If that was truly something that made a lot of difference to the economics and the market as a whole, you'd expect to see most indie games coming from such coun

If that was truly something that made a lot of difference to the economics and the market as a whole, you'd expect to see most indie games coming from such countries. Do you? I don't think I do. Costs obviously make a big impact on profit, but the truth is indie games likely have pretty fixed costs wherever in the World you choose to make them. A decent games artist is going to cost the same wherever you're based, because they can sell their services from anywhere to anywhere. The market rate is not local. Your $140k is what you're paying if you, or they, live in Jacksonville, Johannesburg or Juba. And it's not like those clipart libraries give you a huge discount if they noticed you're in a country with a terrible GDP/capita compared to the US. If their rate is $20, it's $20 for the guy in Seattle and $20 for the guy in South Sudan. The only difference is for the guy in Seattle its a couple of Starbucks trips, but for the guy in South Sudan it's 2 weeks median income. If anything, starting an indie game setup in a poor country is going to require you to be significantly richer compared to your neighbours than if you live in a suburb of Seattle, Marseille or Glasgow. You're therefore more likely to have the cash reserves to invest in indie game development if you are living in a richer country. Yes, it's true that once you get the thing built you're going to be able to sell at first world rates, but getting the thing built is not an equal playing field for everyone.