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Octodad: Dadliest Catch the hit indie adventure with some comedy thrown in has officially sold 90,000 copies, the developers have also spoken to me about Linux sales and what it means to them.

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Their Linux sales account for just under 1% of that 90,000 figure, they stated if the sales were any-less then it wouldn't have been worth it.

They did state that supporting Linux actually made it easier to port the game to the PS4, so that's good news for multi-platform developers.

Sources, me chatting with them on twitter:

@gamingonlinux @octodadgame It has been worth it for us to do Linux support, but if our sales numbers were less, it would not have been.

— Kevin Geisler (@luthyr) March 18, 2014

 

@gamingonlinux @octodadgame In fact, the Linux support made it easier for us to port to PS4.

— Kevin Geisler (@luthyr) March 18, 2014

 

@gamingonlinux A bit less than 1%.

Octodad (@octodadgame) March 18, 2014


Would like to thank them for chatting openly with me about it and congratulations on the sales milestone guys!

You can grab a copy of the game from their website directly or right from Humble Store.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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14 comments Subscribe

aL 18 Mar 2014
'It has been worth it for us to do Linux support, but if our sales numbers were less, it would not have been'

I dont really understand this kind of statements... its not like sales are going to stop now... games still make sales after launchment... even if thats are their best numbers... they add up. You only have to pass the threshold once, after that its benefits...
Anonymous 18 Mar 2014
Is this game any fun, or is it like Surgeon Simulator?

metacritic suggest is like surgeon simulator... At least they put more effort into the game than surgeon simulator... you gotta give them that
higuita 18 Mar 2014
By the way, how they account the linux sales? linux binary download? humblebundle OS configured? browser OS detection? steam OS detection? every time i see this statistics i ask myself how they know it, and how accurate they are.

All have their problems:
- i have the game, haven't test it yet
- i have humble bundle configure for linux, but i know people that don't care much (and even buy several times from windows machines)
- One can download from a windows to install on a linux
- Steam identify the user OS by the time it spend more time playing... so a user that plays on both will probably still have it's OS as windows. And again, i have the game in steam, but i haven't yet download nor played it.

users that only have linux are easy, as user that only have windows... the problem is the dual-boot users, or users that migrated..

I'm not saying that the 1% is wrong, but really, how a developer knows?
PKM 18 Mar 2014
By the way, how they account the linux sales? linux binary download? humblebundle OS configured? browser OS detection? steam OS detection? every time i see this statistics i ask myself how they know it, and how accurate they are.

All have their problems:
- i have the game, haven't test it yet
- i have humble bundle configure for linux, but i know people that don't care much (and even buy several times from windows machines)
- One can download from a windows to install on a linux
- Steam identify the user OS by the time it spend more time playing... so a user that plays on both will probably still have it's OS as windows. And again, i have the game in steam, but i haven't yet download nor played it.

users that only have linux are easy, as user that only have windows... the problem is the dual-boot users, or users that migrated..

I'm not saying that the 1% is wrong, but really, how a developer knows?

Perhaps they get their statistics directly from Steam (as in Steam provides developers with that data).
feds 18 Mar 2014
- Steam identify the user OS by the time it spend more time playing... so a user that plays on both will probably still have it's OS as windows. And again, i have the game in steam, but i haven't yet download nor played it.
I remember reading that Steam consider the platform the game was bought from as well, so if you haven't downloaded it yet that probably count.

Thanks Liam, I find the Linux sales articles very informative :)
Anonymous 18 Mar 2014
Is this game any fun, or is it like Surgeon Simulator?

Actually is pretty cool, has a fun story and even plays pretty well with the steam controller:

View video on youtube.com
pb 18 Mar 2014
Saying that making games for Linux "is not worth it" because they only account for "only 1% of sales" is like saying that distributing the game in country X is not worth it because only 1% of sales are from there, or even that making games for kids is not worth it because they have no money. All these points are equally irrelevant. I could buy a game and play it on Windows, but nevertheless appreciate that I can also play it on Linux, especially if I decide to switch some day (which, I think, is going to happen more and more often). Equally, I could own a Windows laptop, but plan to buy a SteamBox for xmas. Or I could like the game and buy a gift copy for my friend, who only uses Linux, etc. etc. That's the way to make and keep your customer happy, which is a value in itself.
HadBabits 18 Mar 2014
I've been holding off on it; when I last checked the forums it sounded like the PhysX in the game was affecting the performance on Linux, amongst other issues. Can anyone here attest to it's performance?

Is this game any fun, or is it like Surgeon Simulator?

What's wrong with SS13? I had great fun with it.
jdub 19 Mar 2014
I own the game, and there is nothing wrong with the physics as far as I can tell. It actually runs quite well. The only problem I have is the multimonitor support. They use SDL 1.2 and I'm assuming that has something to do with it
Anonymous 19 Mar 2014
Humm, 1% of 90,000 is only like 900 copies. I'll be buying this game for Linux once I get Steam up & running in Ubuntu 14 LTS next month. I can imagine their Linux sales quadrupling over the next year.
tiger 19 Mar 2014
I find this game overpriced for what it is. Also, it's not an AAA game, so don't expect great sales.

Just curious, what are the sales for Mac?
Anonymous 19 Mar 2014
I find this game overpriced for what it is. Also, it's not an AAA game, so don't expect great sales.

Just curious, what are the sales for Mac?

Has this game gone on sale on Steam yet or are all the LTD sales at full price? I'd assume it will move a lot more when it is going for $5 or less.
adolson 20 Mar 2014
^^ It might sell more copies if it goes on sale, yes, but it's going to sell more copies on all platforms, so the Linux sales percentage likely won't budge.

I bought it day-one because it looked great, and it is. If we want more game support, we have to sometimes spend our money, not just wait for sales and bundles ALL the time.
devon 21 Mar 2014
mac sales are about 10x linux on steam. i'm not sure how steam gives us the linux info it just does. it's definitely an estimate based on some combination of what platform they use the most and what platform they bought it on.
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