Games publishing contracts – once in a nutshell

Key Facts

Publishing contracts for game developers often require a lot of effort and should be created carefully.
Regulations on liability, errors and bugs are essential in every contract.
Scott Miller 's contract for Wolfenstein 3D and Goodbye, Galaxy is remarkably short.
This is a publishing agreement on just one DIN A4 page.
Contracts are not only legal, but also a matter of trust.
A lawyer's awareness of the client's actual needs is essential.
These agreements reflect the memories and history of the games industry.

In my professional career I have created, corrected, extended or advised on many publishing contracts for game developers. Unfortunately, I have to say again and again that these require quite a bit of effort, since especially the regulations on liability, on errors, on classification of bugs, but also the regulations on copyright exploitation rights require quite a bit of “text”. Of course, a contract is always a matter of trust, and it can also be shorter.

The following contract is from

Scott Miller, founder of

Apogee & 3D Realms and concerns both the game Wolfenstein 3D (by the way a game with a lot of memories from my LAN party time 🙂 ) and Goodbye, Galaxy. By the way, he gave me permission to post this one. A publishing agreement for 2! Computer games on a DINA4 page. That should certainly be a record. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it any shorter in the next 25 years of working in the games industry.

As is known, the game was not unsuccessful, so even as a lawyer for the field of games law, even if I earn from the preparation of contracts, you should have a certain awareness of what a client really needs!

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.

Tags: Computer Computer game Exploitation law Game developer Games Haftung Publishing Urheberrecht Verträge