Kyusung Lee Attorney at Law

A Legal Checklist for Korean Game Developers Going Global

Attorney Kyusung Lee | International Contract Law

For Korean game developers entering overseas markets, a publishing agreement is often the most consequential contract your company will sign. These agreements do far more than set service territories and royalty percentages — they directly govern your IP ownership structure, revenue recovery, operational autonomy, and long-term expansion possibilities.

⚠  A common and costly mistake: many developers treat the publisher’s draft as a ‘standard agreement’     and only negotiate a handful of terms. This approach can expose your company to significant     legal and financial risk before your game ever launches.

English publishing contracts are built on common law drafting conventions that can look neutral on the surface while quietly shifting risk onto the developer. Below is a practical checklist of the issues Korean developers most commonly overlook.

01  Intellectual Property (IP) Provisions

Publisher draft agreements routinely include broad license grants that can constrain your studio’s future activities in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.

Provisions granting the publisher rights to create derivative works, bundle your title, or distribute it exclusively on specific platforms can prevent you from releasing updates, launching new versions, or entering other markets — even after the contract ends. Post-termination license survival clauses are one of the most frequently underestimated risks in publishing deals.

🔍  Key IP provisions to scrutinize:     • Scope of license grant (exclusive vs. non-exclusive; territory; platform)     • Rights to derivative works and adaptations     • Post-termination license survival and wind-down period     • Reversion of rights: conditions, timing, and process

02  Revenue and Royalty Structure

The royalty percentage is the number most developers focus on — but the actual amount you receive is determined by how ‘net revenue’ is defined, not by the percentage alone.

Publisher drafts often define net revenue broadly and list expansive deductible costs — marketing expenses, platform fees, operational costs, and sometimes vaguely described ‘overhead.’ The result is that your effective payout can be dramatically lower than the stated royalty rate suggests.

Issue	What to Verify
Net Revenue Definition	Are deductible costs specifically enumerated, or defined by a catch-all clause?
Advance Recoupment	At what rate is the advance recouped? Is cross-recoupment with other titles possible?
Currency & Exchange	Which exchange rate applies? On which date is conversion calculated?
Payment Schedule	How frequently are statements issued? Is there a late payment interest clause?
Audit Rights	Can you independently audit the publisher’s revenue accounting?

03  Live Service & Operational Obligations

Most publisher drafts vest broad operational authority in the publisher — content approval rights, marketing sign-off, community management standards, and KPI-based termination triggers.

Under these structures, even when market conditions are outside your control, you may still be obligated to deliver updates on schedule, patch bugs within fixed windows, and produce new content at specified intervals. Failure to meet publisher-set KPIs can trigger termination rights — putting you at risk even if the underperformance is driven by factors beyond your studio’s control.

Three questions every Korean developer must answer before signing:

✓  Are the KPI targets realistic and tied to market conditions, not just internal publisher benchmarks?

✓  Under exactly what circumstances can the publisher terminate — and do force majeure events provide protection?

✓  Is there a clear division of liability between developer obligations and publisher obligations?

04  Termination and Post-Term Obligations

Publishing agreements are typically long-term commitments — three to five years or more. This makes the termination provisions as commercially important as the core business terms.

Without clear termination language, your studio may find itself unable to recover technical assets, build files, account credentials, marketing materials, or user data in a timely way when the relationship ends. Vague handover obligations can leave your game effectively stranded for months after termination.

📋  Termination clauses must clearly address:     • Data return: process, format, and deadline     • Final revenue reconciliation and payment timeline     • Transfer of accounts, assets, and platform credentials     • Exact date when all license rights expire     • Scope and timeline of the publisher’s transition assistance obligations

05  Why Legal Review Matters

Publisher drafts are written by experienced legal teams whose job is to protect the publisher’s interests. This is not bad faith — it’s standard practice. The problem is that Korean studios negotiating cross-border deals often face common law contract structures, English-language nuances, and international trade customs that are genuinely difficult to evaluate without specialized expertise.

A single clause — or even a single defined term — can change whether you receive 30% or 15% of gross revenues, or whether a particular operational failure triggers termination or merely a cure period.

Most importantly, your contract must reflect how your studio actually operates. If update schedules, development team capacity, and production timelines aren’t properly accounted for, you may find yourself in breach before the game has even found its audience.

💡  Legal review is most effective — and most affordable — at the term sheet stage.     Once you have signed a LOI or accepted key terms, your negotiating leverage falls sharply.

Contact Attorney Kyusung Lee

Attorney Kyusung Lee is a Korean Bar Association-registered lawyer specializing in international contracts, foreign investment, and startup law. With a background in investment banking (BofA Merrill Lynch) and corporate legal practice (Samsung C&T), he brings both legal rigor and commercial perspective to cross-border publishing negotiations.

If you are a Korean developer preparing to sign with an overseas publisher — or a foreign publisher seeking legal counsel on Korean IP and contract matters — Attorney Lee offers comprehensive contract review and negotiation support.

Attorney Kyusung Lee Korean Bar Association Registered Startup & International Contract Specialist

• Brown University, B.A. Economics • Yonsei University Law School (5th cohort) • Former: Samsung C&T Legal Team • Former: BofA Merrill Lynch • CAMS Certified • Specialties: International contracts, foreign investment, startup law, medical litigation, insurance disputes

Attorney Kyusung Lee | International & Corporate Law 📞  02-6264-7604 ✉  kyusungii@gmail.com 🌐  http://www.kyusunglee.com

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