The developer of the game 'Steam Marines' [Official Site, Steam] has been talking about sales of the game, and Linux represented 2% of the total.
Here's a reminder on what the game is:
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It's worth noting that Mac only hit 3%, considering their marketshare on Steam is a lot higher than ours, that's surprising.
Steam Marines 1 lifetime sales are (approximately) 3% Mac and 2% Linux.
— Steamed Buns Bums (@Worthless_Bums) November 8, 2016
So. It's generally not profitable for me to support them.
The developer did say that they will continue to support us, even if it's not financially sound for them to do so. That alone should be applauded.
The developer also noted that Linux users didn't generally need much help:
Linux users almost never contact me for tech support. And the 95% of Windows users represent less than 50% of my tech support issues.
— Steamed Buns Bums (@Worthless_Bums) November 8, 2016
One Tweet in particular caught my attention:
95% of the sales came from Windows users. This was despite Linux users arguing that lots would buy if a Linux version was made available.
— Steamed Buns Bums (@Worthless_Bums) November 8, 2016
I've said it before, and I will say it again, don't bug developers for a Linux version if you aren't personally interested and plan to buy it. It can create situations like this, but it's also worth noting that the developer may have overestimated how much they would make from Linux.
Linux only represents currently 0.89% of the Steam user-base, so 2% of your overall sales to have come from Linux is actually quite healthy. To me, that says the developer expected a little too much. That 2% figure is more than other developers have seen.
It's also worth noting that Steam Marines came to Linux around a year after the original Windows release. Games that don't get a day-1 Linux release often tend to see lower Linux sales as a result of many factors. The first being that Windows obviously had around a year extra to bring in sales, Linux as mentioned above is a smaller market, dual-booters often become impatient and buy a Windows copy, some people use Wine and so on. A day-1 Linux release is generally a must-do if you want to see good sales and support from Linux gamers.
Still, it's great to see developers speaking about this in the open and if you like the look of Steam Marines go pick up a copy and support an indie developer.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: LeopardOh c'mon.You're just so used to begging developers.
If he is loving Linux and Mac community;then why he is complaining about sale percentage?
Why is he saying about game's profits?Why is he whining?
You're just so blind.
Develeopers need to buy bread, too.
5 Likes, Who?
Quoting: LeopardOh c'mon.You're just so used to begging developers.
If he is loving Linux and Mac community;then why he is complaining about sale percentage?
Why is he saying about game's profits?Why is he whining?
You're just so blind.
Polite conversions generate much better results. Calling people beggars, whiners and physically impaired isn't going to help anything.
9 Likes, Who?
Quoting: EikeQuoting: LeopardOh c'mon.You're just so used to begging developers.
If he is loving Linux and Mac community;then why he is complaining about sale percentage?
Why is he saying about game's profits?Why is he whining?
You're just so blind.
Develeopers need to buy bread, too.
I didn't say anything like he should give the game free or anything like that.Game is not free.
He simply say,it's not worth to make game compatible with Linux.Then so be it .
Look at the Steam user ratings.It's not a wortwhile game,rated by mostly(%95)Windows users.Ms users says it.
1 Likes, Who?
I paid $20 in August 2015 for Starmade in the Humble Space Boy Bundle and happened to get this with it. Looks alright, but I played Arcen's Bionic Dues to death just earlier that year and this looked too similar, so I haven't even installed this, let alone played it.
Agree with some of the above - great that he's supporting us, but disappointing to hear a Dev say that we're 'not worth it'... is that really true? What revenue was made against the port effort costs and tiny support burden?
And definitely odd that 2% of sales from 1% of Steam users is a bad result? What... was the expected outcome exactly?
Pretty weird attitude all round!
Agree with some of the above - great that he's supporting us, but disappointing to hear a Dev say that we're 'not worth it'... is that really true? What revenue was made against the port effort costs and tiny support burden?
And definitely odd that 2% of sales from 1% of Steam users is a bad result? What... was the expected outcome exactly?
Pretty weird attitude all round!
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: m2mg2Quoting: LeopardOh c'mon.You're just so used to begging developers.
If he is loving Linux and Mac community;then why he is complaining about sale percentage?
Why is he saying about game's profits?Why is he whining?
You're just so blind.
Polite conversions generate much better results. Calling people beggars, whiners and physically impaired isn't going to help anything.
Dev literally said"Linux users are just want support,but when it comes to purchasing they're not such in a hurry."
What is that means?
I'll tell you.This means you're just some bunch of hypocirates Linux users.
You're way more innocent than Polyanna.That's usually a good thing,but someone pointed out you as two-face!!! you should get tempered,which is normal.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: LeopardQuoting: EikeDeveleopers need to buy bread, too.
I didn't say anything like he should give the game free or anything like that.Game is not free.
He needed to work to make the game run under Linux. He invested his time. There needs to be a fair return for him. He, says, the sales did not amount to a fair return - but that he still wants to support Linux. That's great and not to be blamed.
If you or me like the game is something completely different. I wouldn't buy it. But I don't debase people.
1 Likes, Who?
Developer here ;)
First, thanks to everyone who said some kind things! Second, I'd like to clarify a few things.
Mac Support
In my experience, and apparently in the experience of other devs who have tweeted me since, yes, Mac gamers seem to be less technically proficient overall. Some found no support issues but that Mac was still not worth the extra dev cost, and others found similar support issues.
Greedy Dev!
Someone tried to run the revenue numbers from Linux sales of Steam Marines 1, but it was both inaccurate and incomplete. I am under NDA as a Steam developer, but I can cast a bit of light on the whole issue.
I recently blogged that the game's entire development cost was $97,913.88 USD over a 30 month period. That comes out to an average of $3,263.90 a month of development cost. About 70% of that cost was spent paying myself to work on my game (i.e. not contracting for art, audio, et cetera). That brings the monthly cost down to about $2,284.73.
It took me about a 3 month span to port the game over to Linux, but part of that was not full time dev, so let's just say it took about 2 months. That's a total cost of $4,569.46 to get the first Linux build up and running. The person who tried to run the revenue numbers came up with a gross figure of €4,440 - so you can already see the problem.
Steam takes 30% of gross. I pay taxes that depend on situation and taxable income, but let's say for the sake of argument I net about 60% of my gross revenue. To break even on the initial $4,560.46 I need to gross $4,569.46/0.6 = $7,615.77. If I want to actually make a profit I need to earn more than that.
Additionally, adding support for a platform is just that - support. Linux tech support was very low, likely a combination of better-than-average tech savvy and relatively low sales numbers in general. But every build I push from that point on requires additional resources to 1) push to various distribution platforms, 2) test, and 3) provide tech support. None of those are costless. Points 1 and 2 also do not necessarily cost the same per platform; Testing and bug squashing requires time, energy, and the necessary hardware.
So no, Mac and Linux sales are nowhere near profit territory with regards to their associated costs: supporting those platforms for the game was a net loss. They are largely supported by Windows sales. Early on the numbers for Linux were actually much better. It's just that as time went on more Windows users bought the game and less Linux users did.
Linux users on average are willing to pay more per game. Unfortunately we're talking about bundles here, and an extra 25% sounds really good until you realize that's like 25 to 75 cents of the total price; adjusted by gross dollars as opposed to net unit sales does not change the math much. Linux users on Steam et al wait for sales like everyone else.
Estimating Linux Customers
There seems to be some commotion about whether distributors are accurately tracking what platform is associated with which sale. There's likely some wiggle room here, particularly regarding people who purchase a game on Windows, but play the game on Linux - or even Windows gamers who prefer to game on Linux if the option is available. I readily admit these numbers are subject to further scrutiny, but without extra data I couldn't say if there are really that much more Linux users I'm discounting. We can speculate but that's really all it would be.
Estimating is hard. I'd like to address the entire "2% is really good because we're 1% of the user base" argument. Not every game on Steam has Linux support. You'd expect the average number of Linux sales to be higher than the average percentage of Linux users, per game that does support Linux. If Linux was 10% of Steam's userbase but there was only 1 Steam game with Linux support you would not expect that game's userbase to be only 10% Linux users; the Linux users are simply flowing into fewer games than Windows users are. That said the Mac percentage numbers are low as well - maybe I'm missing something here.
Is 2% good or bad? If it's bad then there's presumably things I could do to get more Linux users. If it's good, what most people here seem to be saying, then that's actually really bad because that's a strong argument against supporting Linux in my games; they'd simply never even break even.
What did I expect? I didn't really have a round number in mind, truth be told. Steam Marines 1 sold quite a bit better than I expected overall and this was my first time porting any piece of software to Linux. If I had to do something similar in the future I expect that it would take me less time.
The Why and the What
I'm currently working [Steam Marines 2](http://www.steammarines2.com/), and the subject of Mac and Linux has already come up. This time there's no significant cost for porting because I'm making the game in Unity instead of Torque2D. That said I've already been performance testing on Mac and there are issues, and I have Linux-specific bugs a mile long. To support both those platforms is likely to result in yet another loss on the long run although not a foregone conclusion.
The main reason I'd like to continue supporting Mac and Linux in the future is that I grew up as a Mac kid. I appreciated companies like Blizzard who made their games for Windows and Mac. I'm still mildly bitter about Bungie and Halo. But it's fine. I make games for a living now which is pretty neat.
Last edited by WorthlessBums on 8 November 2016 at 7:56 pm UTC
First, thanks to everyone who said some kind things! Second, I'd like to clarify a few things.
Mac Support
In my experience, and apparently in the experience of other devs who have tweeted me since, yes, Mac gamers seem to be less technically proficient overall. Some found no support issues but that Mac was still not worth the extra dev cost, and others found similar support issues.
Greedy Dev!
Someone tried to run the revenue numbers from Linux sales of Steam Marines 1, but it was both inaccurate and incomplete. I am under NDA as a Steam developer, but I can cast a bit of light on the whole issue.
I recently blogged that the game's entire development cost was $97,913.88 USD over a 30 month period. That comes out to an average of $3,263.90 a month of development cost. About 70% of that cost was spent paying myself to work on my game (i.e. not contracting for art, audio, et cetera). That brings the monthly cost down to about $2,284.73.
It took me about a 3 month span to port the game over to Linux, but part of that was not full time dev, so let's just say it took about 2 months. That's a total cost of $4,569.46 to get the first Linux build up and running. The person who tried to run the revenue numbers came up with a gross figure of €4,440 - so you can already see the problem.
Steam takes 30% of gross. I pay taxes that depend on situation and taxable income, but let's say for the sake of argument I net about 60% of my gross revenue. To break even on the initial $4,560.46 I need to gross $4,569.46/0.6 = $7,615.77. If I want to actually make a profit I need to earn more than that.
Additionally, adding support for a platform is just that - support. Linux tech support was very low, likely a combination of better-than-average tech savvy and relatively low sales numbers in general. But every build I push from that point on requires additional resources to 1) push to various distribution platforms, 2) test, and 3) provide tech support. None of those are costless. Points 1 and 2 also do not necessarily cost the same per platform; Testing and bug squashing requires time, energy, and the necessary hardware.
So no, Mac and Linux sales are nowhere near profit territory with regards to their associated costs: supporting those platforms for the game was a net loss. They are largely supported by Windows sales. Early on the numbers for Linux were actually much better. It's just that as time went on more Windows users bought the game and less Linux users did.
Linux users on average are willing to pay more per game. Unfortunately we're talking about bundles here, and an extra 25% sounds really good until you realize that's like 25 to 75 cents of the total price; adjusted by gross dollars as opposed to net unit sales does not change the math much. Linux users on Steam et al wait for sales like everyone else.
Estimating Linux Customers
There seems to be some commotion about whether distributors are accurately tracking what platform is associated with which sale. There's likely some wiggle room here, particularly regarding people who purchase a game on Windows, but play the game on Linux - or even Windows gamers who prefer to game on Linux if the option is available. I readily admit these numbers are subject to further scrutiny, but without extra data I couldn't say if there are really that much more Linux users I'm discounting. We can speculate but that's really all it would be.
Estimating is hard. I'd like to address the entire "2% is really good because we're 1% of the user base" argument. Not every game on Steam has Linux support. You'd expect the average number of Linux sales to be higher than the average percentage of Linux users, per game that does support Linux. If Linux was 10% of Steam's userbase but there was only 1 Steam game with Linux support you would not expect that game's userbase to be only 10% Linux users; the Linux users are simply flowing into fewer games than Windows users are. That said the Mac percentage numbers are low as well - maybe I'm missing something here.
Is 2% good or bad? If it's bad then there's presumably things I could do to get more Linux users. If it's good, what most people here seem to be saying, then that's actually really bad because that's a strong argument against supporting Linux in my games; they'd simply never even break even.
What did I expect? I didn't really have a round number in mind, truth be told. Steam Marines 1 sold quite a bit better than I expected overall and this was my first time porting any piece of software to Linux. If I had to do something similar in the future I expect that it would take me less time.
The Why and the What
I'm currently working [Steam Marines 2](http://www.steammarines2.com/), and the subject of Mac and Linux has already come up. This time there's no significant cost for porting because I'm making the game in Unity instead of Torque2D. That said I've already been performance testing on Mac and there are issues, and I have Linux-specific bugs a mile long. To support both those platforms is likely to result in yet another loss on the long run although not a foregone conclusion.
The main reason I'd like to continue supporting Mac and Linux in the future is that I grew up as a Mac kid. I appreciated companies like Blizzard who made their games for Windows and Mac. I'm still mildly bitter about Bungie and Halo. But it's fine. I make games for a living now which is pretty neat.
Last edited by WorthlessBums on 8 November 2016 at 7:56 pm UTC
14 Likes, Who?
Quoting: LeopardDev literally said"Linux users are just want support,but when it comes to purchasing they're not such in a hurry."
What is that means?
I'll tell you.This means you're just some bunch of hypocirates Linux users.
No, not at all.
0 Likes
Hmm... how about people buying it on Windows, still wishing for a Linux version, and when made available play it on Linux then?
Those aren't counted as Linux, right?
As Windows having over 90% market share, this isn't unlikely. Valve should make available stats, which show how the percentages are where people are playing their games. This would be a much more accurate number for the devs, than only on which platform a game is bought.
Also there might be a significant percentage of players waiting for having enough games on Linux before they stop dualbooting. Those people might also buy their games primarily on Windows instead of Linux.
Of course this is just a guess, as there aren't any official numbers, and devs can only see on which platform their games are bought.
Those aren't counted as Linux, right?
As Windows having over 90% market share, this isn't unlikely. Valve should make available stats, which show how the percentages are where people are playing their games. This would be a much more accurate number for the devs, than only on which platform a game is bought.
Also there might be a significant percentage of players waiting for having enough games on Linux before they stop dualbooting. Those people might also buy their games primarily on Windows instead of Linux.
Of course this is just a guess, as there aren't any official numbers, and devs can only see on which platform their games are bought.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: EikeQuoting: LeopardQuoting: EikeDeveleopers need to buy bread, too.
I didn't say anything like he should give the game free or anything like that.Game is not free.
He needed to work to make the game run under Linux. He invested his time. There needs to be a fair return for him. He, says, the sales did not amount to a fair return - but that he still wants to support Linux. That's great and not to be blamed.
If you or me like the game is something completely different. I wouldn't buy it. But I don't debase people.
We're a small community.In all platforms,%3 Linux sale is not a bad thing.
What is he expecting?
%50 or something much higher?If we were achieved these amounts,we would not arguing about these devs.We would cursing Activision for space Cod,playing BF1,modding Skyrim and so much more
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