Understanding and Negotiating Termination Issues in Video Game Development Contracts

摘要

The video game development contract is a little like a pre-nuptial agreement. There certainly are major aspects of game development terms and conditions that would never be found in a boy weds girl deal, but both are negotiated and signed when there is love in the air, expectations run high for great happiness and success, and the hardball positions taken by each side in the course of negotiating may be the first signs of chill in what has been a blissful but tempestuous courtship leading to a walk down the aisle. Like the basic pre-nuptial agreement, it is the most sincere hope and expectation of both sides that, once signed, the game development contract can be tossed in the drawer and never referenced again (well, at least until royalty checks start to arrive).