I'm sure everyone reading this has already checked this out, but for context and in case you've missed it, Mochi have posted some notes from their casual connect talk including a graph showing some data from the
survey they and FGL, NG and others are running ( Check the full article
here ).
Am I being naughty reproducing the graph here ? I'm sure I'll get told off if I am and remove it, until then:
( For a bigger version please check out the link to the post on the mochi blog. I'm only posting this here as it's in context ).
These figures are in reply to "How do you make money from Flash games" survey question.
Some interesting figures there. The one that caught my eye most is the number of people who make no revenue. Is that people who haven't made a game yet and therefore have made no revenue from it, or people who value what they do as art and are happy just for people to play it and receive the feedback from gamers without making anything at all, or is it people who's games are so toilet they can only give them away without even dropping some ads in there ?
Also I was surprised that ads are so far in the lead ( Well, semi-surprised, mochi are using this as a tool as well as a data gathering exercise ), but does that show that a lot of games aren't being sponsored ? Obviously it's a lot easier to just drop the ads api in there than to whore round your game, or even use somewhere like FGL who take on a lot of the pain for you.
But what does that mean ? Is there a shortage of sponsor dollars at the moment ? Are sponsors getting more selective, even with games at the lower end of the market ( What was once a $50 game is now not even worth that as you can get a $100 game for $50 now ? ) or is there a large volume of games being released that just are so poor it's not even worth putting them up for sponsorship ? Greedily reskinned tutorials and the like.
Interesting figures, and just a load of questions from me rather than any insightful answers. Perhaps it's too early in the surveys life to be giving more accurate figures ( Such as just over 10% of replies say they make their money from mtx, that seems a very high percentage seeing how few games are using them. I know heyzap are interested in anything in swf format, but even still that seems high ).
Also there is another question in there, about your primary money earning sources in order, which I think will be the surveys money shot, in that should show which areas are the most profitable and should be targeted by devs the most.
I think everyone involved in the survey should be applauded, it's long over due and will help a lot of people having these figures available.
As always if you've got any views on this, don't fear the comments button, it's there for you.
Squize.