5 ms·

I made a game for Xbox Live Indie Games. Here are the sales stats.

64 points by noneTheHacker 15y ago

citricsquid 15y ago
If you're interested in this you might also be interested in a talk that the developer of Fortress Craft gave. Fortress Craft is (in its simplest form) a clone of Minecraft for the xbox 360 indie game thing, he gave a talk at an event a few weeks ago and he explained all the sales figures. It's the biggest grossing game on the indie game thing so far. http://www.fileplay.net/channels/iseries//13607/fortresscraft-developer-talk-insomnia42 http://www.fileplay.net/channels/iseries//13607/fortresscraf... He starts talking about sales at 16:00.
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  Thanks for the link. The game released 2 days before mine and I was curious how that game was doing.
scottchin 15y ago
I may have missed this in the article, but I am wondering how much this game sells for. I am not familiar with the pricing of indie games on xbox live. Congrats btw for releasing your game! Very interesting article! Edit: Ok I poked around a bit and found that the game is listed for 80 Microsoft Points. On my account it is $14.50 (not sure if this is Canadian or USD as my account is Canadian) for 1000 points, making the game cost about $1.16.
- dangero 15y ago
  Agreed. Sales data is meaningless without price. I'm assuming that was discussed in a prior blog, but I'm too lazy to search through them all to find it.
  - noneTheHacker 15y ago
    Sorry. I didn't think to put the translation in. I updated the post to mention that.
- wccrawford 15y ago
  Yup, 80 MS Points is $1 USD. Also, he gave the numbers for total sales, total dollars, and the MS split (70/30), so you could also calculate the cost from that, which is right around $1 USD also.
beaumartinez 15y ago
Congratulations―especially on releasing your game; having a quick look on your blog, I've seen you go into detail how difficult it has been―something we can all relate to. The first of many releases, I'd hope. I'll at least download the game later today (from the Spanish Marketplace, if they have it). You don't specify anywhere on the post what Tug Of Four is about―at the very least, a missed opportunity for a quick sales pitch.
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
  It's "80" something, the xbox website doesn't tell you the units, presumably some sort of MS currency units (aren't alternative currencies illegal in the USA?).
  - noneTheHacker 15y ago
    Microsoft sells "points" 80 points equals $1 USD. It isn't really a currency. You can't trade it to dollars and you can only give them to other people via gift cards.
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  I didn't even think about a sales pitch. Thank you for the idea and I will try to remember that going forward! The game is a party game meant for four people to play together in a room. There is a single ball that everyone controls. You don't want the ball to go in your goal. So you have to manipulate your friends into scoring on each other while trying not to get scored on yourself. Edit: Here is the trailer on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsKPd29rZ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsKPd29rZ8
  - biot 15y ago
    I love the trailer... it doesn't get any clearer that this is a party game. Any plans for online multiplayer?
    - noneTheHacker 15y ago
keyle 15y ago
You talked a lot about advertising and its effects on sales. I think it's worth mentioning that spending money on a designer might really help your sales.
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  My graphic designer buddy from work helped clean up my original art. He didn't have a good chance to try his own thing because he came into the process late. Originally, I was going to do it all on my own but he expressed interest in helping after seeing an play test of the game.
6ren 15y ago
Xbox Live Indie Games is not available in Australia. :(
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  That's a bummer. I wonder if it's because of the laws around games in Australia.
JMiao 15y ago
I love designing local multiplayer games. It's only niche because the big publishers/developers won't figure out how to market a non-music, local coop game. You should try to get in touch with the Co-Optimus guys. Looking forward to downloading this when I get home.
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I had never heard of Co-Optimus before but I check them out and try to show them my game.
sshumaker 15y ago
There's stats across several different XBLIG, along with analysis, from one of the top XBL indie game developers at: http://radiangames.com http://radiangames.com If you read his most recent posts, it appears the recent XBLIG spamming of ratings (which lowered average game ratings across the board) has cost him huge numbers of sales - enough so that he's now looking at other platforms.

64 points by noneTheHacker 15y ago

If you're interested in this you might also be interested in a talk that the developer of Fortress Craft gave. Fortress Craft is (in its simplest form) a clone of Minecraft for the xbox 360 indie game thing, he gave a talk at an event a few weeks ago and he explained all the sales figures. It's the biggest grossing game on the indie game thing so far. http://www.fileplay.net/channels/iseries//13607/fortresscraft-developer-talk-insomnia42 http://www.fileplay.net/channels/iseries//13607/fortresscraf... He starts talking about sales at 16:00.

noneTheHacker 15y ago
Thanks for the link. The game released 2 days before mine and I was curious how that game was doing.

scottchin 15y ago

I may have missed this in the article, but I am wondering how much this game sells for. I am not familiar with the pricing of indie games on xbox live. Congrats btw for releasing your game! Very interesting article! Edit: Ok I poked around a bit and found that the game is listed for 80 Microsoft Points. On my account it is $14.50 (not sure if this is Canadian or USD as my account is Canadian) for 1000 points, making the game cost about $1.16.

dangero 15y ago
Agreed. Sales data is meaningless without price. I'm assuming that was discussed in a prior blog, but I'm too lazy to search through them all to find it.
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  Sorry. I didn't think to put the translation in. I updated the post to mention that.
wccrawford 15y ago
Yup, 80 MS Points is $1 USD. Also, he gave the numbers for total sales, total dollars, and the MS split (70/30), so you could also calculate the cost from that, which is right around $1 USD also.

beaumartinez 15y ago

Congratulations―especially on releasing your game; having a quick look on your blog, I've seen you go into detail how difficult it has been―something we can all relate to. The first of many releases, I'd hope. I'll at least download the game later today (from the Spanish Marketplace, if they have it). You don't specify anywhere on the post what Tug Of Four is about―at the very least, a missed opportunity for a quick sales pitch.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago
It's "80" something, the xbox website doesn't tell you the units, presumably some sort of MS currency units (aren't alternative currencies illegal in the USA?).
- noneTheHacker 15y ago
  Microsoft sells "points" 80 points equals $1 USD. It isn't really a currency. You can't trade it to dollars and you can only give them to other people via gift cards.
noneTheHacker 15y ago
I didn't even think about a sales pitch. Thank you for the idea and I will try to remember that going forward! The game is a party game meant for four people to play together in a room. There is a single ball that everyone controls. You don't want the ball to go in your goal. So you have to manipulate your friends into scoring on each other while trying not to get scored on yourself. Edit: Here is the trailer on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsKPd29rZ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsKPd29rZ8
- biot 15y ago
  I love the trailer... it doesn't get any clearer that this is a party game. Any plans for online multiplayer?
  - noneTheHacker 15y ago

keyle 15y ago

You talked a lot about advertising and its effects on sales. I think it's worth mentioning that spending money on a designer might really help your sales.

noneTheHacker 15y ago
My graphic designer buddy from work helped clean up my original art. He didn't have a good chance to try his own thing because he came into the process late. Originally, I was going to do it all on my own but he expressed interest in helping after seeing an play test of the game.

6ren 15y ago

Xbox Live Indie Games is not available in Australia. :(

noneTheHacker 15y ago
That's a bummer. I wonder if it's because of the laws around games in Australia.

JMiao 15y ago

I love designing local multiplayer games. It's only niche because the big publishers/developers won't figure out how to market a non-music, local coop game. You should try to get in touch with the Co-Optimus guys. Looking forward to downloading this when I get home.

noneTheHacker 15y ago
Thanks for the tip. I had never heard of Co-Optimus before but I check them out and try to show them my game.

sshumaker 15y ago

There's stats across several different XBLIG, along with analysis, from one of the top XBL indie game developers at: http://radiangames.com http://radiangames.com If you read his most recent posts, it appears the recent XBLIG spamming of ratings (which lowered average game ratings across the board) has cost him huge numbers of sales - enough so that he's now looking at other platforms.