Game Publishing/Business

Re: uploading games from germany

The ZMan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:05:11 GMT

See the all new FAQ http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/36780.aspx

We don't comment on legal questions here... talk to a lawyer.

Re: uploading games from germany

Emilian Szyburski — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:28:39 GMT

Hi, I'm from Poland and I'm facing the same problem too. I suppose that one soklution would be to start a company in Germany (or UK) - which is possible since we are EU citizens and then publish the game as the company - based in Germany, but owned by Polish citizen. This should be perfectly legal.

Re: uploading games from germany

Madras — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:42:03 GMT

If you actually move to Germany (or any other valid country) and fulfill the requirements for address, bank and tax information then that would be ok. If you are on a team with somebody who live in a valid country then they can submit (though they get paid and taxed and are responsible for paying you).

Thanks for the response. I'll consider these two options to publish my game.

Re: uploading games from germany

The ZMan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:15:14 GMT

If you actually move to Germany (or any other valid country) and fulfill the requirements for address, bank and tax information then that would be ok. If you are on a team with somebody who live in a valid country then they can submit (though they get paid and taxed and are responsible for paying you).

Anything else would be a risk... and Microsoft are not going to tell you how to work around the system and if they find out you did then there could be repercussions.

Re: uploading games from germany

Madras — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:05:04 GMT

I'm asking for clarification because I don't want to take any risks. There are reasons that publishing is allowed from Germany and is not allowed from Poland. If I knew what are exact requirements I could adjust to them so that both sides were satisfied. Remember, that it's not only me who would earn money on my game and Microsoft could also be interested in answering my question. I suppose it's all about taxation and legal issues, but there's nothing that prevents Polish people from working in other EU countries under their law - so why wouldn't I be able to move to Germany (it's just about 200 kilometers away from my home) and submit my game from there under German law? Maybe there's a reason I don't understand, but that's why I'm asking my question.

Re: uploading games from germany

The ZMan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:22:36 GMT

Well you've already admitted you 'live' in poland... So the official positon is that you cannot submit.

While there are ways to 'work around' the system its something you need to do at your own risk. If you get caught then you risk a ban and your game being pulled down. Asking for clarification in here is really jsut drawing attention to you.

Re: uploading games from germany

Madras — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:13:36 GMT

Poland isn't an official Xbox LIVE supported country so the chance of supporting Poland anytime soon for submissions is unlikely

Yes, I know that.

Unfortunately you need to live in one of the supported countries to submit games

Thanks for this information. But what do you mean by living in one of the supported countries? Is just having a valid home address enough? If I just go for a week to a supported country will I be allowed to publish my game?

Re: uploading games from germany

Pheel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:59:03 GMT

Madras:
That's great Germany was added to supported countries. Unfortunately, I live in Poland, and my question is... no, it's not about how long will it take to support Poland. Especially that we don't even have XBox Live support yet. The question is whether I need to be a resident of a supported country at the moment the game is being published or at the moment I should fill Personally Identifying Information? It's not a big problem for me to get a bank account and taxation number in one of supported countries, but it would be good if I knew whether it's worth the effort and that I already passed the payout limit.
I've also got some family members in the supported countries, but still, I'd like to know if it's worth to hassle them.

Poland isn't an official Xbox LIVE supported country so the chance of supporting Poland anytime soon for submissions is unlikely

Unfortunately you need to live in one of the supported countries to submit games

Re: uploading games from germany

Madras — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:57:55 GMT

That's great Germany was added to supported countries. Unfortunately, I live in Poland, and my question is... no, it's not about how long will it take to support Poland. Especially that we don't even have XBox Live support yet. The question is whether I need to be a resident of a supported country at the moment the game is being published or at the moment I should fill Personally Identifying Information? It's not a big problem for me to get a bank account and taxation number in one of supported countries, but it would be good if I knew whether it's worth the effort and that I already passed the payout limit.
I've also got some family members in the supported countries, but still, I'd like to know if it's worth to hassle them.

Re: uploading games from germany

marcus pflanz — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:52:07 GMT

I just wanted to say thanks to XNA-team for adding support for Germany and again I want to apologize for my previous impatience - Sorry guys >.<

Re: uploading games from germany

DiNoGames — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:23:56 GMT

YESS!!!

Finally Germany is in now!! Thank you so much Microsoft!!!

Re: uploading games from germany

The ZMan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:03:17 GMT

zissakos:
But I find it very unsatisfying and not really understandable why we are kept with such little information about the current status of expanding the XBLCG programme.

I mean, where is the problem to publish an official list of the countries that are currently being "worked on" with some status like "will be added soon", "negotiations begun", "nogotiations almost finished", "currently not planned" or something like that, so that peple can get an idea.
If we cannot influence the process, at least TELL US about the progress.

Lets say they say they are working on Germany but they don't know how long. If they say they are working on it and Germany starts writing games and 6 months later they hit a roadblock then those developers are annoyed. All public annoncements from Microsoft have to be press checked, legal checked and probably 5 other checks to make sure they are not messing with other groups or corporate marketing. Its not as simple as some manager blogging status whnever they feel like it.

Heck when MS miss a deadline for Dream Build Play by a week these forums erupt as is Microsoft murdered a family member. I'm surprised they tell us anything given how most developers react.

Your request has been raised before and there's been no change to the statement 'we will tell you when we have news' for a year now. Best suggestion is to add your request to http://connect.microsoft.com/

Re: uploading games from germany

Lawi — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:14:24 GMT

Hi,
I'm also a german developer waiting for Germany to be added.
But I have no idea what is getting on there.

For the meanwhile I switched to make Apps for the App Store.
It seems there is no list of supported or unsupported countries.
It is the same procedure for every developer.

I think all XBox Developers would be happy to publish their games even
if the games can't be bought in their own country.
Even if there are legal issues to open XBLCG for german customers it should be possible for german developers
to publish games for the countries which are already supported.

Lawi

Re: uploading games from germany

zissakos — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:50:26 GMT

Being also a programmer from Germany, I would like to contribute to this discussion.

ZMan, I agree with everything you say. There can be so many reasons that we don't understand/imagine.

But I find it very unsatisfying and not really understandable why we are kept with such little information about the current status of expanding the XBLCG programme.

I mean, where is the problem to publish an official list of the countries that are currently being "worked on" with some status like "will be added soon", "negotiations begun", "nogotiations almost finished", "currently not planned" or something like that, so that peple can get an idea.
If we cannot influence the process, at least TELL US about the progress.

At the moment, we have NO CLUE about what's going on, and many programmers from all around the world are asking themselves: "Is it worth to start considering XNA Game Studio as a platform for my next game project? Will I be able to sell/publish my games anytime soon? Or do I happen to live in country that unfortunately won't make it into the list anytime soon for whatever reason?"

So Microsoft, if you are reading this, is there any possibility to shed some light on the current development/status of integrating more countries to XBLCG? Maybe set up an official "List" that can be followed by everyone with some information/comments about whatever is currently happening for each country? You can keep it as detailed/superficial as you like.

I understand that not every piece of information can/should be published, but I believe publishing at least a little bit more information than now (which is: nothing!) should be possible.

Re: uploading games from germany

The ZMan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:36:53 GMT

The announcement was made on a Japanese only MS site - see here http://forums.xbox.com/26870105/ShowPost.aspx but the XNA team confirmed to the MVPs that it was correct.

I can assure you that EVERY country that isn't on the service justifies itself with much the same reasons.... many game developers, large market of game consumers... and yes its annoying for them too. I'm sure Germany is up there in the top 10 but you are right, anything that slows the process down legally or financially is going to put that country futher down the priority list. I'm sure the countries currently included are also in the top 10 sales wise. Do you know for sure that Japan sells more or less XBLA games than Germany (I choose XBLA becuase its the closest model)? I certainly don't. Maybe Microsoft Japan offered to pay the $$$ it took to add that country and do all the required translation. There's always more reasons than most folk can guess at.