Squilliam said:
Fine if you don't like my quick and dirty analysis how bout a more thourough database.
302 games in the database The number of games in the American database to prevent repeats. ( Conservative assumption because the games not included would have sold poorly anyway, the bias from this assumption further supports my point.)
142,000,000 games sold.
60 games comprise the top 20% (rounding down)
42 million sellers + 18 non million sellers. (94.6+14.8 = 109.4 million games sold comprise the top 20%)
The top 20% of games have therefore sold 77% of the total.
Therefore my assertion that 20% of games make 80% of revenue holds true.
Furthermore it is also well known that the top selling games hold their prices higher for longer and that most games sell in the first few weeks after the release (front loaded) These two factors further support my statement that 20% of games make 80% of the revenue.
Now consider that software development is a fixed cost once the game is released to the public with very little in terms of variable costs. So you see my assertion that 80% of profit goes to 20% of games is probably wrong, its closer to 90% actually. Since only about a 3rd of games actually break even.
This is typical of creative industries. Bookes/Movies/Games/Music all share the model where the lions share of actual profits go to very few endeavers. This would be an atypical model for other industries. This is not to say that profit cannot be found in smaller niches, what im saying is that most of the "total" profit goes to very few works.
The same would hold true of the software market on the Wii or PS3 or DS or PSP.
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