Survey Results on App Dev & Income

Very interesting read: http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/21/1...oders-split-staggering-54-of-all-app-revenue/

Some nuggets:

• 64% of devs are below poverty line
• the rise of Windows Phone (28%)
  
• usage of Unity (29%) over Unreal (3%)
• distribution of revenues: the winner takes it all (11% vs 89%)

Anybody here who is in the upper 11% and would want to share what he thinks his biggest success factors were?

 

Unity is used by 47% of all game developers - that's a little surprising to me.

 

I can't say that surprises me. Interesting nonetheless.
Especially that the majority of people who earn more than $100k a month have at least 11 apps in the stores.

 

Just to clarify, 64% are below the App poverty line. (meaning unsustainable business).

Yea, I am in the top group. Success factors? Simple, to borrow Dickson's statement, "Step 1, start with the most popular ip in the world..."

 

I'm not at all surprised by that. But I am very surprised that native only is a close second for games. I would have expected to see Cocos in second.

 

Of the easily accessible game engines it's easily been the best marketed until quite recently. Perhaps if it weren't for Unity there might be 47% fewer game developers.

That's an exaggeration, of course, but what I'm getting at is that a lot of that 47% might not classify themselves as such if it weren't for Unity and Unity-like products. I suspect that it'll diffuse out amongst other tools as they compete with Unity in more market sectors, though.

 

I find it interesting that 1 in 50 developers are making > $1.2 million per year. That's a lot more people than I'd expected.

Or am I misinterpreting the data?

 

Sort of, but it is presented in a kind of unclear way. The report's use of term developer refers to the source. So it may be an individual, a team or company.

 

Why would $500 a month from a game be unsustainable? It depends on your business plan.

 

Thanks zombiegorilla, that makes more sense...

 

$500 a month is below minimum wage in the US, UK, AU and nearly that in most countries, if you are a one person studio, you are already failing. That doesn't even count the software, hardware and general business expenses. If that was your business plan, then you would be a failure at making games, and a failure at business and at planning.

 

You can make more then a single game though...

 

Here in India, earning $500 a month means that you are pretty well off and considered to be in the middle income group.

 

In Canada, you get $600+ a month from welfare and that'll barely cover the rent of a single basement apartment in cities with a population above 100,000.

 

Exactly, that is why it is the "App" poverty line. An app generating <$500 typically wouldn't be justifying it's maintenance/development/marketing cost. And most apps never make that $500/m. As noted, most doing well have over well over 11 apps, hoping that one hits. So if a business is trying make it, they will either have to staff up to develop enough games to hope to get that hit, or take a really long time and sustain an extended burn-rate. That is why most are unsustainable as businesses. If they are grinding out the apps, they are most likely low quality and don't stand a chance to strike a hit, or if focused on a quality game, still have to contend with the 'luck' (timing/trends/etc) factor.

 

Several of my friends are Indian, and given the salaries here in the Bay Area are pretty high, they love taking trips back home and living it up.

 

In my opinion people need to focus on their strengths, re-use code, make simple but fun experiences and make sure to do some marketing per app... to many times have I seen people spend years on a game only to have it flop and make next to zero money. If something is taking to long, chances are that their is some replacement that would be 80% as good, and in reality it will make no difference.

 

100% bang on the money.

Much like web was, mobile has the benefit of being able to quickly deploy and update. Keeping the focus initally on core gameplay and "finding the fun" means you can keep costs down and release faster. If it works, and people are loving it, you can expand it. If it fails, at least you failed less expensively.

Its too easy to lose focus on the core. Both on small game and big ones. We just sunset a huge game that never made it to world wide release. 2 years in development, massive content and a ton of features. But sadly, the core game play just wasn't compelling. By contrast, my team is releasing a massive title in the next couple of weeks that was built in just under a year and focus was kept on the core gameplay. We have tons of features planned and butt-load of content lined up. But we are waiting to ensure the basic game is a hit before moving forward. Sometimes we learn from our missteps.

 

I thought the cost of ice blocks to make igloos would make it more affordable

 

http://unity3d.com/pages/what-is-unity

2.9 M registered users on Unity! Once we hit that 3 M mark..... THEY WILL RELEASE 4.6