Greetings,

We are currently starting an official company.

With this comes the many annoying things like making business plans, financial plans etc..

To match our costs we need to generate revenue, good thing is that we are working on two projects right now.

One is a mobile game, which is about to release within a month.

How would one go about getting an estimate of revenue from a mobile game in a market that is high risk/ high reward (from what i hear...)

And what are the kind of revenues that the majority of mobile games get? (so i am not speaking of angry brids, temple run, flappy birds....and also not about those games that one guy made in 2 hours and decided to sell in the appstore)

Please share us your experiences/advice!

Thanks in advance

This depends on a lot of thing, monetization, game quality, accessibility of gameplay, accessibility of art, the icon of the game, the game style, and lets not forget advertising, etc.

Here are some hard examples:

1) Tower defense game, 3d cute art, $1.99 cost = $2-3k

2) F2P slot adventure game, cute 2d art, good animations = $200-$400 a day for first month then nothing

3) Ad support endless runner platformer, midcore art = Didn't make enough to mention

But like I said, it's the gameplay + art + monetization technique + accessibility/design + game icon/description = money * luck

It could go many ways but I would bank on making under $2k for your first game while you are working out the kinks (and likely under $500 if you don't know what you are doing).

This depends on a lot of thing, monetization, game quality, accessibility of gameplay, accessibility of art, the icon of the game, the game style, and lets not forget advertising, etc.

Here are some hard examples:

1) Tower defense game, 3d cute art, $1.99 cost = $2-3k

2) F2P slot adventure game, cute 2d art, good animations = $200-$400 a day for first month then nothing

3) Ad support endless runner platformer, midcore art = Didn't make enough to mention

But like I said, it's the gameplay + art + monetization technique + accessibility/design + game icon/description = money * luck

It could go many ways but I would bank on making under $2k for your first game while you are working out the kinks (and likely under $500 if you don't know what you are doing).

Damn, those are some very steep numbers.

That will barely cover the costs of setting up a company in the first place.

Anyway, here is some more information about our mobile game:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zn1yv6y3m4vpcro/screenshot1.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5k6szf0ei0yauk/screenshot2.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t31gh99u8hfeiqw/screenshot3.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sl7wonnub1nxaz2/screenshot4.png

It basically uses motion control (tilting your phone) and touchscreen to control it.

It is a puzzle game that grows more difficult after each level, and also new elements get added.

But at the same time you also need quick thinking and control.

But yea...looking at those numbers we would need to pump out games regularly...and even then i doubt we can make a profitable business from it.

Anyway, thanks for your reply!

You may find some useful information amongst these articles: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-game-revenue-sales/

If you're entering the world of free to play, then something like the stuff available on GamesBrief might be of use: http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/10/the-gamesbrief-free-to-play-game-forecasting-spreadsheet-can-improve-the-revenue-of-your-game/

It's a good introduction to the KPI that have become a pretty standard way of assessing monetization.

Thanks for the links guys.

Its really a shame when you hear of games that took months to develop but only get around 200 dollars.

I should share this with my teachers who all said: right now the money is in the mobile gaming market!

edit: but i guess, the good thing is that its basically a passive income, there is no manufacturing costs once the game is done, and it can keep generating revenue of the course of months. I guess if you can make alot of games....that is pretty nice!

I should share this with my teachers who all said: right now the money is in the mobile gaming market!

That's not exactly what your teachers said. Go ahead and show it to them -- they already know how hard it really is, and tried to find ways to give you the lowest-risk path, knowing the students might not hear all the fine points and exceptions and caveats along with it. Your teachers know nothing is easy.

I should share this with my teachers who all said: right now the money is in the mobile gaming market!

That's not exactly what your teachers said. Go ahead and show it to them -- they already know how hard it really is, and tried to find ways to give you the lowest-risk path, knowing the students might not hear all the fine points and exceptions and caveats along with it. Your teachers know nothing is easy.

Yea your right. I guess for students mobile games are still the best thing to do, they are more achievable then long term pc game projects and also help building up a portfolio if not revenue. But yea, since i have been doing this i have gained alot more respect to succesful start-ups in this sector...it hasnt been easy up until now and i am very confident that i have not even grasped the biggest challenges yet.

Add up your costs, then multiply by negative one. That's your revenue estimate.

Until you have sales or presales data you cannot possibly extrapolate revenue. There's nothing to extrapolate.

Add up your costs, then multiply by negative one. That's your revenue estimate.

Until you have sales or presales data you cannot possibly extrapolate revenue. There's nothing to extrapolate.

Thats wrong. the revenue estimate should be: (pricePerCopy-appstorecut) * 0

the cost estimate is simply: sum(costs)

The profit estimate would then be: ((pricePerCopy-appstorecut) * 0) - sum(costs)