Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company recently released a new insurance coverage product for the video game development industry. The policies will insure video game producers in a similar manner as policies that insure television and film producers.
While it may have initially been acceptable to insure a video game producer as a business software developer, this is no longer true. As today’s video games push the technological envelope, the probability of losses increases. Moreover, the average cost of developing game software is up to $10 million per game.
Additionally, these producers now carry risks similar to those in the film industry. A video game producer might hire the lead actor of a related film in order to create the motion-capturing components of the video game. If that actor were injured, the developer would still incur expenses related to the shoot. These aspects of the business, similar to those of the entertainment industry, carry risks far different from the typical business software platform.
