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Forums - Gaming Discussion - What is the average an indie game needs to sell to be profitable?

Goodnightmoon on 07 October 2015
Mr Puggsly said:
I'm sure it varies greatly, but I imagine a lot of Wii U ports can be profitable with 1000 units sold.

Quite honestly though, many of those games on the eShop look like iOS and Android marketplace junk. Bigger budget indie games are generally skipping Wii U.

- Shovel Knight
- The binding of Isaac: Rebirth
- Shantae and the Pirate´s Curse
- Oddworld: New and Tasty
- Kerbal Space Program
- Runbow
- Affordable Space Adventures
- The Swapper
- Guacamelee
- Little Inferno
- Don´t Starve
- Yokay-laylee
- Mighty No.9
- Bloodstained
- Super Meat Boy 
- Year Walk
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Fast Racing Neo
etc etc

WiiU is actually having most of the most relevant indie games on the console market, even some of them are exclusives or were launched on WiiU first, and Fast Racing Neo is actually one of the most ambitious indie games I´ve seen.




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Emperorbach on 07 October 2015

depends on the budget, though i wish they'd try to be more ambitious , the old school aesthetic is overused now sometimes ,
100k seems pretty it



Mr Puggsly on 07 October 2015
Goodnightmoon said:
Mr Puggsly said:
I'm sure it varies greatly, but I imagine a lot of Wii U ports can be profitable with 1000 units sold.

Quite honestly though, many of those games on the eShop look like iOS and Android marketplace junk. Bigger budget indie games are generally skipping Wii U.

- Shovel Knight
- The binding of Isaac: Rebirth
- Shantae and the Pirate´s Curse
- Oddworld: New and Tasty
- Kerbal Space Program
- Runbow
- Affordable Space Adventures
- The Swapper
- Guacamelee
- Little Inferno
- Don´t Starve
- Yokay-laylee
- Mighty No.9
- Bloodstained
- Super Meat Boy 
- Year Walk
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Fast Racing Neo
etc etc

WiiU is actually having most of the most relevant indie games on the console market, even some of them are exclusives or were launched on WiiU first, and Fast Racing Neo is actually one of the most ambitious indie games I´ve seen.

Indie games that launch on Wii U were probably moneyhatted. Shovel Knight defniitely was.

Notable indie games are coming to Wii U, some thanks to Kickstarter. But we see significantly more coming to PS4 and X1. The OP points out many indie games are coming to Wii U, but many notable indie titles are skipping Wii U likely because digital sales are modest there.

Hence, the games coming to Wii U reduced their risks with Kickstarter or don't need to sell a significant number to break even.



Recently Completed: 
River City: Rival Showdown for 3DS (3/5) - River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS (4/5) - Zelda: BotW for Wii U (5/5) - Zelda: BotW for Switch (5/5) - Zelda: Link's Awakening for Switch (4/5) - Rage 2 for X1X (4/5) - Rage for 360 (3/5) - Streets of Rage 4 for X1/PC (4/5) - Gears 5 for X1X (5/5) - Mortal Kombat 11 for X1X (5/5) - Doom 64 for N64 (emulator) (3/5) - Crackdown 3 for X1S/X1X (4/5) - Infinity Blade III - for iPad 4 (3/5) - Infinity Blade II - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Infinity Blade - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Origins for X1 (3/5) - Uncharted: Lost Legacy for PS4 (4/5) - EA UFC 3 for X1 (4/5) - Doom for X1 (4/5) - Titanfall 2 for X1 (4/5) - Super Mario 3D World for Wii U (4/5) - South Park: The Stick of Truth for X1 BC (4/5) - Call of Duty: WWII for X1 (4/5) -Wolfenstein II for X1 - (4/5) - Dead or Alive: Dimensions for 3DS (4/5) - Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for X1 (3/5) - Halo Wars 2 for X1/PC (4/5) - Halo Wars: DE for X1 (4/5) - Tekken 7 for X1 (4/5) - Injustice 2 for X1 (4/5) - Yakuza 5 for PS3 (3/5) - Battlefield 1 (Campaign) for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: MW Remastered for X1 (4/5) - Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS (4/5) - Forza Horizon 3 for X1 (5/5)

Goodnightmoon on 07 October 2015
Mr Puggsly said:
Goodnightmoon said:

- Shovel Knight
- The binding of Isaac: Rebirth
- Shantae and the Pirate´s Curse
- Oddworld: New and Tasty
- Kerbal Space Program
- Runbow
- Affordable Space Adventures
- The Swapper
- Guacamelee
- Little Inferno
- Don´t Starve
- Yokay-laylee
- Mighty No.9
- Bloodstained
- Super Meat Boy 
- Year Walk
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Fast Racing Neo
etc etc

WiiU is actually having most of the most relevant indie games on the console market, even some of them are exclusives or were launched on WiiU first, and Fast Racing Neo is actually one of the most ambitious indie games I´ve seen.

Indie games that launch on Wii U were probably moneyhatted. Shovel Knight defniitely was.

Notable indie games are coming to Wii U, some thanks to Kickstarter. But we see significantly more coming to PS4 and X1. The OP points out many indie games are coming to Wii U, but many notable indie titles are skipping Wii U likely because digital sales are modest there.

Hence, the games coming to Wii U reduced their risks with Kickstarter or don't need to sell a significant number to break even.

“We’re not known for exclusive [indie games] in particular, and that’s because we’re not throwing around a lot of cash. We also don’t see a huge benefit to developers in driving exclusive deals with platforms and consoles”
“We very much encourage all of our development partners to release simultaneously across all platforms.”

Nintendo has not monehated absolutely nothing until date, specially indie games. Runbow, Affordable Space Adventures and Fast Racing Neo are exclusives because the developers wanted and that´s it, Shovel knight came first to wiiu and 3ds because that´s where their audience is as the sales of the game proof, same happens with Shantae (that is still a console exclusive)



Mr Puggsly on 07 October 2015
Goodnightmoon said:
Mr Puggsly said:

Indie games that launch on Wii U were probably moneyhatted. Shovel Knight defniitely was.

Notable indie games are coming to Wii U, some thanks to Kickstarter. But we see significantly more coming to PS4 and X1. The OP points out many indie games are coming to Wii U, but many notable indie titles are skipping Wii U likely because digital sales are modest there.

Hence, the games coming to Wii U reduced their risks with Kickstarter or don't need to sell a significant number to break even.

“We’re not known for exclusive [indie games] in particular, and that’s because we’re not throwing around a lot of cash. We also don’t see a huge benefit to developers in driving exclusive deals with platforms and consoles”
“We very much encourage all of our development partners to release simultaneously across all platforms.”

Nintendo has not monehated absolutely nothing until date, specially indie games. Runbow, Affordable Space Adventures and Fast Racing Neo are exclusives because the developers wanted and that´s it, Shovel knight came first to wiiu and 3ds because that´s where their audience is as the sales of the game proof, same happens with Shantae (that is still a console exclusive)

Yeah, that ain't true.

It certainly isn't a coincidence Sonic games have been coming exclusively to Nintendo consoles.



Recently Completed: 
River City: Rival Showdown for 3DS (3/5) - River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS (4/5) - Zelda: BotW for Wii U (5/5) - Zelda: BotW for Switch (5/5) - Zelda: Link's Awakening for Switch (4/5) - Rage 2 for X1X (4/5) - Rage for 360 (3/5) - Streets of Rage 4 for X1/PC (4/5) - Gears 5 for X1X (5/5) - Mortal Kombat 11 for X1X (5/5) - Doom 64 for N64 (emulator) (3/5) - Crackdown 3 for X1S/X1X (4/5) - Infinity Blade III - for iPad 4 (3/5) - Infinity Blade II - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Infinity Blade - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Origins for X1 (3/5) - Uncharted: Lost Legacy for PS4 (4/5) - EA UFC 3 for X1 (4/5) - Doom for X1 (4/5) - Titanfall 2 for X1 (4/5) - Super Mario 3D World for Wii U (4/5) - South Park: The Stick of Truth for X1 BC (4/5) - Call of Duty: WWII for X1 (4/5) -Wolfenstein II for X1 - (4/5) - Dead or Alive: Dimensions for 3DS (4/5) - Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for X1 (3/5) - Halo Wars 2 for X1/PC (4/5) - Halo Wars: DE for X1 (4/5) - Tekken 7 for X1 (4/5) - Injustice 2 for X1 (4/5) - Yakuza 5 for PS3 (3/5) - Battlefield 1 (Campaign) for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: MW Remastered for X1 (4/5) - Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS (4/5) - Forza Horizon 3 for X1 (5/5)