Another data point that profitable businesses can be built on the back of the iPhone/iPod Touch app store: Social Gaming Network’s F.A.S.T. dogfight game, which launched in early June and lets users try to shoot down other human players, pulled in over $1 million in download fees alone in the first six weeks it was available.
SGN is clearly trying to find the revenue-maximizing price for the game – it has varied from $9.99 (the price I paid in June), to just $1.99 today. The game will eventually allow paid-for upgrades to weapons and jets when the new version comes out as well, which will bring in more dollars from addicted users.
This is an extraordinary game and certainly not representative of the average revenue from other paid apps in the App Store. But it also isn’t even currently on the top list of paid apps, and it continues to pull in substantial dollars, spiking, we hear, to as much as $60,000 per day.
SGN is also planning to license the basic platform engine that they created to build F.A.S.T. to other developers as well, who can create their own interactive games.
Awesome game.
1 mil in 6 weeks says a lot of just how good it is.
Yes, it is awesome…I tried other dogfight games but this rocks so far (until something else shows up).
http://www.yout...h?v=fCckZ8eWP8k
I just picked this game up last night, pretty cool and helps calm that craving I have for Wing Commander on the iPhone.
Wow. That’s some huge success!! Don’t think splojit is going to hit those heights somehow!?!
http://www.ipho...n.co.uk/splojit
who?
splojit… thats the sticky stuff that gets everywhere when you do a chick in the butt…. according to Wikipedia.
My mine worry with coverage like this is that is typically sets a false precedent in people’s minds. While some excellent games really do make top dollar on the iPhone, there are tens of thousands that make next to nothing. 1M in six weeks seems a bit high – I would think this figure more over the lifetime of the product thus far – but it does happen. This is just a word of warning that we need to always give app developers – only the top 5% really make serious money. This industry, while growing rapidly, has high turnover of products – and product space. Virtual shelf space is unlimited, but exposure is not and this ecosphere, exposure is king.
Alex is right, though 5% might even be too large an estimate. App sales have a power law distribution driven by the fact that most apps are purchased from the top lists, which in turn are mostly determined by sales.
The App Store may have 70,000+ apps in theory, but users only see a couple of hundred at any given time because they rely primarily on the lists. Still, there are some success stories in the long tail where devs are making a living in niches. To me, these are more interesting because their success is significantly less random than the top sellers.
DICE is working on making games for ipod”
the jobs site? what an odd direction for them.
DICE is a swedish video game developer – gobbled up by EA, created the Battlefield series as well Mirror’s Edge and others. I actually hope they port over the Mirror’s Edge flash title – was good fun.
well of course iphone companies CAN be successful. who has said otherwise?
i don’t think the exception proves the rule here, though.
impressive numbers in such a short period of time
I can’t help but believe players on the new 3GS iPhones will have an extreme advantage in multiplayer games.
a great source of revenue for apple. The sky is the limit and most of the work is done by developers.
I think it’s cute how you say “data point” as if it’s more than an anecdote.
Exactly…
i really like to play dogfight games, is there dogfight games available for ipod.
$60.000 per day without being on TOP10 rankings is most likely a misleading info.
You get $10-20k per day being in TOP10 if app is priced at 0.99. Multiply it with the difference in price and you get the idea of the revenue
Being a g1 owner, for once I can say I am jealous of an app on the iPhone!
That is an $8MM run rate for SGN for this game alone. This is probably their largest money maker, though. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, this should put them at a $10MM run rate for their overall business.
I wonder what the life cycle of an iPhone application is like. Do you think that SGN will generate this much revenue in the coming months?
While this is a very impressive game, if I were an investor, I’m not sure that it would justify my $15MM investment.
Strong is the force in this one.
Great job!
>SGN is clearly trying to find the revenue-maximizing price for the game – it has varied from $9.99 (the price I paid in June), to just $1.99 today.
Is it ‘trying to find’, or have the found it already? i.e. you worded this as if they were unsure, but what they might have been doing is successfully executing a tried’n'true price waterfalling strategy.
::cough:: launch title 3gs. ::cough:: marketing. ::cough:: techcrunch coverage.
Its awesome!, sidewinder missiles are hot!
I personally don’t care how much money is made from games. If the game is good and has replay value so much the better for consumers and developers. Word of mouth people!
Amazing. Now, I’d like to see a follow-up post with a title like this: “How to Create an iPhone App and Become a Millionaire.”
F.A.S.T. is so much fun, I can even smell the jet fuel. No kidding