I think that title says everything...:) I am talking about games that are sold on sites like bigfishgames.com and cost around 7 $... If you have information for match 3 type of game, that is even better :) This is really important information for me.. ThX in ADV

Eh, no one really have this information??
I don't need exact number , something like : casual games on those sites are sold by average in 100/1000/10000/x0000 pieces would be enough for me...
We need to see will we have ANY CHANCE to make money if our game will be average OR only big companies that already have lot of backup code, experience etc. can profit from casual games.
I mean , lets say they can make some casual game in 1 week while we need 2 months, obviously they will profit much more then we would.
So i would like to see what are our CHANCES to make money that will cover the costs and our time ...
Games on those sites usually cost 7$ per piece. Lets say that site on which game is selling takes 70% of profit. From rest of 30% profit we must give 60% to guy that is financing graphic,sound and everything. Rest 40% splits between me and 1 other guy , me and him are doing all work , programming, game design, level design etc.
So if we sum all together, me and him will get 6% each from total profit.
Per sold copy of game i will be making 0.42$.....
That means that if game is sold in 1000 pieces my salary will be 420$ .. There are also taxes ( 25%) so at end i would get around 300$ per 1000 copies sold.

I hope someone will have some advice now =)

> Eh, no one really have this information??

Per-product sales and costs information are amongst the most secretely guarded company information.

The bigger question is what is *your* break-even point and how many distribution channels can you enter into contract with.

-cb

I sent email to bigfishgames.com with that question and obviously they didn't answer..^^
I still think something is generally known or companies wouldn't go into this business.. Only thing i know is that there is a LOT of money involving casual games and that gives me some hope...

Well it would be enough for me that i make 1000$ i guess =/
And yeah u are right, more sites the better, though i believe that some of those sites ( i guess bigger ones ) will want that game is exclusive on their site..
Only marketing our game will have is marketing that those sites will provide..

It is all dependent on costs. So first you calculate what your costs are for all the people involved. How are people getting paid, are you contracting art and audio or splitting profits with them.

In the indie casual games scene its usually a small team of under 5 people that make the game. I imagine most of these smaller teams work from home and being indie usually dont have alot of spare cash to pay contractors for art audio programming or whatever skill is needed. so profit share can be the way to go but also means you need to make more money to break even.

Presuming everyone has to pay rent and eat and pay bills, then you work out how much it costs per week/month to keep everyone living (very dependent on where you live)

just to keep things simple say each person costs $200 a week X 8 for 2months work
comes to $1600 each cost per game or $8000 in total

If the game sells at $7 each and your team gets 70% of that = $4.9

so 8000/4.9 = 1632 copies need to be sold to break even. (before tax)

Casual game sales vary hugely from game to game / company to company
All of them have different costs and different break even points.

This all a simplified version of how to work it out, usually there are more things involved.

The big question is at that price do you think you can sell 1632 copies.


Also an average value for casual games would give you a very very very warped view.

Take this example, 2 games

"war dragon booster 2" sold 100,000 copies
"Super paint drying HD remix" sold 1 copy

Average = 50,000

That is pretty much what happens with alot of casuals games, some are big hits some are big flops.

I did hear somewhere that Indie PC game sells usually between 1 - 20,000 copies

but that is a statistic Im sure which was pulled out of nowhere, but if you were looking for a starting range thats a good a guess as any.

http://www.vgchartz.com is a good place to start. Just look for comparable games.