2 ms·

Excerpt: "Braid and Minecraft are both examples of how a few good ideas, executed in an accessible and affordable way, will outsell franchises by orde

Excerpt: "Braid and Minecraft are both examples of how a few good ideas, executed in an accessible and affordable way, will outsell franchises by orders of magnitude." This just about sums it up. Many indie developers are harnessing potential new game genres. They're finding low-budget ways to create addictive games with a high chance of becoming viral. They're finding classic ideas to expand on and platforms to build off of. Big game publishers are failing to do this. They'll spend tons of money, yet lack the innovation to break through in these new areas of the market.

tedunangst 16y ago
Except that quote's not accurate at all. Minecraft has sold 1 million copies lifetime. CoD Black Ops sold 7 times that amount in 24 hours. The franchise outsold Minecraft by an order of magnitude.
- DrStalker 16y ago
  To get some useful figures to compare: How much profit has CoD made after all costs are accounted for? (including advertising, which minecraft skipped by going viral) How much money did CoD make per developer?
  - solipsist 16y ago
    http://www.t2conline.com/life-and-style/technology/1040-call-of-duty-black-ops-fastest-video-game-to-hit-1-billion-in-sales http://www.t2conline.com/life-and-style/technology/1040-call...
  - marvin 16y ago
    This isn't a good comparison; Minecraft is an extreme statistical outlier.
DrStalker 16y ago
Does anyone know the development cost for Minecraft? Presumably this would be measured in hours of time, as Notch did all the work himself (except for the music)