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Numberfox

Member
Aug 5, 2018
5,971
Related to indie game performance, I'd like to highlight Nintendo's indie game coverage efforts in Japan: Indie World. Unlike Nindies (NA) and Indie Highlights (EU), which cover games mainly concerned with games coming to the Western market as a whole, Indie World specifically highlights indie games coming to the Japanese eShop, including both indie Japanese games and many games from Western developers being localized, hence being called World. The first showcase was launched on May 11th this year, hosted by Soejima and Boku, an official Nintendo duo akin to the Nintendo Minute duo on the American Nintendo channel.



It's similar to how the Western Indie showcases operate, except with two hosts. One neat part is at around the 14 minute mark, after showing off Dead Cells, they take a moment to explain the term "Rogue-like," since I don't think it's as much of a household term in Japan as it is in the West. They start the explanation by literally showing gameplay of the original Rogue from the 1980's. After that, they highlight the Mystery Dungeon franchise, which is a modern Japanese video game series that actually plays similarly to Rogue that most Japanese gaming folk are probably familiar with. They then show off some Western indies with Rogue-like elements like Enter the Gungeon and Crypt of the Necrodancer.

On the official Indie World section of the Japanese Nintendo site, there's a list of indies with a small message of recommendation from either of the two hosts. For example, the one for Undertale more or less says "I want you to play it without knowing anything!" The Indie World section also has several articles written by the duo talking about indie games, usually having small interviews/chats with the developers/producers of the games. The most recent article was published on August 29th, which is the first part of an Undertale developer interview with Toby Fox.

Anyway, I wrote all this to illustrate the stuff Nintendo is putting into the Japanese indie gaming scene, trying to give indie games more exposure to the Japanese market. It's possible this all also plays a factor to how well indie games are selling overall.

Indie World: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/software/feature/indieworld/
 

Numberfox

Member
Aug 5, 2018
5,971
Since when is Sonic Mania Plus a indie title?

Despite being published by Sega, Sonic Team had nothing to do with its development. The "developers" of Sonic Mania literally comprise of members of the Sonic fangame and ROM hacking community, which is why many people consider the game indie.
 

Daysean

Member
Nov 15, 2017
7,392
Despite being published by Sega, Sonic Team had nothing to do with its development. The "developers" of Sonic Mania
literally comprise of members of the Sonic fangame and ROM hacking community, which is why many people consider the game indie.
Oh well that's fucking cool as shit. Thanks for the answer
 

Lelouch0612

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,200
Comic Star Heroine is currently in the "Discover" section in the French eshop. It is at the top of the page and labelled as a "The best from clasic and modern RPGs".

Good to hear that the words exchanged here didn't affect the promotion of the game on the eshop.
 

Deleted member 36622

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 21, 2017
6,639
Comic Star Heroine is currently in the "Discover" section in the French eshop. It is at the top of the page and labelled as a "The best from clasic and modern RPGs".

Good to hear that the words exchanged here didn't affect the promotion of the game on the eshop.

I was about to post it, it has been on the discover section on that spot of EU eshop for the past 3-4 days

IMG_20180906_152902.jpg


IMG_20180907_121110.jpg
 

Deleted member 36622

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 21, 2017
6,639
Few weeks ago there was PAX Australia, there was a panel called "This Year's Indie Game-Changer" were some indie developer shared their stories of their success on Switch



TL;DW:

Ash Ringrose from SMG Studio (Death Squared):

"I think we said we sold more on Switch in three days than we sold on all the other platforms combined over like six months. Maybe for us we've sold ten times as many copies on Switch than we have on each platform. We've got like a long tail, or a thicker tail. So we sell more per day on Switch than we'd sell on Steam in a week and still after like 400 days of being out. So for us, those numbers really help kind of help long term revenue for us. But I would say compared to other platforms, we sold really badly on the other platforms, so it did well on Switch.

We've had other people who have done really well on iOS and haven't done as well. It does depend on the game. It's not just put it on Switch and you've got an instant hit. I think the audience now still wants a good game. I think for us we got in quite early, we were quite lucky. But even the sales now we're quite happy with, so it's quite a healthy platform if you're quite noisy about your game as well."

Henrik Pettersson from The Voxel Agents (The Gardens Between):

"I think 60% of our sales have been on Switch so far, which is tremendous. I think I attribute that a bit to Nintendo's help in terms of promoting the game and also that this new platform that people are really engaging in. I imagine that Steam sales are going to balance that a bit more, particularly with sales and things like that in the future. You have such a large audience there, but I'm also surprised by how well it's been going on Switch."

Joe Park from Harmonious Games (Putty Pals):

"With Putty Pals, we're kind of in a similar boat to Ash of SMG where we've only been out for about eight months on PC, and then when we shipped on Switch, on the first day, it outsold the previous eight months on PC. I think it's like eight times as many units on Switch as PC despite all of the sales. Yeah, financially Switch has been much more beneficial for us than PC has."
 

Booga

Alt account
Banned
Sep 15, 2018
937
Yeah I think we have overwhelming metrics pointing to Indies and smaller third party titles just killing it on Switch.

AA (if you go for that designation) games like Resident Evil Revelations 1-2 are rocking mad sales on Switch too. With Revelations 1 selling PS4/Xbone sales combined. Not only that, but it doubled their combined 9 month sales in only 3.

I honestly have no idea what the exact thing is that is making folks opt for the Switch version, but I couldn't be more thrilled.

I know for me, I've always just loved handheld gaming. So the Switch is pretty near handheld perfection. With console gaming on the go the likes of which we've never seen.

Sure the PSP and Vita promised us console gaming on the go, and very nearly delivered.

And we've got healthy alternatives like the Razor tablet and the GPD win, but they don't quite nail the experience Switch offers.

I'm not even a Nintendo IP fan, aside from Metroid and Luigi's mansion I rarely play Nintendo games. So I imagine it's even better for fans of the Big N.
 

Nitpicker_Red

Member
Nov 3, 2017
1,282
Few weeks ago there was PAX Australia, there was a panel called "This Year's Indie Game-Changer" were some indie developer shared their stories of their success on Switch



TL;DW:

Ash Ringrose from SMG Studio (Death Squared):

"I think we said we sold more on Switch in three days than we sold on all the other platforms combined over like six months. Maybe for us we've sold ten times as many copies on Switch than we have on each platform. We've got like a long tail, or a thicker tail. So we sell more per day on Switch than we'd sell on Steam in a week and still after like 400 days of being out. So for us, those numbers really help kind of help long term revenue for us. But I would say compared to other platforms, we sold really badly on the other platforms, so it did well on Switch.

We've had other people who have done really well on iOS and haven't done as well. It does depend on the game. It's not just put it on Switch and you've got an instant hit. I think the audience now still wants a good game. I think for us we got in quite early, we were quite lucky. But even the sales now we're quite happy with, so it's quite a healthy platform if you're quite noisy about your game as well."

Henrik Pettersson from The Voxel Agents (The Gardens Between):

"I think 60% of our sales have been on Switch so far, which is tremendous. I think I attribute that a bit to Nintendo's help in terms of promoting the game and also that this new platform that people are really engaging in. I imagine that Steam sales are going to balance that a bit more, particularly with sales and things like that in the future. You have such a large audience there, but I'm also surprised by how well it's been going on Switch."

Joe Park from Harmonious Games (Putty Pals):

"With Putty Pals, we're kind of in a similar boat to Ash of SMG where we've only been out for about eight months on PC, and then when we shipped on Switch, on the first day, it outsold the previous eight months on PC. I think it's like eight times as many units on Switch as PC despite all of the sales. Yeah, financially Switch has been much more beneficial for us than PC has."

At 3:14:20 they make a reference to the icons watch!
 

Yep

Member
Dec 14, 2017
531
1m for dead cells may be possible, on a stream in à French web tv last week, developpers of the game told that they don't remember exactly which one from Steam and Switch version sold more, so it might meens that sales are quite close, and we know that Steam sales are over 1m

Edit : link of the Stream, it's around 15-16 minutes


Dead Cells's dev aren't sure if Steam or Switch version is the best selling one, while confirming Steam version is over 1m
 

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
SMG (Death Squared) shared more data on r/NintendoSwitch

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSw...18_switch_sales_in/?utm_source=reddit-android



Death Squared has been out for more than 400 days on Switch & we're still doing OK.

Note: this does not include Japan eShop as that's through our publisher Circle.

Here's how "sales" impacted the chart. Note: we have "early" announce every sale 3-5 days before it starts.

10% off = experiment = Don't do that.

25-33% seems to be sweet spot between sales/rev.

As 51% off while slightly higher unit sales is generating us less revenue.

Even with the lower tail we regularly sell more in a day than we do in a ~week~ on other consoles/Steam. But again I caveat this that the game never really found an audience on those platforms.

Fun Fact: We saw an increase in full price sales on Xbox during the month of Games with Gold when we were FREE! During that period our sales were close to what they are now on Switch. So that defies logic. I guess word of mouth? Increased promotion to ALL Xbox users?
 

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
There's a really dynamic nerd geezers market on switch imo, something that wasn't as important on previous Nintendo platforms.
I am one of those
 

cucholix

Member
Oct 30, 2017
935
Nintendo has done an awesome job spotlighting indie games in nindies directs, news section in Switch menu, and keeping a high quality standart for indy publishers and devs.

Also many of those games don't need the "spectacle" factor, so the work better in handheld format, in my personal experience I enjoy indie retro games in a small screen, on TV my eyes hurts after a few minutes.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 10737

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
49,774
A few hours ago Ron Gilbert published the detailed sales split for Thimbleweed Park among all the platform:

twp_sales_2018.png


Source:
https://grumpygamer.com/twp_sales

EDIT:
Sales as last quarter so until September 2018.
very impressive, i think most indie games being released recently probably have similar percentage. between the portability factor and nintendo heavily promoting indie games, it's understandable why they sell so much better on switch.
 

DCBA

Member
Dec 12, 2018
1,057
I think "less competition" was a factor, like, 10 months ago or something. But not anymore.

I think this argument is still valid. On PSN and XBLive AAA games are regular on sale for >15€, therefore insie games have to compete with each other and additionally with AAA games. Switch AAA gamsses are usually 30€+. Its easier to justify a indie game purchase (at least for me) when AAA games cost 2-3 more...
 
Oct 25, 2017
632
A few hours ago Ron Gilbert published the detailed sales split for Thimbleweed Park among all the platform:

twp_sales_2018.png


Source:
https://grumpygamer.com/twp_sales

EDIT:
Sales as last quarter so until September 2018.

A lot has been said about indie sales and software sales in general on Switch so I'm not surprised it did well there. I am surprised that it tops PC since that is the place for point and click style games. I'm also shocked at how Xbox sales are higher than PS4. I would have thought it would be the opposite based on old userbase stereotypes. But come to think of it, Xbox live arcade on 360 pushed indie games hard and Microsoft also gave Cuphead a huge push. So maybe they are doing a better job than Sony. Nintendo is the clear indie leader on console at the moment though
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,030
A lot has been said about indie sales and software sales in general on Switch so I'm not surprised it did well there. I am surprised that it tops PC since that is the place for point and click style games. I'm also shocked at how Xbox sales are higher than PS4. I would have thought it would be the opposite based on old userbase stereotypes. But come to think of it, Xbox live arcade on 360 pushed indie games hard and Microsoft also gave Cuphead a huge push. So maybe they are doing a better job than Sony. Nintendo is the clear indie leader on console at the moment though
XBO had the console time exclusive for a period.