Among other services, DDM offers strategic company and project support to games developers, as well as pitch planning and negotiations advice. Speaking on Wednesday during a session entitled “Art of the Deal”, which focused on the game pitching process, Hilbert said some "frontline publishers have nonsensical, borderline illegal contracts”.

However, Hilbert went on to note that, by and large, publishers are not out to screw developers over, insisting that they too want to see good games created and are often happy to be generous with their time, money and other resources.

The roundtable, which included industry figures such as Epic"s Marc Rein, Team 17’s Martyn Brown and business product development directors from both Microsoft and Capcom, aimed to demystify the process of getting a game greenlit.

Among the advice given on how to weather this competitive process was to avoid focusing too heavily on technology during the pitching process.

“Publishers don’t give a s*** about tech anymore,” said Hilbert. “They would be happier to see a licensed engine over the potential risk of developing proprietary technology. They care about game mechanics and game design.”

The members of the panel agreed that it was important to have conviction in a pitch and not to acquiesce to all suggestions made by a prospective publisher.

“You will bury yourself if you are a whore,” Hilbert said.

During the session Epic VP Rein also warned that digital distribution should not be considered as a way for developers to circumvent publishers. “Digital distribution is not a replacement for a publisher,” he said, noting that it was only a matter of time before publishers begin to dominate the front pages of digital distribution channels.

“They’ll be paying for marketing just like they do for positioning in a store. The big publishers are going to own the front of those online stores.”