NetEase Games has announced today that they will be opening up a new fund for mobile game developers in order to help them becoming successful. In fact that is pretty much what the fund is called, the NetEase Success Fund for mobile game developers.
The official description for this fund is that this is a “new financing option for mobile game developers that offers an alternative to the traditional publishing model”. What this actually means is that any mobile game developers who are accepted into the program will be able to get up to $500,000 in funding that will be put towards marketing and advertising their mobile game(s). Getting additional funding allows developers better control over their games, letting developers retain the rights, creative control, and full ownership of their products. A lot of developers can lose things like creative control over their products when they accept funding agreements.
The other benefit to this funding deal is that game developers won’t be paying this back in the tradition ways. Instead NetEase and accepted game developers will enter into a profit sharing agreement, NetEase will only receive a pre-defined set dollar amount as repayment. Once the revenue share cap is reached, the developer will have no additional financial obligations to NetEase. This is a lot easier on the pocket books for smaller indie developers.
There are so many developers with games that have great potential, but are constrained by rising user acquisition costs. Our goal is to create an alternative to the traditional mobile game publishing model, where developers can gain access to the resources necessary to scale their audience without giving up control of their business. – Ryan DeSanto, Director of Business Development at NetEase North America
If you’re a mobile game developer and are interested in applying for this new fund, you can do so by signing up over on the fund’s official website.
Official Website: NetEase Success Fund
