EA’s mobile games publishing division, Chillingo, will spearhead “100% Indie,” so named since Samsung will let independent developers keep 100% of their revenue for six months, versus the usual 30% cut offered by other platforms like Apple Inc.
After the six months, developers give Samsung a 10% revenue cut and keep the rest. The slice to Samsung rises to 20% the following year, with the company taking 30% of revenue only after two years, similar to Apple Inc’s App Store and Google Inc’s Google Play deals.
“So anyone who joins the programme can benefit from 100% revenue, which is unprecedented in our industry so far,” Chillingo co-founder Chris Byatte said.
Samsung has overtaken arch-rival Apple, the iPad and iPhone maker, as the world’s top smartphone seller. But Apple’s App Store dominates the apps market as developers say they generally earn more revenue on Apple than Android devices.
Through this partnership, Samsung and Chillingo hope to raise awareness among developers of Samsung Apps, the device maker’s apps marketplace, Joe Wee, co-founder of Chillingo said.
“Samsung is selling more phones than ever and content and hardware, they always go hand in hand,” said Wee.
The programme is not exclusive, so developers who create new games for Samsung can simultaneously publish them on Apple and other Android devices or they can bring existing titles from other devices to Samsung phones and tablets.
While the programme is called “100% Indie,” Chillingo wants to attract all developers — “the established ones, the heavy-hitters to the one-man bands,” Byatte said.
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