Game Development

Independent Games Sales with Mike Rose of tinyBuild Games at GDC 2015

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

I sat in the session with Mike Rose of Tinybuild at GDC which was all about game sales for developers and which platforms are more ideal for launching a game to. It was a packed house as many anxious developers were interested in hearing the comparative numbers across all of the platforms.

Mike pointed out first that developing a good game is only half of the battle -knowing how to sell it and where to sell it comes next, and deciding on which platform plays a big role in your success.

Up come the screens we’ve all been waiting for - how can a developer fare in the various markets?

Nintendo Sales Figures

Wii U has 9.2 million units sold worldwide.

Only 80 indie games in the Wii U network to date.

The 3Ds only has 15 games developed by indies.

The top price for a title on the Wii U eShop is around $15.

This network might be worth looking at from a developer perspective.

Wii U eshop Sales

Low-end: 300 to 1,000 sales with poor ratings, no marketing and Wii U only
Mid-end: 1000 - 10,000 sales with multi-platform and a marketing presence
High-end: 10,000 - 60,000 sales with massive success on other platforms

3DS eshop Sales

Low-end: 1,000 to 5,000 sales with poor ratings, no marketing
Mid-end: 5,000 - 50,000 sales with multi-platform and decent exposure
High-end: 10,000 - 60,000 sales with big exposure from Nintendo and multi-platform

PC Sales Figures

Steam reports over 125 million active accounts

4,500 games total

1850 games arrived on Steam in 2014, 2500 are predicted in 2015

Most sales come from the Steam network in the PC realm

There is a possibly of massive sales but it’s going to take some work.

Low-end: 1000 to 10,000 sales with poor ratings, no marketing, and generally unknown
Mid-end: 10,000 - 100,000 sales with some press, YouTuber exposure, well reviewed
High-end: 100,000 to 3 million sales with popular genres, big with YouTubers, critically acclaimed

Mobile Sales Figures

800 million iOS devices in the world

1.4 million iOS apps

1.2 million Google Play apps

Android is growing but iOS still dominates sales

Risky but yields big successes

Low-end 0 to 2,000 sales. No exposure at all, no dialog
Mid-end: 2,000 - 30,000 sales. Apple / Google feature, decent exposure
High-end:30,000 to 2.5 million sales. Big push from Apple, multiple features, tons of exposure

Xbox and Playstation Sales Figures

Not a lot of time was spent here overall mainly due to the lack of any indie developed games. But it is worth mentioning that Microsoft’s program to help developers get their games onto the Xbox would be worth exploring - however Playstation looks to be ahead of Microsoft in this area already.

Playstation Sales

Low-end: 1,000 to 10,000 sales with poor ratings, no marketing
Mid-end: 10,000 - 30,000 sales with mention in PS blog and decent exposure
High-end: 10,000 - 60,000 sales with big PS push, big exposure, multiple price drops

Xbox One Sales

Low-end: 1,000 to 5,000 sales with poor ratings, no marketing
Mid-end: 5,000 - 20,000 sales with prominent featuring on dashboard and decent exposure
High-end: 10,000 - 60,000 sales with big exposure from Microsoft, high rated, and lots of exposure

So in summary, Mike says when publishing your game consider PC and mobile first, Nintendo Wii U and 3DS second, then Xbox and Playstation last (at least for now).