We're about to close a distribution deal with BigFishGames, and since the list of references they gave us include a few people that post on these forums, I thought I'd just pop the question here instead of pestering you guys in the e-mail.

So, if anyone here has published a game with them, a quick thumbs up/down would be appreciated. Any additional info/tips are welcome.

Thanks.

So far, Thumbs up!

They have a very large (and growing) list of customers, so your game will be showcased to a large group of potential buyers almost immediately.

Same here, "so far" being the key part, because we haven't been with them for a month yet.

I haven't published anything with them, but I did meet the president, Paul Thelan, at the IGC. FWIW, he seemed like a nice guy who was genuinely interested in working with developers and giving them a fair deal.

OK, thanks for the input guys. :) We're moving forward with them. :)

what's their royalty rate? Do they really have that many customers as a portal?

Big Fish isn't a huge portal, but I heard they have a million user email list and are growing very fast.

One concern I do have with their million email list is that users are forced to enter email addresses prior to playing a game. this would lead to people typing random email "addresses" in just to start playing. No way to verify the addresses, so not the highest quality.

Originally posted by Rocketgames
One concern I do have with their million email list is that users are forced to enter email addresses prior to playing a game. this would lead to people typing random email "addresses" in just to start playing. No way to verify the addresses, so not the highest quality.

You can opt out of the email list for all of their games. It doesn't collect whatever email is typed in, if you do.

I haven't been with Big Fish Games for very long, but so far I've spoken to Paul a number of times, and I find him to be easy to work with. He also seems to be very fair.

Felix