(close if old)
Mike Rose, formerly of gamasutra, revealed some interesting stats about WiiU eShop numbers he's collected. Thought it would be interesting to share here:
High-end: 10,000 to 60,000 sales
Massive success on other platforms
He's quoted as saying "A lot of developers said they had a really nice launch on Wii U, but sales dissipated shortly thereafter. If you're porting to other platforms, you might want to consider porting to Wii U if you haven't already,"
I've previously asked a handful of other Wii U indie devs about their sales, and they'd all fallen around the centre of Mike's "mid-end" range. So the numbers seem to tally with what I've heard.
Interesting numbers. Numbers for Nintendo platforms seemed better than I expected when compared to other platforms.
Limited install base, but also limited competition for attention. Pricing per game seems higher, but I don't know what cut developers get. Seems hard to know if late ports are worthwhile - when releasing late and probably at a higher price point, sales would surely be affected unless there was a convincing reason to buy on Wii U.
Interesting. I am currently in Mid-End, which is all I can really say without giving specifics. I wonder if that means there are a bunch of games under 1000 sold total.
ZeNfA Productions
Created Wii U Game: ZaciSa's Last Stand (Tower Defense)
There has likely been several. Shovel Knight I think has sold more then 60k on Nintendo systems (at least on both, no idea on Wii U)
I just found that 49,000 copies had been sold on Wii U in the first month. There's no way it didn't pass 60k by the end of the second month, let alone past that with the holidays.
I have no idea if 10,000 is profitable. Needless to say though, I like supporting indies. There are some REALLY fun E-Shop games. I'd recommend Unepic and Stick it to the Man.
I have no idea if 10,000 is profitable. Needless to say though, I like supporting indies. There are some REALLY fun E-Shop games. I'd recommend Unepic and Stick it to the Man.
Unepic was one of my favorite games I played in 2014, period. Highly underrated gem.
It seems like indies releasing exclusively to Wii U probably can't break I to the high end unless their game is really exceptional .... Idk if that means the game has to be huge in size just simple and polished and fun probably gets a good buzz and has Nintendo on board to help spread the word
@JamesCoote: What about you James, you've brought a game out for Wii U now I believe, which tier is your game currently in, if you don't mind me asking?
@SeriousSam: Yeah it's currently less than 300 sales, so off the bottom of the "low end".
After Totem Topple launched, it got really bad reviews, so I stopped trying to promote it, and concentrated on working out what the issues were with the game.
I'm currently working on a patch for the game, which will address those, plus add a major new feature. Will have a second stab at promoting the game once that's out. Also not tried discounting price yet either. But the likelihood of turning the game round sales wise is small. It's more for personal / professional pride.
I'd suggest getting the patch out, then putting a discount on it which basically self-promotes the game. I've bought games from weekly discounts I didn't even know existed. Sites like NintendoLife always do the weekly eShop guides which are hugely popular and of course you'd be in the 'sales' section of the eShop which is one of the few ways to find a game by chance. The eShop's design is really poor for games that aren't new releases.
@Humphries90: The game did get a small feature on both American and European eShop front page on release. What I don't know is the click through rate. Was it the store banner, the trailer, the description, the reviews that put people off, or did not many people happen to be on the store to begin with? We're there other games they chose to buy that week instead? Was it the wrong time of year (the week before Thanksgiving)?
I mean I think there's definitely an argument to discount it at the same time the patch comes out. Just throw everything at it. I didn't release in Australia/NZ but will be doing so when the patch releases, so may be a chance to get featured from that as well.
Might also do a steam greenlight campaign at the same time. Try to leverage multi-platform aspect. Though my worry there is that people might Google the game, see the poor reviews and vote no. And also I put the game up on itch.io and disturbingly it has had 0 sales so far (which suggests I'm doing something wrong).
Equally, would like to put the game in NN3DS, but is that even worth the time/effort till I can be certain the other factors preventing the game from selling are cleared up?
This is versus spending the same time working on finishing up Flight of Light, which seems to be getting much more love when I demo it at events. Or porting games for other devs, who actually have decent sales already on PC, to WiiU
@JamesCoote: I still think there's something to get from Totem Topple's release. Like I said, patch it, discount it and you might begin to pull in some numbers. I remember telling you that if the update was significant enough, I'd do another video of it. Without wanting to be negative, the game was probably released too early. Obviously I don't know behind the scenes, but I think you could have done with more feedback before releasing it. Totem Topple can be a fun game but it really did lack some things that a lot of reviewers couldn't let pass, which damaged its reputation out of the gate.
I actually remember seeing the icon "banner" on the eShop when it was released. It was only a very small icon compared to other games, easy to miss. I wonder how Nintendo decide which game gets more presence on the store front.
I also remember the release was accompanied by two other eShop games (which I'd say is busy week) and also Mario Tennis came out. I think it's just a combination of these three factors as to why it didn't pull in what you'd hoped.
@Humphries90: Thanks for the vote of confidence! I just don't want to get my hopes up too high and be disappointed again.
I actually tested it with loads of people over the course of several months before launch. Thing was, it was mostly other developers, who give a different type of feedback: Useful in many ways, but not necessarily reflective of how the public play or approach a game. And I was always on hand to explain them how to play the game. I was on the verge of releasing when I took the game to PocketGamer Big Indie Pitch in July and showed it to a bunch of industry vets and journalists there, and they totally ripped into it. I concluded from that there were two fundamental problems with the game: 1) The cursory tutorial I had included simply wasn't working 2) There was an issue where if you had less than 4 heads, the enemy difficulty would reset back to easy.
Most people when playing would just slap a load of heads down and quickly go over that limit, after which the enemies get harder. Only when they struggled and lost a load of heads would it get easier again. So creating the back and forth where players had to build up to survive the hardest waves, after which they'd get a recovery period to rebuild again.
Except that a few people, including one of the judges at big indie pitch, would just plonk down a couple of heads then wait to see what happened. And so enemies would never get harder and the game would just plod along, with players just building one new head each time they lost one. And so conclude that the game had nothing to offer.
So I went away and decided to totally rewrite the tutorial, fix the issue with the too few heads. And also add in a new mode to satisfy another constant comment made about the game, which was that people wanted something slower paced and where their choice of head had a much bigger impact / wasn't so random.
So Classic mode was born, which I figured was much more like a traditional tower defence game (hence the name), with resources and enemy waves. And I figured as well, since it was more like what people associate as a tower defence game, it'd be better for people to learn the game on that, then move on to less forgiving, less recognisable frantic mode.
But Classic mode was only added near the end of development and didn't get nearly as much testing with real users. I spent ages balancing it myself, but I was worried more about optimal strategies meaning players could just build higher and higher ad-infinitum. I wanted to avoid a repeat of the frantic mode issue where one you found the optimal strategy, it basically killed any fun in the game.
And also everyone I spoke to was like "just ship it, it'll be fine!" by this point, as I'd already been working on it 6 months when it was supposed to be this neat little game to give me a break from the much larger Flight of Light, which I'd already been working on for a year by then.
Of course, once I released the game, everyone played Classic mode first, going by the name and the fact that Frantic sounds a bit intimidating to a new player, and probably the fact I put it top of the menu thinking it'd be better for players to play and learn that mode first. And they found it way too difficult, and confusing. (Although the new tutorial worked, the visual feedback from the game - the flaming arrow to say "this head gives you a mega damage bonus" - wasn't there or wasn't nearly enough). I think as you said in your review, Frantic mode seemed to have more promise as a quick, one-more-turn type experience, and that's because it had the most time put into balancing and testing it. But no one really played it or assumed it was basically the same as Classic mode (i think Nintendo Life review gave Frantic only a brief one or two line description, for what in many ways is the game, where Classic mode is just a bonus, though they weren't to know that).
So right now, I think I know what the issues with the game are, and I'm trying to fix them. But I've been totally wrong before about what I think the game is missing or isn't doing right. I feel like you only really get one shot at impressing people with a game. And sometimes in life you can spend far too long chasing something that was never meant to be. That's why although I'm hopeful I can eventually turn the game into something I'm proud of, I'm a bit down on its prospects for translating that into sales.
As for how Nintendo pick what to put on the front page of the eShop, I assume it's just as simple as what games they like and think will sell well. I know that for the indie games they promote in their videos and take to events, they're usually looking for some sort of existing traction or buzz around the game, such as a successful kickstarter, or for people getting hyped for the game on forums like this one, social media, etc. Usually that goes hand in hand with what games look good / attractive / enticing to people outside the Nintendo fandom bubble.
Timing: Same week as 2 Animal Crossing games and 2 Mario Tennis games, a Barbie game, a Japanese Ninja game, and the Typoman release. Tower Topple sank like the Titanic.
Trailer: Good art, bad animation, obscure gameplay, not much variety. It doesn't look fun but honestly I have no clue.
Review: Goodbye, interest.
Another chance: Can anyone here confirm that Tower Topple is worth it?
I can at least tell you that a sale will do wonders for your game. You said you haven't done a sale yet, so a 50% sale will do a good bit to help. The eShop is a bit more crowded these days, esp in sales. But your 1st sale will do you some good.
My own game (ZaciSa's Last Stand) launched at same price with plenty of issues (I've since fixed and added a lot of content to the game. People generally like it now). I was originally disappointed with my game's launch sales. Not that different from your sale's report. My game did VERY well on it's first sale though. Like REALLY well. It has now launched worldwide (minus Japan of course) and has done very well overall. Well into the "Mid-End" range.
Btw: Word of advice. Only do discounts/sales. DO NOT EVER reduce your game's price via a price drop. Your game is apparently $3. Changing it to $2 or so, will not make any difference. In fact, will likely do worse. I learned this issue the hard way.
ZeNfA Productions
Created Wii U Game: ZaciSa's Last Stand (Tower Defense)
I'd be curious to know how eShop sales for 3DS and New 3DS Only games compare to those of the Wii U, if anyone has any ball park figures of their own or insight into what other people have said behind closed doors.
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Topic: WiiU eShop Ballpark Sales Figures
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