Why Traditional Retail and Niche Games Don't Work

[Tim Brooks]

An excerpt from our most recent Blog:

The Big Picture – 2004

Okay now for all those numbers… Last year, sales of Computer Games (and I am not including Video Games – the Console Game Market) was down $100 million dollars from the $1.2 billion mark in 2003. There were two, count ‘em, two games that had sales of 500,000 units and 18 games that had sales of 250,000 units or more. It is projected that less than 6% of all Computer Games made a profit. Based on the varying definitions of what is a new release, it is hard to know for sure how many products were released in 2004, but a number that I can live with is 1100 titles (in 1999 that figure was over 2200 titles). The average budget for development of a computer game is now over $2 million per title. And the average breakeven point in unit sales is around 110,000 units. The average retail price point is $24.45. And the average game at retail sales under 5,000 units!

Read this blog here. (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/blog/)

[Atrocities]

Tim, I found the peace to be very eye opening. This just goes to show you that you learn something new each day. Thank you for providing us with the information and hopefuly an new outlook on the nitch market and how those games are sold.

[Tim Brooks]

Thanks Atrocities. ANother blog on this subject will be up soon!

[Combat Wombat]

Wow I never thought it was that hard to get a succesful game in the retail market. Gives a whole new perspective on what you guys are doing here for all of the niche games.

[Azselendor]

These articles area really useful and provide me with some much needed insight into the gaming industry. Thank you!

[Tim Brooks]

Wow I never thought it was that hard to get a succesful game in the retail market.



If it were easy, there would be many more publishers out there! Remember the 1980's?

[Tim Brooks]

Klvino [ORB] said:
These articles area really useful and provide me with some much needed insight into the gaming industry. Thank you!



Your welcome Klvino.

[Combat Wombat]

Tim Brooks said:


Wow I never thought it was that hard to get a succesful game in the retail market.



If it were easy, there would be many more publishers out there! Remember the 1980's?



Actually I don't remeber the 80's I was 2 when they ended. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I know what you mean though

[Tim Brooks]

Oh God, I'm old...

[Mindi]

ROTFLOL, Richard and I were thinking the same thing. We're getting old!

[Kamog]

Ah, the good old days of the 80's... fun games on the Commodore 64, Intellivision, Apple IIE... Back then I did not have my own computer or game console, and I visited a friend often and we played a lot of games. Sometimes we'd stay up all night playing games. It was around 1990 that I got my first game console, a Sega Genesis, and really got addicted to games. Life was simpler back then...

Also, the games back then were easy to learn. Combat games like Kung Fu Master only had three or four moves: walk, jump, punch, and kick. So you could learn it in thirty seconds and play. Now, games are so complex it takes a week to learn all the controls; fighting games have dozens of special moves and button combinations and things you've got to memorize.

I remember the first turn-based space strategy game I played: it was Galax on the Macintosh. Back then Macintoshes had small monochrome screens and you had to boot up from a floppy disk; it was a Macintosh 512E that I played it on. In the game Galax, you start off as humans on your home planet, and you have to defeat two other races called the Gubru and the Czinti or something like that. I seem to remember that there was only one type of resource that planets produced, and only one type of ship you can buy.

[Joe 98]

All of which means downloads is the best delivery system
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