Indie group slams publisher â??immoral practicesâ??

Publishers have found themselves on the receiving-end of extraordinary criticisms from UK-based indie publisher Icon Games.

In an interview with Develop, Icon Games’ head of development Richard Hill-Whittall claims that publishers are guilty of numerous “immoral” practices.

Icon Games has now transformed itself from indie developer to indie publisher, yet leaves with it a dark cloud of alleged tensions and broken promises.

When asked what kind of problems the studio encountered with other publishers, Hill-Whittall had much ground to cover:

“Slow decision-making and contract negotiation, even on relatively small projects, are the most obvious. Far more problematic were the slow/late payments and in one or two cases immoral business practices such as not paying royalties owed.”

Icon Games plans to release a variety of games through several digital channels, from PSN to XBLA to The App Store. For more on how the studio is prepared to do this, read Develop’s interview here.