It seems Puppy Games the developers behind fun games like Revenge of the Titans have expressed their concern about Linux sales.
They took to twitter to say this:
LINUX GAMERS! To date we've made just **$12,000** from Linux games in total for all time for all four of our games! This will not do!
— Puppygames (@puppygames) September 8, 2014
Linux is a small, but growing market we know that, but some developers aren't in it for fun and only see the numbers. They said in another tweet that a factor of 10 would make it more attractive.
Personally I doubt any single developer has made a figure of $120,000 (factor of 10 on their lifetime Linux sales) from a Linux game alone yet, and hell the vast majority of indie games coming out probably won't make that in their entire lifetime.
They have four games and three employees to maintain, so I can understand where they are coming from, but with a market that's still small developers shouldn't expect too much from it yet.
UPDATE
@gamingonlinux just Steam over the last 2 years. We only otherwise sell through Humble these days but that's so little money it's irrelevant
— Puppygames (@puppygames) September 8, 2014
It seems they are only counting Steam, so their original tweet seems a little baiting to get a reaction and more sales. Not a bad thing to try to get more sales, but maybe they should actively engage with the Linux community like some other developers do?
Take it with a grain of salt too, as tweets are hard to get the message across and it's probably more friendly than it seems at first glance.
They aren't counting their own Humble Weekly Bundle which actually gave them revenue from Linux gamers at a mark around $14,000 (not counting charity) which is more than Steam, so they actually made a fair bit more from Linux than they have mentioned it seems.
They confirmed in a comment later it's around the $8,000 mark. That nearly doubled the figure in their original tweet.
They were in a Humble Bundle as well which they aren't counting, and to quote someone from reddit on the matter:
QuoteI'm curious what the breakdown by platforms was from them in the Humble Bundles. Based on this site HiB2 made $361214.76 from Linux users.
Assuming that all of them gave half to charity (leaving $180607.38) and split the non-charitable potion evenly 12 way between the 5 HiB2 games, the 6 HiB games that got pulled in and the tip for Wolfire, they should have gotten $15050.
I would also be interested to know how much they say they got from that Humble Bundle. I am pretty sure they used to do direct sales at one point too, so again a fair bit they don't seem to be counting.
Puppy Games have noted they aren't about to stop supporting Linux, but they see it as unprofitable:
@shadowrabbit64 @fdgonthier we've supported Linux for 11 years, not about to stop now. Just remarking that it is incredibly unprofitable
Puppygames (@puppygames) September 9, 2014
What do you make of all this? It's interesting to see.
If you want to support them consider buying their games on Steam. Looks like they could do with some more love from Linux gamers don't you think?
Quoting: princecSame old crap hmm. I get to read this every day - lucky me. You tell people the facts and you get rewarded with vitriol, dismissal, insult, rudeness, genius business insights, and almost pathologically deliberate misunderstanding.
Perhaps we'll stop bothering with Linux support after all; it seems that the financials are backed up by general opinion, no?
Well, Cas, you're good at calling the facts out but you don't seem as eager to hear a few read back to you. The games just aren't worth £7 today.
That's not a 'bad' assessment of the game, it's just how the market has shaped up. There are better ways to spend that kind of money.
As I said earlier, I liked your view point and I loved RotT. I hope it works out for you.
And if you ditch Linux, well that's a hard choice only you can make. But I only use Linux and I want to play your next game. You know, unless it's a Joust remake. :)
No, what the tweet was all about is why Linux sales aren't growing. They may be written in Java which makes them a bit easier to port but unfortunately Linux users are about 50% of the support effort when they arrive en masse (because Linux is, well, you know).
I'm not seriously going to stop supporting Linux - we've supported it since 2002 and always released for Linux on day 1 alongside Windows and Mac. It's just still, after 12 years, not financially sensible, and I wonder just how many other developers are wondering why they bother too.
I say this in a climate of extremely tight margins and necessary cost cutting. As consumers have driven prices down to unrealistically low and unsustainable levels (seriously - can you expect games to continue to be made if they have to be sold for less than a cup of coffee?) we have to properly examine ways of cutting out unprofitable ventures in order to scrape a living.
Btw anyone here still failing to understand "Your Worthless" had probably best read the followup post "Aftermath". And if you still think you're being personally insulted, I have a brilliant message for you, yes, you, just for you! "Fuck off and don't come back xxx"
Quoting: princecYou tell people the facts
*eyeroll*
Yes, yes, I read your whining in the RPS article a month ago as well.
While Hyeron here is an entitled idiot, so are you. You deserve each other.
You told people the "facts". Yes, right, the facts and figures that leave out Humble Bundle and regardless don't add up no matter how you look at them. And really, "10x the amount" is obviously a ridiculous expectation, especially since the money you put into the port and GNU/Linux support is so miniscule in your case.
I get that you have to pay your devs, have to eat and pay rent and other bills. That you don't get by with your game is sad, but you're not alone in that. A lot of indie devs are in the same boat, and it sucks. Have you, for example, read the break-down of the Unrest devs? That is devestating and sobering.
Now blaming Linux users on not dropping enough money on your games is quite silly. And I personally feel a bit miffed too, since you did get my money a few times through bundles (and no, I didn't just pay $1), even though I don't really have any interesting in your games. I never installed them, even, they're not my cup of tea. I didn't cost you any support, either. I'm basically your ideal customer: I gave you money for nothing.
Quoting: GuestEven if it was true, that doesn’t change the fact that client is king.
No. Client is client, until they proof themselves unreasonable and then you fire them.
As for not growing, that doesn't sound fair. You don't have anything on Steam that's been launched on day 1 for all three right? So most gamers either already own your IP from other sources, or there was no Steam for Linux at the time. We'll know one when the next game comes along.
And keep writing the blog. Very entertaining. Maybe there really is no such thing as bad press after all. A few thousand people now know the name Puppy Games. I just hope they read Aftermath... Or you're screwed!
Quoting: scaineWell, tweets are notorious for lacking context. I'm glad you clarified.Not really our fault Steam only released on linux a short while back - we've been there since 2002! The context of the tweet was me looking at the last 12 months and wondering why Linux sales make up such a pitiful % of revenue now rather than growing. I'm looking forward to seeing how Basingstoke does.
As for not growing, that doesn't sound fair. You don't have anything on Steam that's been launched on day 1 for all three right? So most gamers either already own your IP from other sources, or there was no Steam for Linux at the time. We'll know one when the next game comes along.
And keep writing the blog. Very entertaining. Maybe there really is no such thing as bad press after all. A few thousand people now know the name Puppy Games. I just hope they read Aftermath... Or you're screwed!
Shame people have to read Aftermath to understand the Worthless post but I suppose not a lot of people actually try and read anything and comprehend it any more.
Quoting: Hyeron(giant rant)The whole thing is just completely over your head isn't it?
Quoting: princecNot really our fault Steam only released on linux a short while back - we've been there since 2002! The context of the tweet was me looking at the last 12 months and wondering why Linux sales make up such a pitiful % of revenue now rather than growing. I'm looking forward to seeing how Basingstoke does.
Shame people have to read Aftermath to understand the Worthless post but I suppose not a lot of people actually try and read anything and comprehend it any more.
And as I say, why would it grow? I doubt Linux users as a base is growing hugely, but even if they were, sorry man, but your games have massive competition now. Massive.
And while I loved RotT, I just couldn't recommend it to a mate when games like Tales of Maj'Eyal are cheaper and offer more hours of game play. I've sunk 100 hours into that and hardly scratched the surface. It costs a fiver. No idea how the dev is doing right enough...
And finally, regarding Worthless, and it's disgusting, shocking reaction, it probably doesn't help that you're deliberately stirring the pot with those tweets.
It's been educational. I'll say that.
What consumer is going to be daft enough to buy a game at its actual worth? I realise that "worth" is a subjective value but objectively it's cost in dollars divided by hours of entertainment, and right now, we can have anoter fascinating look at some real stats: Revenge for example... in the last month, the mean gross price paid was $2.73 and the mean playtime per user is 6 hours 23 minutes. Or about $0.42 for an entire hour of entertainment. According to Steam, Revenge is played for approximately the same amount of time as nearly all other games on Steam.
Fascinating statistics, no?
(edit for maths!)
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