The Traditional Business Model:

Here’s how normal game publishing works. Publishers buy games from designers (or design them in-house). They solicit pre-orders based on a one-page description of the game, set a print run based on those pre-orders, and try to sell through the inventory they’ve made. If they have overprinted, they take a loss on their remaining inventory. If there is more demand , they have to decide whether to take a risk on another print run. And so on.

When the publisher sells a copy of the game, it goes to a distributor at about 40% of the retail price. That distributor sells the game to a retail store for about 50%-60% of retail. The retailer orders only as many copies as he thinks he can sell. If he orders too few, he can order more, but he loses sales in the meantime. If he orders too many, the retailer takes a loss. In most cases, game product isn't returnable, because the manufacturing costs are too high. So part of the retailer’s markup goes to cover his costs, and the other part covers his risk. The same is basically true for the distributor. 

The point is, nearly half of the money that the publisher, retailer, and distributor make on these games is to cover their risk, because games are expensive to make, and don't sell all that well. After all this dust settles, there is about one dollar for the game designer for every $25 in the retail price. The rest of the money goes to the people who can afford to take the risk. 

Our Business Model:

Cheapass Games has a different plan. If you think one of our games might be worth $25, print it yourself and find out. Then, you’ve got a budget of roughly $24 to make the best version of the $25 game that you can. We just ask that you set aside the other $1 for us. Save up a few games’ worth, and then send us a healthy donation of $5, $10 or more. (Paypal charges us less on larger amounts.) 

Of course, a game's value isn't really dependent on its production cost, so you might think our games are worth more than a dollar each. It's up to you. For a chart that might help you determine how much a free game is worth, click here.

Spread the Word!

If you're enthusiastic about Cheapass Games, we need you on our demo team! Your energy and expertise are worth more to us than your money! If you want to tell more people about Cheapass Games, please let us help you help us.

Learn more about being a Cheapass Games Demo Monkey by clicking here.

Contact Info:

We hate robots. So, if you're a robot, close your eyes. Or whatever you see with.

• James Ernest, president and designer, can be contacted at gmail under the moniker "cheapassjames."
• Carol Monahan, our personal feedback queen, can be reached right here using the prefix "rat."

We're hoping they don't make robots smart enough to parse that, but if they do, we welcome them as our new overlords.

If you still live in the olden tymes of sending money through the mail, we respect and admire that. Donations of the classical check, cash, livestock, or money order type can be sent to:

• Cheapass Games, PO Box 15460, Seattle, WA 98115

More about us:

• Who are we?
• A promotional headshot of James Ernest is available for news organizations and coffee mug lovers, here.
• And in case you need it, here is a nice big JPG of our logo.