Sales Numbers Please?

[ktalkimist]

Hi Jack1974, like you I wanna be making games for a living. I'm trying to secure a deal with a certain game development company and it's going well, but right now I need sales numbers. I need to show them evidence that these things sell. As fans and members of the VN community, we know of course that VNs sell, but to most people VNs are alien concepts.

I need help in getting my own VN project financed and started, and sales numbers would be just what the doctor ordered. If you can't publicly release these numbers, you can PM them to me. We can even sign a non-disclosure contract if need be. I just need these numbers so I can prove to the company I'm trying to work with that this VN thing isn't just some silly pet project. I know it's in indie territory, but they do mostly indie games as well, so I'm sure they will understand once they see the numbers.

I will owe you for the rest of my life if you can do this one small favor for me. Thank you.

[jack1974]

Hi, I never publish publicly my sales, but you can show them Moacube's sales number that are public:
http://moacube.com/blog/initial-thought ... s-release/
you can also ask Christine Love or Hanako games that are on Steam. None of my games are on Steam, so the figures are significantly lower.

But in general VN sales are quite low to be honest. Even Analogue by C.Love (a super-popular VN) that made 50k the first month (she posted it on twitter) is really low figure for Steam, where is more common to make 100k or more with a more targeted game (see Recettear). Cinders by Moacube is, as far as I know, the highest selling VN made in the west, but it's not on Steam for example (because they use RAND() to decide which games to pick). So take those numbers with a grain of salt!

Also I personally think is totally wrong to give an investor sales number - a game made by me can sell ten times a game made by another person simply because I now have a decent-sized following, while maybe that other person is just starting and is unknown. Sales number are pointless IMHO, if I was an investor I would never invest money based on that

[ktalkimist]

I read on a forum thread somewhere that Cinders sold around 1000 (I think according to the developer himself), so clearly Analogue outsold it?

Cinders and Academagia are both from unknown devs if I got this correctly, and they did well, so I believe I just need to do a bit of convincing.

By the way, where did you get 50k? I only see 30k?

[abnaxus]

I think as of now, Katawa Shoujo is probably the most succesful western made VN. I didn't like it, though.

[MarSel]

Katawa Shoujo what's that about?

[abnaxus]

It's a bishoujo game with girls with various disabilities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katawa_Shoujo

[MarSel]

Wow that sounds so cool I will have to look into getting that.