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General discussion (archive)Atom Zombie Smasher developer revealed sales data(59 posts)(59 posts)
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Posted March 07, 2012
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keeveek: Humble bundle + there was winter holiday achievement in this game on steam.
That and it's been in two highly publicised indie packs and the Humble Bundle 3 in August. I'd seen very little publicity for the game on any platform except from the aforementioned bundles.

I got it from the indie pack before it came into the Humble Bundle. Decent little game, and it did eventually inspire me to get Flotilla from the same devs.
Post edited March 07, 2012 by jamyskis
Posted March 07, 2012
So the chart actually shows "Here's how much you sell if you sell dirt cheap and promote until you're blue in the face vs. shoving the game in the catalogue and forgetting about it"?
Posted March 07, 2012
Also, steam version has achievements and all that other bullshit kids love.
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jamyskis: That and it's been in two highly publicised indie packs and the Humble Bundle 3 in August. I'd seen very little publicity for the game on any platform except from the aforementioned bundles.
but these are sold copies from December only, as I understand it.
Post edited March 07, 2012 by keeveek
Posted March 07, 2012
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grviper: So the chart actually shows "Here's how much you sell if you sell dirt cheap and promote until you're blue in the face vs. shoving the game in the catalogue and forgetting about it"?
Well, in all fairness, that's pretty much what they did. The indie packs were Valve's creation. I mean, let's be honest: Had anyone actually *heard* of Blendo Games or Atom Zombie Smasher until the Indie Variety Pack came about? In fact, the game disappeared off the radar again until the Humble Bundle included it.
Posted March 07, 2012
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Pheace: Edit: Hmm perhaps not, not sure what 'Through December' is, it might include all before it? Then again, it couldn't include all the bundles either since that was around 300k+
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kodeen: They mean from release to the end of December. Desura is marked as having a shorter sales period, and it was released there in September.

http://blendogames.com/news/?p=122
If that's the case it really can't have the Humble Bundle included, that thing sold 300k+
Posted March 07, 2012
Seems weird that if this IS the Humble Bundle sales they wouldn't clarify it. I mean, if that is the source, that would mean Humble is what has sold basically all their games, so fawning over Steam and not Humble would make no sense for them.
Posted March 07, 2012
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keeveek: Humble bundle + there was winter holiday achievement in this game on steam.
I doubt the humble bundle had anything to do with those numbers. It's not counted as a sale to add your key on steam. But the winter achievement had a big effect on this, I agree with that.
Posted March 07, 2012
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keeveek: Also, steam version has achievements and all that other bullshit kids love.
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jamyskis: That and it's been in two highly publicised indie packs and the Humble Bundle 3 in August. I'd seen very little publicity for the game on any platform except from the aforementioned bundles.
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keeveek: but these are sold copies from December only, as I understand it.
Yeah, I'm a little fuzzy on whether THROUGH December meant that it was from its release in early 2011 through to December or whether it just means December.

If it's just December, all it does is lend credence to the theory that the sales were for the most part to do with freeloaders buying it for a couple of dollars for the coal. It doesn't help that they only quote unit sales, not actual revenue.

Edit: Look at the graph and you'll see "...2011-Dec 2011". It's the whole year.
Post edited March 07, 2012 by jamyskis
Posted March 07, 2012
If you look at the picture of the chart, it's cut off but you can see that is meant to at least be more than just December. It says 2011-Dec 2011.

No specific days so it must be covering at least one more month.
Posted March 07, 2012
I would guess that most of these salse were 2,5$.

But that shows that it makes more sense to sell a game for 2,5$ on a very well known site than for 15$ on the dev site

2 * 96.000 = 192.000 (20 % Steam fee, which I guessed)

15 * 1800 = 27. 000

And this is the "worst case" scenario, e.g. all sales were during the 75% period and dev site sales incur no other loses.
Posted March 07, 2012
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DodoGeo: They sure are loud when it comes to complaining.
Well duh, we have to be. Surely those numbers make that obvious?
Posted March 07, 2012
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DodoGeo: They sure are loud when it comes to complaining.
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SirPrimalform: Well duh, we have to be. Surely those numbers make that obvious?
Well where are those purchases?
This just shows how loud you are but how quiet your wallets are.
Posted March 07, 2012
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SirPrimalform: Well duh, we have to be. Surely those numbers make that obvious?
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DodoGeo: Well where are those purchases?
This just shows how loud you are but how quiet your wallets are.
No, it just shows there aren't as many of us. Passion doesn't equal numbers.

I've never tried to pretend that there are as many people who care about avoiding DRM as there are Steam users and I don't think anyone else has.
Post edited March 07, 2012 by SirPrimalform
Posted March 07, 2012
Looking at the Steam achievements page for Atom Zombie Smasher, you can see that 27.4% of people have got the KringleJammer achievement, which was the one for the Gift Pile.

Seeing as that was a fucking hard achievement to get and seeing as there are much easier achievements with less than 10% in there, I think it's pretty clear at this point that the reason that the vast majority of those who bought the game on Steam bought it for the Gift Pile.

And just to add more wood, there's THIS graph showing the number of concurrent users of the game.

A little exercise for the uninitiated: note the three points. See how two of them collate with the Summer Camp achievement and the Gift Pile achievement, and the third matches the Humble Bundle 3.

In other words, not one fucker bought the game outside of the publicity periods.
Post edited March 07, 2012 by jamyskis
Posted March 07, 2012
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DodoGeo: Well where are those purchases?
This just shows how loud you are but how quiet your wallets are.
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SirPrimalform: No, it just shows there aren't as many of us. Passion doesn't equal numbers.

I've never tried to pretend that there are as many people who care about avoiding DRM as there are Steam users and I don't think anyone else has.
My only thought about all of this is, that people should not judge indie devs for going for Steam as a distribution platform.
The numbers show it's the right decision.
Most of them have one or two games in total and need all the cash to stay in business.

If Steam gives something extra for the title being a Steam exclusive, it's like having that little bit extra if your game isn't a hot seller.
I can imagine that even running a webshop could be a financial burden for some.
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General discussion (archive)Atom Zombie Smasher developer revealed sales data(59 posts)(59 posts)
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