A startup developer was working on a small downloadable game for a large publisher. The publisher canceled the game midway through development for business reasons, and didn’t pay the developer for the work completed thus far – in violation of the terms of the contract. When asked about the money, the publisher’s lawyer got on the phone.

“Listen, guys,” said the lawyer. “I speak regularly to my colleagues in similar positions at the other major publishers. If you turn this into a big issue or try to take legal action against us, I’m going to tell these people that, based on my experience, you are a very difficult developer to work with. And when they hear that, they may avoid doing business with you.”

It was a cheap scare tactic, but the words resonated. As a nascent company with no name or reputation built up – no track record to fall back on that could dispute the lawyer’s threatened claims – there was little choice in the matter but to settle for a deal.

This is one of the reasons why in the game industry, as in film and music, the money for interesting new projects overwhelmingly finds its way to those groups with a well-established (and well-communicated) prior history.