Electronic Arts, Samsung Apps Collaboration for '100 Percent Indie' Game Program
Samsung teamed up with game producer Electronic Arts (EA) in order to draw more independent game developers to help expand the South Korean tech giant's fledgling apps store.
Samsung plans to raise the level of financial incentives with hopes that it will lure game creators to boost the number of apps currently offered by the company in order to better compete with Apple.
EA's mobile games publishing division Chillingo will spearhead the program called "100 percent Indie."
The program is named after Samsung's plan to let independent developers keep 100 percent of their revenue for six months. This would by far exceed the current offering for developers from Apple (only 30 percent) and will likely bring a host of new content to Samsung's app family.
Chilling co-founder Chris Byatte was quoted by Reuters on Wednesday stating that Samsung's plan "is unprecedented in our industry so far."
At the end of the six months, Samsung gets a cut of 10 percent revenue and developers get to keep the rest. Samsung's cut will rise the following year to 20 percent and 30 percent for the year after that, which follows similar to the business practice done by Apple.
The higher revenue-share cuts can be crucial for smaller startups but Byatte added that this plan is open to all developers such as "the established ones, the heavy-hitters to the one-man bands."
Samsung's choice to use EA to lead the program is a smart decision, as the company has excelled in the gaming market on all fronts. EA has also had success as the current owner of Chillingo, which publishes the widely successful Angry Birds series by Rovio - one of the top-selling game titles of all time on Apple's app store, according to CNET.
Samsung and Chillingo have launched a Web site allowing gamers or developers to sign up for more information on the program that will kick off on March 4.
