New Accounting Software Helps Calculate Game Royalties And Payouts

PLX Systems has announced a new royalty accounting and licensing system for the entertainment industry, which targets larger game publishers. The product, PLXware Right Track Suite (PLXware/RTS), can be used by game developers and other media-rights owners the ability to process royalties for authors, artists, composers, producers and other rights-holders. The company claims that PLXware/RTS can scale to fit small developers and large global operations which operate in multiple countries and need to support royalty schemes in North America, Europe, Asia and other geographic markets. In reality, though, this product will probably only be of interest to the largest publishers in the game market. It is designed to handle issues surrounding digital rights management and Internet or wireless distribution of games and other entertainment properties. The system also manages complex licensing agreements -- for example, games with soundtracks that combine dozens of payee obligations. It uses event triggers to speed up monthly accrued royalty liabilities and period-based statement generation. PLXware/RTS's royalty processing features consolidate sales data and apply it against the terms and provisions in each contract or license to determine correct payable amounts; recoups outstanding advances; validates transactions; identifies missing data; and distributes royalty, payment and other statements by email, postal mail or fax to business managers, collection agents and attorneys. PLXware/RTS combines business affairs, property and rights databases together into a central system, creating a central intellectual property database with user-definable ID numbers; platforms, formats and configurations, to identify "Playstation" or "Gameboy," "CD-ROM" or "cartridge," by game name, label copy, credits, warnings, timelines; and so on. PLXware/RTS supports SQL 2000 and Oracle, and may be integrated with any popular general ledger or ERP system. Pricing information was not provided.