Hi For some time now I've been under the impression that the shareware market for computer games is dead, and that there was no point investing time into it. However I've been looking through some sites today, which sell niche market games, and have good sales pitches, which made me curious. Is anyone still making good money from shareware games? If so, is it because it is already an established brand (such as Niels Bauer's Smugglers series), or are people still buying into new and innovative products, which are presented with a great sales pitch? Any advice would much be appreciated [edited by - OklyDokly on February 10, 2004 5:50:34 PM] [edited by - OklyDokly on February 10, 2004 5:51:06 PM]

There are shareware that sell.

Most of them are of course old brands, but if you spend few years to get your brand high you have got a chance to get a part of the bigger pie.
One game in 99.9% won''t make you a full-time indie. But few v.good games with good marketting can help you establish your company as a solid indie dev and give you good income.

As it seems one of the most important (and magic) word is number of hits. Once you release a game or two you can make your customers come back to you and see a third/fourth game... add to it new customers (for all four games).. and you start to get good income

You can read a lot about it from www.dexterity.com forum and from davidrm book (indie game development - quite nice, worth reading if you don''t know much about this subject and want to do some real biz... more then selling 50 pieces of your game at 10$ each ;-)

hope it helps

There is, but I wouldn''t really call it "shareware" anymore. Shareware originated as a scheme to let people try out (full/time limited/feature limited) versions of your software before choosing to buy. The "licence" included with shareware allowed and encouraged sharing (hence the name) so that the try before you buy version would propagate to many people, increasing the chance of a sale. This allowed small developers to compete with bigger companies who could afford to advertise or have their product shrinkwrapped and sold in many shops. However the main thing that made shareware "shareware" is really a moot point now. With widespread internet access developers don''t have to rely on a real world "peer to peer" form of distribution. In fact the internet promotes direct or 2nd party distribution, since you can be assured the end user gets a real version of your software, and not something that was infected by a virus on the last machine it was shared from. Shareware has gradually given way to Trial Version software which is often distributed through central 2nd party sources like Download.com and Tucows.

Dead?

Have you seen that www.gamehouse.com bought by realarcade for millions of $$. How about Popcap, Dexterity, Shockwave, and Bigfish, not to mention the countless number of individual developers of shareware games(try before you buy).

Now to mention an article.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/18/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/





John


Endboss Games

The shareware industry is far from dead! Their are still great shareware games that are released!

And great shareware sites such as www.Gametunnel.com


Thanks,
John Thrower
www.gamedogma.com
www.cgengine.com

There''s also still good money in directing feature films, being a rock star, and writing bestselling novels.

Shareware is Dead ?
So what about this :

quote: From RealNetworks Reports Fourth Quarter and 2003 results
In 2003, RealNetworks also focused on growing the games business and saw revenue from that business, which includes subscriptions, game sales, and advertising on RealArcade®, grow 56% percent to $12.2 million, up from $7.8 million in 2002. Since launching in 2001, RealArcade has sold more than two million games and now offers more than 190 downloadable games and more than 60 web games. RealNetworks also announced this week a definitive agreement to acquire the leading downloadable games developer, GameHouse®, Inc.

You can read more at http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/releases/2004/q403results.html

I definitely wouldn`t call 2M copies in 2,5 yrs a dead market.

VladR
Avenger 3D game (Last update FEB-04)

If you noticed in his post he stated it''s given way to trialware. Shareware was a model that usually gave you the full program, or at least a full portion. Now adays you get demos. So all those ''shareware'' companies you''ve listed give out demos of their games now (sort of like big retail companies do), so technically it''s not as much share ware now as it used to be. Dexterity Software''s dweep only gives you 5 levels, of it''s 150 levels, so i''d say technically that may not be shareware since it''s only a 5 level demo.

Really the shareware distribution method is no longer as viable for people, especially with the internet. Why give out a full version of your game for free on the internet, when you could give them a small portion of it, and charge money?

Shareware is now, and has always been, "try it before you buy it".

In the very early days, many shareware products were feature complete and could be used as long as someone wanted. As time went on, developers began unplugging certain features and adding time limits in order to better convince users to actually pay for the software. This led to the use of the term "freeware", which was distinguished from "shareware" by its being completely free.

So, the type of software that the term "shareware" has been applied to has changed over time. The basic concept, though, has not.

"Trialware" is a term that someone came up with as a replacement for "shareware", primarily as a means of separating themselves from the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). It means, more or less, the exact same thing.

-David


DavidRM
Samu Games

The Indie Game Development Survival Guide