridges at that point.)

Finally - and I know it's not much consolation - late and non-payers can be a fact of life when you run a business. Think carefully about how much of your time you want to devote to chasing £3,000.

If you could have earnt £3k in another way over that time, then it's probably not worth it. I appreciate that doesn't help with your bills, but at some point chasing this debt is going to start getting you deeper in the hole!

Hope that's of some help - and good luck.

GazInfinity

problem is the company I was originally dealing with was in the process of being bought out by a bigger publisher, my contact then left the company at which point his assistant producer took over the responsibility of dealing with me, neither of which I had a problem with. but then once the take over was complete he also left when they closed down their UK offices.

After that I was handed over to another contact their content publishing director based in their main European offices in spain. At which point I started to have issues with payment, I had communicated with him for several months and after a lot of aggravation received most (not all of the payments due) that was up until september 2011. Since then I haven't received any payments and have tried contacting him and any other email address at that company I could find but have not received a response, I even tried phoning their UK offices and was told they would pass my issue on but have still not heard anything.

The only communication I have received was from "payments and developer support" but although on the subject of payments wasn't in direct response to any of my emails and was unsolicited, saying how they were having problems with their payment system and that I had to agree to a new system and provide credit notes cancelling the previous invoices and issue new separate invoices to their UK, Global, French and Australian offices and that the payments for which would take place in November, obviously I haven't received those payments and Ive tried to contact them 2 weeks ago but again no reply.

Given the ambiguity of the change in system resetting the standard 90 days payment terms (for the contract I don't have), the fact only one of the 4 offices invoiced is based in the UK and the lack of a contract i don't think I'll have any joy with the threat of a small claims. Im not sure legal action would necessarily burn all bridges with the company in as far as them going to the hassle of removing my current game from sale, but I certainly wouldn't let them publish any future titles, so Im not that bothered about burning bridges, Id rather receive my £3000 and subsequent amounts yet to be invoiced and burn my bridges than let them carry on selling my game and keeping the money.

My main issue is wether I should just threaten legal action in more general terms or specifically cite the fact they are selling my game without my signed consent. Otherwise they might discount my threat for the reasons Ive outlined namely the cancelation and reissuing of the invoices and lack of a contract.

paddyrg

Sounds like they are hoping you go away as opposed to sorting this mess out properly. Thats not all bad news though, as it could just as early mean they cave with a little pressure and see the money as cheaper than fighting!

If there is literally no paperwork at all, there is every likelihood the IP is still all yours so that leaves them wide open. This will be complicated by advances and the nature of publishing contracts in general where you get acash advance which you repay from your royalties before seeing any more money. Can you find a corporate and IP lawyer who will give you a free 30 mins too see if it its worth chasing?

Either way, you need a different publisher or self-publish on google play/app store as you are not seeing the best value for that 80%

whitepaper

Get a solicitor!

GazInfinity

paddyrg wrote: »

Sounds like they are hoping you go away as opposed to sorting this mess out properly. Thats not all bad news though, as it could just as early mean they cave with a little pressure and see the money as cheaper than fighting!

If there is literally no paperwork at all, there is every likelihood the IP is still all yours so that leaves them wide open. This will be complicated by advances and the nature of publishing contracts in general where you get acash advance which you repay from your royalties before seeing any more money. Can you find a corporate and IP lawyer who will give you a free 30 mins too see if it its worth chasing?

Either way, you need a different publisher or self-publish on google play/app store as you are not seeing the best value for that 80%

They never actually referred to it as an advance, originally they were going to give me 5K to pay a company they had worked with in the past to help with design work, as they wanted to add some new features but I did that work myself so they didn't give me the cash.

Just before the game went live I asked them for the 5K because I had been working for 6 months without any pay and I was in a tricky situation with the bank. The person I had been working with swung 7k for me and increased the royalties from 10% to 20% I wish he still worked for the company because if he did I wouldn't be having these problems now.

Im currently working on an iPhone game and intend to self publish you get 70% royalties and by all accounts you get payed every month on the dot without having to mess around with invoices.

GazInfinity

whitepaper wrote: »

Get a solicitor!

Yeah I will definitely have to if they don't play ball but cash it tight so was hoping to shake the tree before having to climb it, just trying to gauge how I should word the threat, wether or not to mention the lack of a contract or not. Im concerned they will just ignore a more general threat.

paddyrg

I would start a timeline of each event in order, from first contact to current mess, with who said what art which times, how much money on which dates etc. If you do sue it will be very valuable to have everything absolutely clear, the judge would see that as better preparation than a company who have no trail, no evidence of agreements, etc. Perhaps you could even get hold of your previous contract there by some other means and ask if they would prepare a statement regarding the agreement he arranged for you with the company. Shame in many ways he isn't there still, but his paperwork was obviously shocking if there is none to cover something as complex as a publishing agreement.

This is very murky, too much so for a forum, and needs too be got straight not just on the current financial side but also who owns what IP? For instance what if sales take off and you have a new angry birds (which was an old game with a lick of paint). It all needs too be very clear, which is why the lawyer is important, otherwise the company may claim they own all rights in the absence of any paperwork or challenges to the contrary. Then it will get messier and more expensive (see the Voss brothers vs facebook). Sort this out once and properly!