I'm sure by now that everyone has heard that the traditional bricks and mortar situation of selling video games is over. The topic has been covered in a variety of other blogs and magazines and the topic wouldn't be worth covering again.
So, in terms of selling a video game, that pretty much leaves a couple of more ways of monetizing ("making money") from your games:
1. Shareware model. This is the model that people traditionally think of when they think of selling a game online. Basically, you give people a demo of the game to play for free. Then, you charge them to unlock the rest of the game.
2. Micro transaction model. This is a neat idea where you charge people tiny amounts (like 1 or 2 dollars) to unlock some small features in your game. You can pretty much sell anything you want from new levels, to new weapons, to new outfits.
3. Subscription model. People have to pay to play the game each month.
4. Ad supported model. The idea here is that you let people play the game entirely free, but you show them ads before the game begins in order to make money. You've probably seen this in Flash games.
5. Donations supported. You provide the game to people then ask them for a donation to the project.
Now, all of the these models have their pluses and minuses. But, focusing on actual dollars provides an interesting picture:
1. We can only think of Dwarf Fortress as a game that has successfully used only donations to fund it's entire. I'm sure that there are a few more, but we don't really think that the donation model is a VALID way of gaining funds.
2. You would think that the ad supported model would be a pretty neat way to make money, but, as it turns out, it isn't. They are plenty of articles about this exact subject (like here) so I don't need to get into that.
3. Subscriptions are traditionally used for MMO.
4. Micro transcanctions require a bit of work up front. Things need to be programmed and planned. But, overall, this seems like a great way to monetize a game.
5. Behind micro transanctions, this seems to be the best way to monetize a game easily. Of course, it assumes that you have a game worth selling :)
This post was born out of the frustrations that we're having deciding exactly what we want to do with The Good Apprentice. We think we might just make the game for free and ask for donations. We've put a lot of work into it. We FEEL like we could sell it. But, coming off the of the experience of our last game, we're kind of thinking it would just be nice to have some publicity.
It's an interesting place to be in right now :)
