http://gamasutra.com/blogs/AndyMoore/20130605/193717/Monster_Loves_You_By_The_Numbers.php

"We internally estimated that our nice, non-violent, cute game that requires reading lots and lots of text would not do so well on Steam. We had beers a few days before launch and guessed in the $30K - $60K range for the year of sales; maybe $100K gross revenue for the year if we were lucky and were promoted a bunch by Valve. I mean, Steam is the place where indies go to get money, right? But our game really just didn't seem like a good fit for the platform. No headshots, no action, no explosions. It was a big gamble for us. MLY! launched a few days after that conversation, on March 18th, at a price point of $9.99 on Steam (PC only).

In other words, it completely blew away our expectations. In the first day and a half of sales (launching at Noon on March 18th, running through to midnight on March 20th), we blew through our best expectations: $65,783.

And in the first week we came just a few dollars shy of our best-case-scenario yearly-sales figures: $99,480. That's why I posted the Vine. Myself, and the whole of the Dejobaan team, was completely jaw-agape at how staggeringly-well sales were going. This was unheard of for us! Success continued even after launch week, grossing another $50,408 in the post-launch month"

"This gives you an idea of just how important launch-week is: The huge sales spike dwarfs everything else. Notable mentions and fluctuations in the long tail of sales are hardly visible here"

The most important thing to take away from this, I think is the important day one sales can be. I

Never heard of this game :/

wtf?

So Day one sales ARE important?

Heh, I guess everyone saying PC games can still sell a long time after release just had a spanner thrown in their works

Would it also have something to do with the fact they've got a trading card set up there? It's serious farming business for some, maybe.

In any case, this is great news for them! :D

Not quite so easy:

"The Future of Monster Loves You!

Of course, this is just the beginning for Monster Loves You!. There is potential for mobile ports, Mac, Linux, direct sales, and bundles. It's almost comical how few locations we are selling the game! Then there's Steam Sales and holiday packs and other promotions. That's not to mention additional content packs, holiday narrative bonuses, extra art assets, and new Steam Trading Card sets. All potential sources of new sales spikes. And that's not to mention the idea of sequels! It really does feel like MLY! is just getting started."

but yes, day 1 sales are still important :)

I hope they will still be open with sales figures after bundles and sales also. The importance of day1 sales is that the developers get back the money now to survive, not in 2 years when they may have collapsed.

looks sort of cool, i think.

That's pretty much what I've argued the whole time - digital distribution basically kills the long tail of a game.

It's a matter of exposure. It's OK as long as you're on the front page of any gaming store, but as soon as you're taken off, that's it. I would say that the game now has one daily deal, one bundle inclusion and that's it then. The sales potential is dead in the water. Given that Dejobaan have inexplicably decided to go Steam-only, I wouldn't expect much from the Linux or Mac markets, as many Linux users also use Windows, and most Linux-only users refuse to use Steam. I think bundle success now will be contingent on them providing a DRM-free version. Hell, that may be their tactic all along - making the DRM-free version a bundle exclusive (seems to be in vogue of late).

That being said, I'm pleased for the developers that they've had such early success. They clearly managed to develop the game on a fairly low budget, so covering their expenses is always a good thing. I just wish more games would see this kind of success.

Neither... maybe, just maybe, if I had a child...

That only happened at the very far end of the cylce:

"Now those peaks look a whole lot steeper! Almost each of those peaks correspond with "let's play" videos and video-reviews. Though MLY got a whole lot of support on gaming blogs and press publications, almost all our traffic spikes came from Youtube. Super interesting stuff. The big peak on the far right of the graph there is the start of the Steam Trading Card beta, which you can read about here."

Interesting to note the importance of YouTube. Cementing the notions that people goes there more and more for reviews?

Possibly, I expect TB had something to do with it as well with his WTF, but on the whole people are very mistrustful of mainstream reviews nowadays.

Mm..! I would second the youtube notion. I've known people who wouldn't buy anything they aren't sure of, without checking out a 'Let's play' video first. Reviews don't even cut it enough. Of course, this hardly stands for everyone, but it might be part of a bigger trend.

Shouldn't they be? Take a look at "The Last of Us" reviews. 72-74 out of 108 reviewers gave the game a perfect 10. And you think that nobody will raise an eyebrow? And all those reviews happened at least one week before the game's official release.

Oh, I definitely agree. I should have mentioned when I say "people are very mistrustful" that I'm among them.

Then again, it's hard to blame sites like Eurogamer and Gamespot. I think they envisaged with the shift from print to digital media that everyone would be ready to pay for what they read, which obviously never really came to fruition. They're extremely (and unhealthily) dependent on ad revenue, which seriously puts their journalistic integrity into question.

The problem is that we are now effectively reliant on the grassroots blogosphere, and you never know how much of this 'grassroots' activity is nothing more than astroturfing. Don't trust the internet.