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New game developers don't make any money. The gaming industry, both free and paid titles, is overwhelmingly hit-driven, and bigger professional teams can more c

New game developers don't make any money. The gaming industry, both free and paid titles, is overwhelmingly hit-driven, and bigger professional teams can more consistently deliver high quality content. The median title on Steam earns only $3,000 in sales over the first year: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/analyst-your-first-week-and-first-year-s-steam-sales-might-be-correlating https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/analyst-your-first-week-... Considering cost of development and time, the average title most likely loses money. People were basically LARPing as game developers, and throwing money at Unity for the privilege. As economic conditions deteriorate, its reasonable to expect people to stop doing that.

rozab 4y ago
Steam is kind of irrelevant. If you look through Unity job postings, almost all of them are in the mobile market (where Unity dominates) with the rest being gambling or web3 vaporware
georgeecollins 4y ago
>> LARPing as game developers That's harsh in my opinion. In entertainment and media there are always more people who want to do a thing than can be supported: musicians, actors, comedians, artists, etc. Sometimes amateurs become pros. Sometimes people "LARPing" -- as you call it --make games I really enjoy. So I think its cool that people try their luck at game development even knowing most won't make a living at it.
- kjs3 4y ago
  Ya. Am I LARPing as a developer for creating OSS things that scratch and itch and not working at Oracle or some such.
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  Most of the people actually "LARPing" don't actually ever finish and publish their games, so you can't enjoy them.
  - georgeecollins 4y ago
    So true! Sometimes to scratch my itches I have joined first timers- I guess me “LARPing” as a garage developer. It usually becomes clear they will never even finish a prototype. Once I joined a team that was making a space ship combat game. All they worked on was 2d buttons, sliders, etc. Building a whole GUI from scratch for months. I stuck my head up to say maybe we could try some gameplay ideas? No it was important to get the menus right.
WillPostForFood 4y ago
The median title on Steam earns only $3,000 in sales over the first year That number is probably way overstating the median revenue. It is based on a non-random sample (hey devs, send us your data for a survey) of 75 games. Looking at a larger dataset, a majority of developers make <$1,000 (average revenue: $294). https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/what-can-we-learn-from-the-1-600-highest-earning-indie-developers-on-steam- https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/what-can-we-learn-from-t...
- Cpoll 4y ago
  The median is meaningless anyway, with the bar to entry being so low. If enough people publish games that no-one buy the median will be $0.
  - WillPostForFood 4y ago
    Yes, that's basically what's happening as more and more games are getting published. 2013: 551 2014: 1,631 2015: 2,679 2016: 4,466 2017: 6,251 2018: 8,137 2019: 7,841 2020: 9,609 2021: 10,696
    - terrycody 4y ago
      hey where's the data from? Its from Steam or the whole game industry included mobile? I would eager to read more details, thanks.
Hammershaft 4y ago
> People were basically LARPing as game developers, and throwing money at Unity for the privilege. If you make a game, and it struggles due to very tough market conditions, you are not LARPing as a game dev. You are a game developer. There are countless gems on steam that have not gotten commercial success, but are well engineered and well designed titles.
- seoaeu 4y ago
  Yeah, no one would say a skilled painter is LARPing just because their work isn’t commercially successful
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    But they're LARPing if they never finish or sell a painting.
    - seoaeu 4y ago
      Van Gogh wasn’t a real painter?!
      - Andrex 4y ago
        In terms of artist-as-a-profession during his lifetime? It's harsh, but yes.
    - cronix 4y ago
      I don't think that's a realistic definition. It all has to do with intention. LARPers, by definition, are role-playing and not actually intending to do the thing. A painter who never makes a sale or never finishes, but intended to, just failed at the task.
    - antifa 4y ago
      LARPing would mean they are pretending to paint or pretending to have made works. I am technically a gamedev, but I am not a professional gamedev.
ntr-- 4y ago
> throwing money at Unity for the privilege Your company has to have over 100,000USD in gross annual revenue to pay for unity, at which point you are no longer "LARPing"...
lmm 4y ago
Even if there are fewer amateur game devs in the next few years, the pool of people who've been doing that in the last few years is where the big pro teams will be recruiting from, and a lot of them are familiar with Unity and will want to keep using it (and even if you don't care about their preferences, they will be more productive more quickly in teams that do).
nimblegorilla 4y ago
I agree Steam games are a difficult market to break into, but there are other ways to make money. Unity is also a nice platform if you want to produce interactive content for corporate or educational consulting projects. Also consider the large number of places such as Hobby Lobby, Williams-Sonoma, or Home Depot that cater to hobbyist/amateurs rather than industry professionals.
- LaGrange 4y ago
  As far as I know, there is exactly zero reason to give Unity money if you're a hobbyist.
  - atwood22 4y ago
    Unity's asset store is a pretty cheap and convenient way to get assets if you're on a budget.
whateveracct 4y ago
What is the median lifetime sales? Or over a 5 year window? I don't think first year is the end-all, be-all here given how being a gamedev actually works (e.g. what if I release 5 games in 5 years?) But it's possible first year sales are effectively lifetime sales on average as well.
- meheleventyone 4y ago
  There is a long, slowly accumulating tail but to get there you need to survive five years and five releases. And least some of those need to be more successful than the median to generate real revenue in the tail. It also comes with increased expense in terms of maintaining those games, both the codebase itself and the marketing around it. For all that you’ll probably pull in a mediocre salary for a single developer.
Uehreka 4y ago
If your company (or personal LLC) is only making $3000/year in revenue, you can use Unity for free (the threshold where you need Unity Pro is $100K/year). So even if fewer people are doing those kinds of “nights and weekends passion project” games, it’s not likely that it’s affecting Unity’s overall revenue that much.
- giobox 4y ago
  Right, but some of these passion projects in turn become breakout hits that breach the 100k barrier then presumably generate revenue for Unity - think of indie games that break out into mainstream built on Unity like Among Us or Valheim. If the reduction in passion project games is significant enough it might well have an impact - especially as fewer "AAA" style development houses pick Unity.

rozab 4y ago

Steam is kind of irrelevant. If you look through Unity job postings, almost all of them are in the mobile market (where Unity dominates) with the rest being gambling or web3 vaporware

georgeecollins 4y ago

>> LARPing as game developers That's harsh in my opinion. In entertainment and media there are always more people who want to do a thing than can be supported: musicians, actors, comedians, artists, etc. Sometimes amateurs become pros. Sometimes people "LARPing" -- as you call it --make games I really enjoy. So I think its cool that people try their luck at game development even knowing most won't make a living at it.

kjs3 4y ago
Ya. Am I LARPing as a developer for creating OSS things that scratch and itch and not working at Oracle or some such.
DonHopkins 4y ago
Most of the people actually "LARPing" don't actually ever finish and publish their games, so you can't enjoy them.
- georgeecollins 4y ago
  So true! Sometimes to scratch my itches I have joined first timers- I guess me “LARPing” as a garage developer. It usually becomes clear they will never even finish a prototype. Once I joined a team that was making a space ship combat game. All they worked on was 2d buttons, sliders, etc. Building a whole GUI from scratch for months. I stuck my head up to say maybe we could try some gameplay ideas? No it was important to get the menus right.

WillPostForFood 4y ago

The median title on Steam earns only $3,000 in sales over the first year That number is probably way overstating the median revenue. It is based on a non-random sample (hey devs, send us your data for a survey) of 75 games. Looking at a larger dataset, a majority of developers make <$1,000 (average revenue: $294). https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/what-can-we-learn-from-the-1-600-highest-earning-indie-developers-on-steam- https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/what-can-we-learn-from-t...

Cpoll 4y ago
The median is meaningless anyway, with the bar to entry being so low. If enough people publish games that no-one buy the median will be $0.
- WillPostForFood 4y ago
  Yes, that's basically what's happening as more and more games are getting published. 2013: 551 2014: 1,631 2015: 2,679 2016: 4,466 2017: 6,251 2018: 8,137 2019: 7,841 2020: 9,609 2021: 10,696
  - terrycody 4y ago
    hey where's the data from? Its from Steam or the whole game industry included mobile? I would eager to read more details, thanks.

Hammershaft 4y ago

> People were basically LARPing as game developers, and throwing money at Unity for the privilege. If you make a game, and it struggles due to very tough market conditions, you are not LARPing as a game dev. You are a game developer. There are countless gems on steam that have not gotten commercial success, but are well engineered and well designed titles.

seoaeu 4y ago
Yeah, no one would say a skilled painter is LARPing just because their work isn’t commercially successful
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  But they're LARPing if they never finish or sell a painting.
  - seoaeu 4y ago
    Van Gogh wasn’t a real painter?!
    - Andrex 4y ago
      In terms of artist-as-a-profession during his lifetime? It's harsh, but yes.
  - cronix 4y ago
    I don't think that's a realistic definition. It all has to do with intention. LARPers, by definition, are role-playing and not actually intending to do the thing. A painter who never makes a sale or never finishes, but intended to, just failed at the task.
  - antifa 4y ago
    LARPing would mean they are pretending to paint or pretending to have made works. I am technically a gamedev, but I am not a professional gamedev.

ntr-- 4y ago

> throwing money at Unity for the privilege Your company has to have over 100,000USD in gross annual revenue to pay for unity, at which point you are no longer "LARPing"...

lmm 4y ago

Even if there are fewer amateur game devs in the next few years, the pool of people who've been doing that in the last few years is where the big pro teams will be recruiting from, and a lot of them are familiar with Unity and will want to keep using it (and even if you don't care about their preferences, they will be more productive more quickly in teams that do).

nimblegorilla 4y ago

I agree Steam games are a difficult market to break into, but there are other ways to make money. Unity is also a nice platform if you want to produce interactive content for corporate or educational consulting projects. Also consider the large number of places such as Hobby Lobby, Williams-Sonoma, or Home Depot that cater to hobbyist/amateurs rather than industry professionals.

LaGrange 4y ago
As far as I know, there is exactly zero reason to give Unity money if you're a hobbyist.
- atwood22 4y ago
  Unity's asset store is a pretty cheap and convenient way to get assets if you're on a budget.

whateveracct 4y ago

What is the median lifetime sales? Or over a 5 year window? I don't think first year is the end-all, be-all here given how being a gamedev actually works (e.g. what if I release 5 games in 5 years?) But it's possible first year sales are effectively lifetime sales on average as well.

meheleventyone 4y ago
There is a long, slowly accumulating tail but to get there you need to survive five years and five releases. And least some of those need to be more successful than the median to generate real revenue in the tail. It also comes with increased expense in terms of maintaining those games, both the codebase itself and the marketing around it. For all that you’ll probably pull in a mediocre salary for a single developer.

Uehreka 4y ago

If your company (or personal LLC) is only making $3000/year in revenue, you can use Unity for free (the threshold where you need Unity Pro is $100K/year). So even if fewer people are doing those kinds of “nights and weekends passion project” games, it’s not likely that it’s affecting Unity’s overall revenue that much.

giobox 4y ago
Right, but some of these passion projects in turn become breakout hits that breach the 100k barrier then presumably generate revenue for Unity - think of indie games that break out into mainstream built on Unity like Among Us or Valheim. If the reduction in passion project games is significant enough it might well have an impact - especially as fewer "AAA" style development houses pick Unity.