You have hit the nail on the head there, we all know that in any entertainment market at least 90% of the profit goes to at most 10% of the products. When I started on iOS games I assumed it was more like 99% of the profit going to 1% of apps but it's actually way worse than that. My own guestimates (based on following a lot of apps released around the same time as mine) suggest that Ground Effect was safely in the top 1% in terms of paid download numbers, possibly in the top 0.1% and yet the total downloads don't come close to paying for it's dev costs. It did however help get me a well paid contracting job which paid enough for a year or so to allow me to give iOS dev another serious go and build on all that groundwork and what I've learned about the market in the meantime.
Yes we get it Plooper, there are huge success stories in the App Store. We know! This doesn't change the fact that the average payout to App Developers is about $4000 per app according to this. Now, this might sound just fine. But if you take into account the fact that the App Store is extremely top heavy and figures like the one you present are included in the average, this means that a lot of people will make far, far less. And frankly even $4000 isn't particularly much it takes a lot of time making a quality app and you really want to spend some money on advertising as well. Like any market success is possible, but like any competitive market failure is far more likely than hitting it big. There is of course a middle ground where some of us hope to manage, a place where we'll be able to make a living doing what we love...
Just FYI there's nothing wrong with posting links, what causes problems is when people copy and paste full article text.
OMG Glenn, nice to see you again, been a while. Dunno how secretive he wants to be, but you should listen to this guy when it comes to the games biz. Seriously.
I assume you're talking about Glenn and not plooper. Probably not too secretive given the details published on his website: http://www.glenncorpes.com/background Impressive stuff, Populous was badass.
The numbers are way out of whack with reality. There are 300K+ apps and you only hear about the success stories. So it's easy to assume that everyone is making millions. The reality is different. Let's talk about the other 290K apps; The ones not on any top lists. They have only a handful of downloads a day, free or paid. This is called the long tail and where most apps exist. If you can manage a download a day at $2.99, that's about $1000/year. To make this work, you would need to release an app every week or every other week. I have no idea how these myths get started. It's like people saying, look Americans are rich. Look at Donald Trump. He's a billionaire! That means the rest of us most be at least millionaires.
Yes, off course i ment $999.000 My bad! Anyway, my gawd such depressing respondses here damn! It's all about the quallity/gameplay/visuals that will determine if a game will do good or not - and off course some luck ( right game on thw right timing/place). The games that made it to the top are/were - hate them of love them - innovative, fresh, good visuals, addicting and fun to play. Good products for their prices. Unfortunatly, many developers think they can do the same by copying and failing hard. Most of them don't have any taste at all regarding visuals or gameplay. Off course this is subjective but there is indeed a kind of standard for quallity wich will only grow in the future. The appstore is full of crap, face it. Name me one or two games that have fantastic visuals/gameplay/sound in the appstore and didn't sell well?
Silverfish by Chaotic Box http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=1567663&postcount=46 http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=1568379#post1568379 You don't hit the front page of TouchArcade 4 times because your game is mediocre. Check out that entire thread from beginning to end. Many people made many very good points.
They're not just being negative for no reason though, the App Store is a notoriously difficult market to earn a living in and it gets worse by the day. I've got a ton of great games on my device that probably aren't even earning the developers a living, maybe a very basic living if they're lucky but they sure aren't getting rich.
Sorry to disappoint you, not quite sure what you expected. I assure you we would all love to be able to tell you that our biggest problem was finding time to spend all the money we make. Unfortunately reality has a tendency of being realistic...
To be fair; that impression of the App Store is perpetuated by developers who can't earn a living in the App Store. Grain of salt.
I agree. Why listen to developers about how developers are doing. Look, the figures arent that hard to decipher. The number of Apps in the App Store have been publicized occasionally. The same goes for the number of developers and the total payout Apple have made to developers. The last average payout Ive seen was somewhere between 4000-6000 USD per App. For convenience sake lets say 5000 Dollars. This means that for every App making a million there have to be 200 Apps making nothing. As the App Store is very top heavy the general rule of thumb is that there are a few Apps making a lot of money while the majority makes very little. Another interesting figure: There are more games released for iOS every week than the total number of titles for Nintendo DS. These are the facts, they might not make pleasant reading, but thats the way the cookie crumbles. And for the record: Im not saying this to scare people off. Im still here myself and while the enjoyment of developing is a huge part of me sticking to it, I wouldnt bother quite as hard if I didnt still believe it is possible to make money from the App Store at some stage. That being said, I believe people dreaming of making it big deserves to hear this. It is OK to dream, but when people go into this business believing theyll be overnight millionaires theyre just putting themselves up for disappointment.
I have downloaded this game without reading the threads you pointed out so I was not biased. My very first thoughts where (based on the screens) depressing graphics. It's just too dark (that was based on the screenshots) Then I played it and i admit, it's a good game - it's well put together. Still not the game I would play for hours. Also the instructions on the screen are way too long for an average gamer. Would've better if he explained it with motion pictures. Works so much easier for the player. Sorry to say but you have to come up with a better game with more "mainstream" appeal that failed to make a profit. You guys all have valid/good points but it's a market crowded with shit. You first have to climb over the shit barrels to make it to the top. But then again, if the game is really good/fun, words from mouth to mouth - very good reviews can make this happen but please do see it in perspective. Iphone games are just Iphone games with some exceptions. A perfect example is bumpy road that is comming out soon. Now that's a game that I see that has enough potential to go big.
Not really, I came to iOS with a lot of arrogant assumptions and Ground Effect is almost a textbook illustration of what not to do in a lot of ways. I hated working on big teams and having no creative input while some turd who'd worked his way up from tester got to explain his 'vision'. Similarly, the realities of doing "it all" showed me what I was crap at. I could write a book on why I think Ground Effect didn't 'work' as a game. Lone game dev (and you can still effectively be a lone dev, even if others are making all of your artwork) is incredibly difficult. For example: You are competing with teams where one or two guys might have spent months tweaking the UI while you try to shove yours in in the week beween getting your levels balanced and submitting to the app store. It became pretty clear a long time ago that collaborations where people get to do what they are good at are the key.
Any time you want to collaborate with us, drop me a line! Regarding the guy with the "vision", I can't think who you could possibly be referring too!
