My conversion rate is high, but the number of downloads is abysmal - for example my Push the Fluffies got 4 downloads yesterday (being in the middle of Sandbox) while The Lost Heroes 21 (platformers, puzzle categories). Are people not looking into Sandbox or my icon, screenshots or description is somehow wrong?
I'm a new OUYA gamer / developer. My first game "Night Riders" was released only 3 days ago (an optimized Android port, with a new user interface and controls).
I'm having about 90 downloads and 10 purchases per day, which means a conversion rate above 10% - quite good. I've also implemented a sale system : The full version cost $1.99, but if it is purchased within the first 15 minutes, it will cost only $0.99 (50% OFF).
In 3 days, I had more purchases than on Google Play for 1 month... The visibility on OUYA is not perfect (I'm still within the last columns of the "Sandbox"), but for me, it is already better than GP, where I have 0 visibility...
I'm thinking in targeting the OUYA as the main device for my next game ;)
Sales are remaining steady, but not quite at the level of Ouya launch. Lets hope the Ouya sells a lot of units to keep this going nicely. At the current rate it will be a fairly comfortable source of income, but that relies on Urhman and Co. doing a good job with shifting consoles.
I do a "pay what you want, minimum $1". The average rate was previously somewhere around $2.30, so if that remains true, that's a gross of just about $7000.
Not bad for a local-multiplayer only game on a brand new console, I think.
Congratulations on the strong sales! How does this compare to what you saw on XBLIG? Between your game, BombSquad, Ice Rage, and TowerFall it is pretty apparent that OUYA players are looking for fun, local multiplayer titles. We're at a little lower than half your sales with Saturday Morning RPG - which isn't bad considering how insanely niche our game is.
My games have almost zero sales. Maybe they are not good enough or sth is wrong with my payment code (I'll investigate this week). Although I won't make more games targeted at OUYA because I would go bancrupt very soon. It was fun making a game for big screen, but time to get back to tablets and phone where I make a living. :(
My games have almost zero sales. Maybe they are not good enough or sth is wrong with my payment code (I'll investigate this week). Although I won't make more games targeted at OUYA because I would go bancrupt very soon. It was fun making a game for big screen, but time to get back to tablets and phone where I make a living. :(
Thats too bad, but you can always port the game to both devices for maximum revenue? :)
I made the OUYA exclusive games Cube and Creature and Hellworm! evgiz.net
I haven't played your game yet but maybe you're giving away too much upfront? Have you tried adding a nag screen to constantly remind the player to purchase the game? Have you considered having a screen ask the user to purchase at a discount on first boot? If you don't have either of those, you should try them out and see if they get you better sales.
Congratulations on the strong sales! How does this compare to what you saw on XBLIG?
Thanks! It's hard to compare Ouya vs. XBLIG. Hidden in Plain Sight was selling around 400-600 copies a month through the first part of the year. Then there were some popular videos made that featured the game, and it sold 10,000 copies in July, and is on pace for about 4000 this month.
HIPS also has a 132% "purchase to trial" ratio for the past calendar year. That's not the same as a true conversion ratio, obviously. I don't really know what it means, but I think it means that lots of people are buying the game outright, rather than trying before buying.
In any case, it's all crazy to me. I never expected it to blow up the way that it has. :)
So for our next update for RED, we are offering a cool "opening discount". This is given to the player when they successfully shoot down a balloon with a $1-2 discount icon. We have made a neat little space invaders type opening sequence where this happens.
We are hoping the player will then feel like the discount has some sort of value (seeing as they "earned" it), and therefore will use it. Naturally it only applies if they buy straight away.
Does anyone have a fancy Excel spreadsheet template that they'd be willing to share, with, like, graphs and charts and stuff to track sales and figures?
The sales are almost stopped right now for less popular games I think. Mine got 1 sale last week. People don't have space to install new games and console sales probably are very low too (so no new players). And the discovery of old games is not easy (for games hidden in categories).
So after the update and being featured we are only getting 40-80 unique downloads a day, but our conversion rate is a rather stunning 12.5%... so maybe the market is just running out of steam!
OUYA needs to start shifting units quick, otherwise it will become financially inadequate to continue publishing here. Our game is quite appealing, so I don't think it has to do with people being turned off by the hard sell.
I'm pretty leveled off. I've been as low as 2 sales in a day before. This is since the beginning of this month and it has been about the same for a while.
My data is even worse - maybe people don't like my games, I don't know:
title
date
Unique downloads
Unique sales
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-13
2
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-13
3
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-12
3
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-12
5
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-11
3
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-11
6
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-10
5
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-10
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-09
4
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-08
3
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-08
14
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-07
11
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-07
2
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-06
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-06
7
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-05
7
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-05
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-04
8
Push the Fluffies
2013-09-03
2
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-03
3
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-02
14
The Lost Heroes
2013-09-01
8
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-31
15
Push the Fluffies
2013-08-30
2
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-30
14
Push the Fluffies
2013-08-29
2
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-29
7
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-28
12
Push the Fluffies
2013-08-28
1
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-27
13
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-26
15
Push the Fluffies
2013-08-26
5
The Lost Heroes
2013-08-25
20
1
I'm back to concentrating on other platforms. Let's be honest - I've earned more in a week on Android (even though I've only released a free, ad supported version for now) with The Lost Heroes than in almost 2 months on OUYA...
Some of you guys who are talking about low download numbers have gotten more downloads than my game has gotten total, in the month that it's been out, so don't feel too bad! My original modest goal was to get 200 downloads, but it's less than half of that. Now my goal is just not to be the last game on the O-Rank list! Since you get no feedback on why someone doesn't buy or download your game, you're left trying to figure out why. Is it the artwork? The title? Is it too hard to find? File size too big? It's impossible to figure out, your mind just keeps going in circles, getting nowhere. I think the reason download numbers are small has to have something to do with a smallish install base. Also do any ordinary people - people who are not hardcore gamers - even know about the Ouya?
Sorry to hear that cyclops. I dont consider my rates low. Maybe lower than some others but there hasnt been a day so far that I haven't made a sale. I consider that to be a huge victory for my hobby project.
I think the one of the main reasons, is that new releases are instantly hidden away at the end of a 250+ long list way down at the bottom of the discover store.
And updates aren't FEATURED in any way which means you don't have ANY way to allow people to rediscover your game. Also OUYA should allow reviewing games by using a phone/tablet as a keyboard (should be easy to do with an Android/iOS app that connects by WiFi to OUYA, my TV does that, why can't OUYA?). Without reviews we don't know what is happening and people have no way of reporting bugs (maybe I have low sales because IAP don't work sometimes? People have no way of letting me know).
I agree with you guys, spinal_cord and Magnesus. If the store was more like the Amazon store for example, the way it shows books that are similar to other books you bought, books that are related to other books you looked at, etc., every time you go on you'd see something new and probably interesting, instead of the same 30 or so games on the left of the screen. Just copy the way Amazon does it. Also it'd be nice if some of the main gaming websites reviewed new Ouya titles now and then too. The only time they run a story about the Ouya is if it's something negative.
So who do we talk to to get the discover store redesigned? I have heard bad things about how well OUYA communicate, I would think that the usefulness of their store would be quite a high priority as it would help software sales and help towards good reviews of the system.
Comments
I'm having about 90 downloads and 10 purchases per day, which means a conversion rate above 10% - quite good. I've also implemented a sale system : The full version cost $1.99, but if it is purchased within the first 15 minutes, it will cost only $0.99 (50% OFF).
In 3 days, I had more purchases than on Google Play for 1 month... The visibility on OUYA is not perfect (I'm still within the last columns of the "Sandbox"), but for me, it is already better than GP, where I have 0 visibility...
I'm thinking in targeting the OUYA as the main device for my next game ;)
I made the OUYA exclusive games Cube and Creature and Hellworm!
evgiz.net
I made the OUYA exclusive games Cube and Creature and Hellworm!
evgiz.net
Click here for a Zombie Game on Ouya
Click here for a Zombie Game on Ouya
I'm back to concentrating on other platforms. Let's be honest - I've earned more in a week on Android (even though I've only released a free, ad supported version for now) with The Lost Heroes than in almost 2 months on OUYA...
Without reviews we don't know what is happening and people have no way of reporting bugs (maybe I have low sales because IAP don't work sometimes? People have no way of letting me know).
edit: corrected features->featured.