Besides, one of the strategies is as follows:
PUBLISHER pays the DEVELOPER a negotiated and fixed amount of money at once and independently of whether the profit from the sales worldwide covers the expenses or not. The PUBLISHER in this case risks to never return its money back, and sure enough not get any profit from it. And the DEVELOPER insures itself by signing such a treaty that it will get the money in any case. And the opposite - if the the game turns out to be a megahit which brings the PUBLISHER not only a lot of money but also fame and recognition, then the DEVELOPER risks to not get more money than it potentially could.
Bear in mind, that one particularity of this case is the following:
I know a lot of cases when usual gamers bought several copies of one and the same game thus thinking they support the developers by doing so, but in reality if we're talking about the above described case then no money for each extra bough copy of the game goes into the pocket of the DEVELOPER, because it's the PUBLISHER who gets the candies.
The other case is when the DEVELOPER gets a % from the sales, and in this situation each and every copy of the game you buy will make the DEVELOPER happier.
So, there's no real confidence that the money I will pay for the game will go to the DEVELOPER and that's sad because the PUBLISHER might be standing between the community and the developers in this case and all our "Thank You"s materialized into the bought copy of the game will get stuck in between us and will not reach the recepient, and you will not get a notification that your message has not been delivered
(Well, actually, if the game is blockbuster - everybody will know it
)
Ummmm. Lighten up people!
Oleg