3 ms·

Account for labor + marketing (or if you have a publisher, clawbacks on advances), and those are failure numbers.

somenameforme 1y ago
Another datum they give is that 70% of published games are 'hobby projects' - no publisher and presumably little to no marketing and little no labor costs besides opportunity cost. The median revenue stats for publisher driven titles with an actual compensated team behind them are obviously going to be much higher.
- mwkaufma 1y ago
  "hobby project" as a label is a patronizing deflection.
  - somenameforme 1y ago
    No, it's relevant to your assertion. It's the term used by the infographic for, at the minimum, projects without a publisher. And it turns out that it's the overwhelming majority of games. It's fairly safe to say that very near 100% of the chaff is going to qualify as a hobby project, but the great thing about development today is that hobby projects can also see basically unlimited success as well. For the obvious example - Minecraft was a hobby project by every possible definition of the term - no marketing, no publisher, single dev in his spare time after work - and it's one of the best selling games of all time. Lots of really great looking games today would also qualify as hobby projects. Advances in development tools/engines (and marketplaces) have really made some wild things possible.
    - mwkaufma 1y ago
      "It's the term used by the infographic for, at the minimum, projects without a publisher." Term used by _whom_? Because nobody at DICE or GDC talks like that -- just peanut gallery blogs. "And it turns out that it's the overwhelming majority of games." Overwhelming majority... _of the way games are marketed_, not the reality of production. It's called "print the legend."
      - somenameforme 1y ago
        I'm fairly sure near to all publishers require display of their name in the publisher field (which is how they would have grabbed this datum). It's essentially free marketing, how 'games from this publisher' are linked, publisher stores are displayed, and so on. And getting elitist over the GDC of all things is pretty darn funny! Be sure to also get the latest news from Gamasutra and get into that hardcore coding at Flipcode.

Another datum they give is that 70% of published games are 'hobby projects' - no publisher and presumably little to no marketing and little no labor costs besides opportunity cost. The median revenue stats for publisher driven titles with an actual compensated team behind them are obviously going to be much higher.

mwkaufma 1y ago
"hobby project" as a label is a patronizing deflection.
- somenameforme 1y ago
  No, it's relevant to your assertion. It's the term used by the infographic for, at the minimum, projects without a publisher. And it turns out that it's the overwhelming majority of games. It's fairly safe to say that very near 100% of the chaff is going to qualify as a hobby project, but the great thing about development today is that hobby projects can also see basically unlimited success as well. For the obvious example - Minecraft was a hobby project by every possible definition of the term - no marketing, no publisher, single dev in his spare time after work - and it's one of the best selling games of all time. Lots of really great looking games today would also qualify as hobby projects. Advances in development tools/engines (and marketplaces) have really made some wild things possible.
  - mwkaufma 1y ago
    "It's the term used by the infographic for, at the minimum, projects without a publisher." Term used by _whom_? Because nobody at DICE or GDC talks like that -- just peanut gallery blogs. "And it turns out that it's the overwhelming majority of games." Overwhelming majority... _of the way games are marketed_, not the reality of production. It's called "print the legend."
    - somenameforme 1y ago
      I'm fairly sure near to all publishers require display of their name in the publisher field (which is how they would have grabbed this datum). It's essentially free marketing, how 'games from this publisher' are linked, publisher stores are displayed, and so on. And getting elitist over the GDC of all things is pretty darn funny! Be sure to also get the latest news from Gamasutra and get into that hardcore coding at Flipcode.