New Amistore releases?

[itix]

Were those sales numbers supposed to be impressive?

On Amiga platform it is not impressive but it is good if you have sold 130 copies to dealers.

This is not of course number of users.

[Bugala]

http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2013-09-00019-EN.html
(keep in mind that this is an OS4 only release)

thanks from that. I suppose that AOS4 means that they were only selling AOS4 version at their home page (at least moment ago i couldnt see other versions available)

And yeah, I think 50 copies (plus 130 cds) is not that bad for just AOS4 and for a game that is priced 15 euros. I also noticed that these sales figures were from just one month. For game was released (according to their website) 02.08.2013, and this sales amount comment was made 06.09.2013 (roughly month later)

It would be interesting to know how many sales they have got after that. I myself am usually bit slow buyer. I might decide to buy something right away but it can take me long before i actually do it, for example Tales of Gorluth I still havent got to buy, although I will at some point. Similarly i bought M.A.C.E Ios version with much delay, I think somewhere around 2014, maybe fall.

I can`t talk for EntwickerX. Meanwhile they have sold over 300 copies of M.A.C.E

What do you mean they have sold 300 copies? based upon what? Have they told somewhere else too, and is this AOS4 only, or total of Ios and all versions included?

[Rob]

What do you mean they have sold 300 copies? based upon what? Have they told somewhere else too, and is this AOS4 only, or total of Ios and all versions included?

I should imagine sales are significantly higher on other platforms.  The whole reason they started development for other platforms was so that they could go full time.

[imagodespira]

Hello, the  around 300 copies are only AmigaOS4.x could be some less (maybe some more), but not much. As we sell digital Version via amiboing.de over the time we dont know it 100%, we heve to calculate it (count the PayPal orders, the direct payments etc..).
 
 The 50 digital Units written in the amiganews.de entry are much higher now, also the CD Versions where increased over the time (Dealers ordered a second batch because it where sould out). We had to make more discs over the time. Currently we don't have more MACE discs here but dealers should have some more. We where asked a week before for 10 new discs and another dealer got a good numbers but he ordered 10 more. We have to order at least 25 units, so we now wait until they runs out of stock at the dealers...
 
 Selling the discs is a long journey, users often purchase one disc if they order other stuff in the online shop and put a disc on top. We are also often on amiga meetings in Germany and there the discs where sold direct to the users from a dealer, amigakit does the same... the direct communication with the user and the feeling .. I WANT TO BUY SOMETHING TODAY! makes for sure some sells on such meetings.
 
 As for AmiStore we see there a platform to get digital content from one source for AmigaOS. From user side, I like to get software without searching the net for it. Currently all small developers has its own payment stuff and we have to find it first. On Amiboing it is the same, users have to register, then pay direct to us. If the user wants word me up, he have to pay there and so on. An appstore could join this. Look at ztools, since it is on amistore there are much more updates, to pay for it, the user shows the need of the software and the respect for the work on it. I look forward for more of this.
 
 From developer view, we will put more software to amistore in future. Maybe we will close the payment stuff on amiboing.de sometimes. It is easyer to handle the payments over one dealer instead on each customer. As it is also sparetime for us, we can focus on making software. Currently we let it go as it is, but we will see how amistore runs in future and this could be someday the only distribution channel for digital content for us.
 
 Another thing, no need to make a secret of it. If AEON has an Appstore and releases new computers like x1000, with a preinstalled appstore we could get more customers. This means more time we can cut from our work time for amiga related stuff.
 
 For all developers..
 There is not much money to earn, but it helps to let the developments goes on. For hobby developers it also could just finance a NG Amiga, this helps you and with your software it helps the user. They pay if the software is fine and have not to donate before the release and no risk if it will be not released.
 
 
 As for Candi. It is a lot of fun, so why not sell it on AmiStore. Yes it is not a big thing but it is nice. And the work behind was not easy and took much time. You are free to buy it or not, or look forward to the radiance suite to get it within a package. We will work in future on it too, it is a nice gimmick.

[Bugala]

Thank you very much from your lengthy reply. This was very helpful and also encouraging info. I didnt expect M.A.C.Es sales to be that high for just AOS4, especially for that price.

I could have expected that big sales for 5 Eur game for some other type of game, but not for basic shooter. For me personally, that was very positive sign about the state  of AOS4. Clearly there are many users who are both hungry for games and willing to pay. Much more than i anticipated.

Sure, 300 - 500 (downloads plus cds) is not much compared to pretty much any other platforms sales, but it is worthy amount to work some months for a platform that you like working with, especially if you in addition have possibility of cashing more with some other platforms.


I am here throwing some numbers. These are naturally guesses, but it would be great if you could clarify them, since I am trying to get as accurate idea as possible about potential markets as i have been planning for years of making some commercial game release to Amiga (and other computers), but so far havent got one done, but lately i have been having much stronger grip from my neck, so perhaps I am soon (when compared to last 10 years not having got much to happen) able to realise that.

but I am assuming that roughly numbers are close to 500 copies in total have been sold (300 digital + 200 cd), from these maybe 400 are unique buyers, and rest 100 have bought both digital and Cd-version.

from these sales, maybe 300 have been something you could call easier sales (by having pay with paypal button and announcing game in amiga news and through resellers) and another 100 have been harder sales (for example ones where you have to physically attend some amiga exhibition and bring cds with you).

Also, have you always kept the price to 15 euros, or have there been some discounts at some point? And of course you have sold it to resellers for different price, but my main interest is in for what price and how many copies have customers been willing to pay. Hence it really doesnt matter even if you sold it to reseller for 1 euro, as long as he sold it for that 15 still.

[imagodespira]

We have kept the price all the time. It is not deceided if we make a price drop, it also depends if the shops have discs in stock. It would be infair if we have a massive drop but the shops can not because the discs had to be paid.

We did a drop for swamp defense, because the second part was on the way.

Around 15-18 euros is not bad for a bigger game. If people like it, they buy it. It also depends on the development time we spend on the game. We can not make the price as on mobile platforms, it is here not just a port. We have to optimize much things to get it run as it runs.

We see here that it not so much depends on the price, more on the game. If people like it, we sell more units. We expect around 50 units for every game but the last time we focus to the 100. If it is more, it is great. But this is our aim and we try to get more over the time (perhaps M.A.C.E. was luck, so we expect no more than 100 and are happy if it will be more). If we have software, we get users and so on...

Please note that gaming is good but I think not the target market for AmigaOS, people more want real Software. Many users are not the youngest anymore and they are not the biggest players. I am sure we could sell much more units on AmigaOS If we had a real software. We got also some messages from people, they like what we do but are no players.
As we must do the games for business on the mobile platforms, we got our direction, it is a time problem. But we also working on smaller software stuff and want to try to offer it via amistore if the time is right, then we will see what happens. And there it will be the same as with the games, we start with small stuff and try step by step to get bigger ones (more sales, more time for bigger projects).

I am dreaming of 500 units within the amiga community for each software, also for other devs.
Would be nice if the platform would grow to such numbers, then semi pro developers, self employed developers could make software... in future we need a small but healthy market. But it is a long road until there, hope the x5000 would make a step, also the sam460cr with lower price is good for it.

[Bugala]

By the way, one thing that could have got you couple of amiga sales is the Ios version. For basically when i saw M.A.C.E, i wasnt that interested. Especially with 15 euro price tag. But as i was able to buy it cheap for Ios (bought it mainly to support amiga development as well as curioistiy based upon Amiga game in ios), i played it, and found out that it is actually pretty good game all in all, so now I actually am interested in buying AOS4 version as well.

If I would today get AOS4 machine, I would also buy M.A.C.E for it. But I also must point out, that it is to some extent based upon not having choice enough. If there would be more choice, it wouldnt be on top of my list. But right now M.A.C.E stands as a very decent AOS4 game, and theres not many of those, and hence if I would have the machine, I would buy it. And it might well be that without first having played the iOS version, i might not be so interested in buying it.