GDC 09: World of Goo Cost, Sales Breakdowns
2D Boy explains why it pays to be an independent developer.
March 23, 2009 - Ever wonder what the profit margin is for a successful independent game? At the Game Developers Conference 2009, 2D Boy's Rob Carmel, who co-created the hit World of Goo, shed some light on the upstart's game development costs and profits.
According to Carmel, the tiny two-man company spent $96,000 during a span of two years as it created World of Goo. It also made investments of $4,000 on hardware, $1,000 on software, $5,000 on QA testing, $5,000 for localization and $5,000 on legal fees.
Pundits have speculated relentlessly about whether or not World of Goo was ultimately more successful on WiiWare, Steam, Drect2Drive or as a download from 2D Boy's website, and Carmel put the rumors to bed. The developer showed via an on-screen graph that about 25% of World of Goo sales last year resulted from the website. About 3% of sales came from traditional retail avenues. And WiiWare accounted for roughly 60% of all sales in 2008 -- easily outperforming everything else. Carmel did, however, state that sales of the game over Steam have increased in 2009.
Direct2Drive is IGN Entertainment's downloadable game service.
