Aaron Murray from Tandem Games approached me and wanted to share the sales statistics of their game Domain of Heroes. The game is a free browser-based massively-multiplayer web RPG/PBBG with different factions, classes, skills and much more.
Here are the stats:
Game Title: Domain of Heroes
Developer: Tandem Games
Release date: October 26, 2008
Development time: 8 months from conception to release. About 10-15 updates per month ongoing since launch.
Platforms: Web. No plugins required. Javascript only.
Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, Flock. iPhone, Wii, and PS3 browsers work as well.
Development Expenses:
First 6 months was sweat equity from two developers. Next 4 months was one lonely developer.
Once the revenues started coming in, the paid team has been growing about 1 person every 2-3 months since the start of 2009.
Marketing Expenses:
$300 per week in online ads. $2000 for a couple of magazine ads. $500 in t-shirt giveaways. $10,000 to take the team to a couple of conferences/events.
Other Expenses:
Servers: ($2k each)
Hosting/bandwidth: Hundreds per month
Total Expenses:
Approximately $150k in costs as of July 2009.
Downloads & conversion rate:
36,000 registered players.
Lifetime conversion rate from free player to paying player: 3.4%
4356 transactions from 983 paying players
Price: (USD)
Pricepoints range from $0.99 to $500 (all pricepoints have at least 5 sales)
Approximate total income: (USD)
$86,700 in PayPal sales
$5,800 sponsored sales (TrialPay, Gambit, etc)
$4,000 in ad revenue
$96,500 Total revenue
Comments on Marketing and Promotion:
Aaron:
“The game is very different from anything else out there right now, so there aren’t many direct competitors. It feels like an old MUD mixed with features from the new MMOs. Largely word of mouth, with some cheap banner ads purchased on low-volume sites.”
Other comments on the game sales? What tips you’d have for other other developers who want to increase their sales?
“Create something unique. Offer most of your game for free so that players can tell their friends. Allow the “free” players to have access to everything somehow (spending time, trading with others).
This will allow them to enjoy the game as much as the paying players, and they will spread the word.”
Thoughts about the future of indie development:
“Indie game development is tough to break into the big portals and have a large impact. Running an MMO is very challenging and far more demanding that I’ve ever imagined.
It is also very rewarding to foster the creation of an amazing community. Indies can connect with people in ways that big corporations can’t. The human touch - the ability to play with the creator of a game is something that players really enjoy.”
Thanks for the sales stats, this has been excellent information
“You’re quite welcome. I hope it helps other developers by giving them some financial insight into a successful, indie-run game.”
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