Question to those of you who have published on console!

[bluebat]

Hi there,

So I have a question for anyone who has had their game published on consoles (PS4/Switch/XB1). Could you provide a bit of information about the publisher you went with, the experience you had, and how much it cost (if anything)?

I'd love to get my own visual novels on console someday, but I can't seem to find much information relating to the costs of it all. I've tried to contact a couple of publishers, but got a lot of non-answers, really. Hearing a first-hand experience would be super helpful.

Thank you

[MapletreePaper]

I haven't published to consoles (or published anything at all yet ), but I thought I would mention that Nintendo actually allows devs to publish their games to the Switch as private individuals. No company or publisher required!
https://developer.nintendo.com/faq

Xbox has a similar policy under their "Xbox Creators Program". The main difference is that you won't get access to some advanced features, such as achievements, and the program is only applicable to games built using one of six game engines/frameworks. Unity is one of them though, so assuming that's what you're using, then you should be fine.
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/creators-program/

I know you may be seeking a publisher for other reasons than to simply publish the game itself. However, in my opinion, going your own way is in fact a valid option. I also wish to port my game to the Switch some day and I plan to cut out the middle man and do business with Nintendo directly.

[bluebat]

Hey, thanks for the insight. Interesting stuff! Doing a bit of digging, it seems like a Switch devkit costs about $450-500, which is pretty decent considering the audience you'll be reaching on that platform. Do you (or anyone else) have any idea if the actual publishing costs anything? I recently asked a very prolific publisher of Ren'Py games to consoles about this and they said it costs $25,000 USD to put a game out on all three current platforms, but they were pretty unhelpful and didn't elaborate on where those costs came from. Like manpower, publishing fees, devkits, what? It only ended up confusing me more, haha. With some of the shovelware on the Switch alone though ("Urban Street Fighting" comes to mind), I figure there's no way it can be such a high price point for everyone.

Also, we're using Ren'Py for our project, so no Unity here at the moment. We self publish on computer platforms no problem, but consoles are uncharted territory for us. Some publishers port Ren'Py games and throw achievements on there as well, but I've got no clue as to the process of it. Do they rework those games in another engine, or can you just slap your completed game onto a console without much extra trouble? I can't imagine it'd be that easy, but I'd love to find out otherwise!

[papillon]

In many cases, publishers doing ports of games will not charge you for the service but will take a percentage of any sales you make on the platform. For that reason they are more likely to make the effort on games they think will sell enough copies to make them a profit.

[droo_radley]

I managed to find two publishers to help take my Ren'py game to consoles, and the deal is basically they'll a percentage of the sales - initially it will be more in their favor until they cover their investment (porting, localization costs), and then it'll be whatever split you work out with them.

Maybe I got lucky with Gloom and Doom, but the meager media coverage I earned and some posts I made on social media got the attention of some publishers, so they came to me and not the other way around. I might also add that getting in touch with your local industry support groups might be helpful. I've had a lot of support from the SGGA (the Singapore Games Association) and they've been hooking me up with great people to talk to.