Games profitability

[randall]

First of all, no.

Second of all, check the quality of games on the Gameboy, compared the quality of games on the PPC. We don't have a lot of quality titles to choose from.

Granted, some Gameboy games are absolutely terrible. But it wouldn't have survived if it started out with the lowgrade crap we have.

[Michael Y]

Actually, I'm quite content with the current PPC game market. It may be tiny, but that adds to the charm of it. Can you think of another platform (other than maybe Palm :shudder:) where you can actually talk to the developers individually and give them feedback? It just wouldn't be the same if we had big-name companies like Lucasarts or Nintendo or some other game company (i'm not running high on creativity tonight) come in and make hundreds of games for Pocket PCs like what's happened on Game Boy. Not to mention that the current PPC game library is getting to be pretty good. I'd rather have my iPaq with Snails and the Argentum Demo than a GBA any day. It'll be even more so once XScale comes out and we have full-speed SNES emus (at least I hope)

[Lvfn]

[randall]

[ChezDoodles]

[brendan]

[ChezDoodles]

[randall]

Most of what Sven cited about publishers is why we decided against them. Inflated numbers, and stupid contracts were the primary reasons. We didn't see a contract that we could be happy with (and the only publishers are NOT Zio, Monkeystone, and ZDnet)

One contract quoted distribution channels in 50 countries. Sounds impressive, but I can't name 50 countries with a stable economy/gov, dense population/PPC user base, and average income that would support such a claim. I don't think Ho Chi Mihn driving a dusty pickup truck across Taiwan to deliver 2 CDs should count as "distribution".

I don't know about any other country, but the economy of the US is based off volume. Big businesses absorb the loss of short term sales and make up for it in the long term. Do you know how much it costs to make ONE tube of toothpaste? What if you paid THAT price.

Do you know how much a brick costs to make? about $1000 for ONE brick. Based on that, how many brick buildings do you thinnk we'd have? Manufacturers don't make ONE brick or ONE tube of toothpaste. They mass produce them to bring the costs down.

If you can justify that your game isn't mass-producable for online sales, then there is something quirky going on.

Supply and demand are another basic rule of business. If you don't understand this, then maybe you never took business or econ courses. You should be selling an average of 5 copies a day, in order to justify your pricing. If not, the demand is just not there, and your pricing is too high.

Argue that you aren't getting 5 sales a day because of the lack of Marketing/Advertising. I will tell you that if you can't perform these basic duties of business then you have no business charging the higher price.

[edit: originally I had a 1 sale model above, but it was grossly inaccurate. This is based on AVERAGE, not saying you need to sell 5 copies EVERY day. And this is an extrememly low target- 150 copies a month is hardly anything to sniff at.)

The few Devs that are making a living off PPC games are rare, for very good reason. Look at their techniques and answers- they aren't standardized and go against the flow of the rest of the Devs. Most of them have been offered many "deals" but still decline, in favor of absolute control of their projects fate.

[HobbesAB]

[randall]

I should also add that not every game can sell 5 copies a day, regardless of pricing. However selling 2 copies a week at $20 isn't exactly paying the bills anyway, so how is it going to hurt you to drop the price down to $5 or even $3?

[Conan]

On the price point thing I have stuck at $20 and sales are around 30 per month ( it is quite an old game ). My original CE version of Space Treker sells at $12 but almost none buys that as it's the people with the new iPaq 38's who are the main purchasers. When the numbers dwindle to nothing I will only sell through ShareIt! whose automated system causes least work (I know Handango has one but it don't suit)

The one & only time I used a publisher ( for an Atari ST game ) I only got 50 pence ( 30 cents ) per copy so even though it sold well in several countries the game made less than my little shareware title.

Finally a question which interests me also:
Who are the real developers? How many people are actually producing & selling games among the PM community. I must start a thread & find out

[pocket andy]

Hi, Everybody.
It's lucky for me.
Currently, i am doing the rearch about the PPC games.
As soon as i jump into this forum, i find the topics.
thanks to all!

However, i still have some points to ask you guys.
First of all, is anywhere i can find the selling information about the ppc games.or any generous man can share the information.I am afraid that i,my wife and my children will get starving if my rearch is failed.
Second, how many kinds of publishing? in different countries.
i will appricate that somebody can drop me a line.

currently, it seems that it's hard to live by developing the PPC game!?
when i have the ideal to get into PPC, i look forward a vision of multiplayer game. And i believe at that time, it will be the great chance.

again, thanks in advanve!!

[brendan]

Although I can or can not say if I have signed with a particular distributor for MMC sales, the one main contractual item that developers should look at is what the contract covers, does it cover future titles?, if the PPC market picks up, the last thing you want is all your titles under contract through one company for distribution!

Given my previous titles are low budget, nothing fancy etc, I’d be happy to signup to anything, just to get publicity, just be careful not to “include” future releases!, and don’t sign an agreement until after a few months of royalty sales, through companies such as handango, then when you gage the “reaction” you can better negotiate etc.

There are also lots of people willing to help for minimal return, just to get credit, or to help them get there resume building up, help them out, by letting them help you out. There are lots of mod /it trackers that will write free music, and I know a few graphics artists 

This can get tricky if you try and make “cuts” before release, if you game goes well you could end up paying someone 10 times what there input was worth. Or you could pay someone too much, and it’s a flop, I think the PPC market it really only big enough for most developers to ask for “donation help” with fair returns to contributors if all goes well, and as I said there a people out there keen to help, you just have to know where to find them, infact this BB has hundreds of people just waiting and willing to answer any Q’s, (thanks Guys (Girls))

-Brendan

[Pejo Software - Per]

[Michael Y]