Just a quick question. Does anyone have prior experiences with publishing through Akella: www.akella.com ?

PM or email appreciated as well. :)

Akella is Russia based publisher. I heard that they published Air Strike 3D (on jewel case CDs) in Russia.

Yes, they offered to publish our new game as well but I refused (they offered really small amount of money). They are looking for good 2D or 3D projects so you can try.

batanoff@akella.com
Name of guy is Andrey Batanoff.

sunnygames, out of curiosity how much did they offer?

We got published ourselves by a russian publisher and have generally been very happy with them.
They only offered us around $3k one off payment which we took. You must understand, the piracy situation in russia is huge. Pirates operate completely out in the open, selling titles for around $2.
So, the only way any publishers in russia are going to make any money is to at least match the price the pirates sell for. Thats why the cash they offer you is so low. They make tiny amounts per copy sold.
The pirates will sell your game anyway if its popular, so you have nothing to lose really. Take the money. It wont affect your buisiness with the rest of the world at all.

Well, we have a contract with another one Russian publisher :)

They only offered us around $3k
You know it is a good money for Russian market

Akella has been around in Russia for quite some time and they are one of the most known publishers there.

Its true about low prices in Russia - publishers are offering games at the prices just slightly higher the piratic ones. They have to, because its the only way to make it a habbit for people to buy legal games.
Even AAA titles are sold there for much less then in West. Their strategy is slowly paying off, i suspect, it slowly becomes a norm to buy legit copies.

Thanks for the replies, good information all around. :)

That 3k is for both games by the way.