The Realities of Selling Independently Developed PC Games

Not long ago, we discussed the realities of selling a game on the iPhone App Store. Now, spidweb sends in his experiences with a realistic level of success as an independent PC game developer. He writes "There is a lot of excitement about casual gaming and Indie game development these days, but there's also very little public information about how many games actually get sold, or the sort of income one can reasonably expect in this line of work. We've released full sales figures for a recent product to illustrate what sort of earnings can be generated by a quality niche product that isn't a massive hit. From the post: 'I am not the first Indie developer to reveal this sort of information. However, most public sales figures come from projects that were either blockbusters or disasters. Our games have never landed in either pool. I have been doing this for a living for almost fifteen years.'"

Re:additional data

[telso]

it sold 4,500 copies at $20 apiece, netting about $121,000 after expenses.

sold 1,000 copies at $15 apiece, netting about $25,000 after expenses.

It may be 5 a.m. here, but that's the best business model I've seen in ages:

1. Sell x units at $y apiece, creating $xy in revenue
2. Factor in negative expenses to increase income
3. ...
4. Profit!

Re:Indie $ vs big name $

[Bastard of Subhumani]

Advertising is incredibly expensive, so much so that only big companies can afford to do it, presumably it usually results in a net profit, but those numbers aren't generally available.

As Winston Churchill said: "Half of what I spend on advertising is wasted. I wish I knew which half."

Or maybe it was Henry Ford.