Whoops: I mean Residuals, not Royalties.
Dumbo
Yes, game developers deserve a cut from the sales of the game they worked hard to create.
It would probably mean less cash up front for the dev rather than increasing the price of games or reducing sales but it should be allowed.
Game devs are being screwed over pretty hard by publishers taking the full cut and the IP and everything and leaving the developer with just the money they were paid initially. This leads to many developers having to reward their employees after shipping a title by laying them off because they don't have any funding to keep them employed.
Unfortunately, given the power a publisher has over the developer (no independent developer can just say no to a bad contract because their survival depends on having projects keep them them alive) I don't really know how that can change.
edited 30th Apr '12 6:56:25 PM by ShadowScythe
Do you think there should be a push to have a regimented royalties system in place for Videogame revenues? Hearing about developers like Obsidian suddenly being in a whole lot of trouble after a game in development got cancelled, and missing out on long-term revenue from New Vegas for missing out one point on Metacritic (and Bethesda's offer there isn't even a commonplace thing) makes me think about it.
Of course, prices on old games would have to go up, so it'd mean no more $2.50 Steam sales on San Andreas or Deus Ex or etc. (In the former's case, it's good they got out of paying music royalties, otherwise it'd still be $60 at least).
Dumbo