• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PSN game Derrick the Deathfin sells less than 5,000 units at a loss

V

Visualante2

Member
Kotaku reports

Video game development can take a terrible toll on a person’s mind, body and soul. It can do even more damage to their bank account. Gordon Midwood, a developer whose game Derrick the Deathfin was released on the PlayStation Network at just about the worst possible time to release a game, says he went £40,000 ($63,000) in debt to get it done.

Some of that money came from personal loans and credit cards, and some of it came from Midwood’s dad, the dev wrote on his blog a couple of weeks ago. As Midwood writes: “It’s entirely possible, or indeed by the looks of things at the moment 100 per cent probable, that sales will never amount to enough to pay back even a quarter of my personal debts.”
Click to expand...
Sad story really, given that he sings Sony's praises in terms of support. Seems like PSN is becoming a bit of a feast or famine and with fresh complaints about the new PSN store. I wonder how long will PSN be attractive to indies up against Steam and iOS?

Got a feeling they'll get a few pity buys from the Kotaku story anyway.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
You shouldn't release your indie game as a PSN or WiiWare exclusive if you want to make money at this point.

Release timing certainly didn't help this one.
 
A

AbandonedTrolley

Member
Haunted said:
You shouldn't release your indie game as a PSN or WiiWare exclusive if you want to make money at this point.

Release timing certainly didn't help this one.
Click to expand...

Yeah there was minimal advertising on this, I hadn't even heard of it, having watched the trailer for it the other day I wasn't that impressed but then reading the story makes you feel a little bit sorry for the guy.

Blaming an exclusive with PSN isn't a good argument really, pretty certain the teams that made Joe Danger and Shatter didn't do too badly.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
AbandonedTrolley said:
Blaming an exclusive with PSN isn't a good argument really, pretty certain the teams that made Joe Danger and Shatter didn't do too badly.
Click to expand...
That's why I said "at this point".

Shatter was 2009 (and then went multiplatform), Joe Danger was 2010 (and then went multiplatform).

I'm sure there were some indie games on WiiWare released a couple years ago that also did well.
 
J

Joni

Member
Icarus said:
So self publishing, with no PR or marketing, regardless of the platform doesn't work out? Who knew?
Click to expand...
This. The only thing I saw about this game was a single topic here on GAF.

But hey, there is still an easy way to solve this. Go really aggressive on the pricing. It helped sell stuff like Amy.
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Haunted said:
You shouldn't release your indie game as a PSN or WiiWare exclusive if you want to make money at this point.
Click to expand...
You should (on PSN, anyway), if your game has sales potential. It feels bad to say, but this game had none. Wasn't it released the same day the Unfinished Swan came out? I'm sure that one sold a few copies more.
 
C

CadetMahoney

Member
So to conclude launch date + Steam and iOS would've been wiser choices over PSN I take it.

But when you're in debt I guess you can't wait it out too long for a good time.
 
L

Lion Heart

Banned
Icarus said:
So self publishing, with no PR or marketing, regardless of the platform doesn't work out? Who knew?
Click to expand...

Exactly, blaming PSN is unfounded. This would have bombed everywhere most likely. Sometimes you just have to get lucky, sometimes you have to release at the right time.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Indies moan when they have to wait months for an XBLA slot, but then when you see this type of scheduling maybe Microsoft is acting with best intentions.
 
H

Himynameischris

Member
Was the game good at least? I heard of it from Gaf but never looked into it, didn't even notice it came out (Haven't been into games lately because of work anyways)
 
Freshmaker

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
How could a game called Derrick The Deathfin not explode?

Geeze, even if this was the only downloadable game available on PSN, I'd avoid it like the plague simply because the title makes it sound like awful shovelware.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
R

Rekubot

Member
Freshmaker said:
How could a game called Derrick The Deathfin not explode?

Geeze, even if this was the only downloadable game available on PSN, I'd avoid it like the plague simply because the title makes it sound like awful shovelware.
Click to expand...
Indeed. The picture from the other thread makes it look interesting though.

7152692997_7507498c57_b.jpg
 
graywolf323

graywolf323

Member
I bought it but haven't played it yet

Sony did discount it for Plus members, scary to think how many fewer copies would have sold without that
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
chris.trejo said:
Was the game good at least? I heard of it from Gaf but never looked into it, didn't even notice it came out (Haven't been into games lately because of work anyways)
Click to expand...

It's apparently pretty fun. But people point out that it's disappointing that there aren't any online leaderboards, which ends up hurting the replay value.
 
P

Pranay

Member
Haunted said:
That's why I said "at this point".

Shatter was 2009 (and then went multiplatform), Joe Danger was 2010 (and then went multiplatform).

I'm sure there were some indie games on WiiWare released a couple years ago that also did well.
Click to expand...

Everyone knows what happened to Joe Danger 2 lol

If the game is good, people will buy it. Lot of PSN minis and less popular Games have crossed 100k easily
 
S

Striek

Member
Edit: Never heard of this game (though I haven't been on PSN is forever either). Combined with only five reviews (on meta anyway) kind've tells me something went horribly wrong in the marketing for the game. Those reviews also tell me its subpar. I feel bad for the guy, but not every indie game is going to succeed. Especially ones that aren't all that good and have bad marketing.

SalsaShark said:
hey failing indies: releasing everything on Steam.
Click to expand...
If I were an indie I'd obviously want to target steam, but its not like you can guarentee getting on the service. Theres a thousand games waiting to be greenlit and a lot of them will fail.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
The GB QL made it look pretty throw away, and that is all I ever heard it mentioned. It's a shame it didn't perform as he may have hoped, but it didn't scream blockbuster to me.
 
S

Salsa

Member
Striek said:
If I were an indie I'd obviously want to target steam, but its not like you can guarentee getting on the service. Theres a thousand games waiting to be greenlit and a lot of them will fail.
Click to expand...

honestly I think that if you already released on PSN that's probably enough exposure to make Valve pay attention, maybe even possibly skip greenlight. Many examples out there
 
P

Pranay

Member
Should had released this game as a PS+ like hell yeah the rabit and machinirum.

Machinirum had 100k downloads in few days in eu store
 
S

Sean

Banned
Haunted said:
You shouldn't release your indie game as a PSN or WiiWare exclusive if you want to make money at this point.
Click to expand...

Yup, I would say this applies to XBLA as well unless you're lucky enough to get slotted in Microsoft's big Spring/Summer of Arcade promotional push.

If I were an indie developer I wouldn't be trying for Steam and/or iOS rather than consoles.
 
A

Aaron

Member
I missed the GB Quick Look, so watching it now it's fitting how Patrick and Brad talk about the games situation and wonder how much PSN titles like this sell. The game itself looks fine, but there's so much competition out there it's no surprise it got crushed.
 
P

Pranay

Member
Sean said:
Yup, I would say this applies to XBLA as well unless you're lucky enough to get slotted in Microsoft's big Spring/Summer of Arcade promotional push.

If I were an indie developer I wouldn't be trying for Steam and/or iOS rather than consoles.
Click to expand...

If your an indie developer , you should try to release games on all platforms, steam, ios , psn and xbla.

Sony have been promoting indie developers as well along with their self pub fund as well.

Being exclusive to psn didnt affect these guys at all
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=483124&highlight= and they have released 11 games now

I missed the GB Quick Look, so watching it now it's fitting how Patrick and Brad talk about the games situation and wonder how much PSN titles like this sell. The game itself looks fine, but there's so much competition out there it's no surprise it got crushed.
Click to expand...

It launched at a bad time , when the store got revamped and people were having issues with the store.
Along with too much competition.
Game didnt even get a store ad as well, it was hidden totally lol
 
T

Takao

Banned
Looking at their Youtube channel it really does seem like they completely failed to get the word out. None of the videos they've posted have gotten more than 5000 views, and the ones they uploaded to the official PlayStation channel were posted with less than 2 weeks until launch. Looking at the PlayStation blog they had 3 posts, one in May, and two corresponding to official PlayStation Youtube uploads. Going against some well publicized releases was a death sentence for deathfin. This should be a reminder to people that it doesn't matter that you made a game if you don't tell anyone about it.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
DiscoJer said:
Lots? I think one mini has done around 100k, Age of Zombies.
Click to expand...

Laughing Jackal's minis are approaching (or probably approached already) 1m copies worldwide though:

Our Minis have also been successful in terms of raw numbers. At this point in time we are approaching 1 million PSN downloads worldwide. While at this point we are moving away from Minis with a full PSN title in development (among other things), they are certainly not something we regret getting involved in and have given us a great start as a developer.
Click to expand...

So I think they have like 5-7 titles that were downloaded that are over 100k?
 
S

Speevy

Banned
The Playstation Network is the second least visible platform for original games.

If you want to make a splash there, release something that is so original that people have no choice but to pay attention.
 
N

Noi

Member
I buy a LOT of PSN games sight unseen and Derrick wasn't even a blip on my radar. I knew it existed when Kassatsu made the thread about too many games releasing that week.
 
S

Speevy

Banned
Noi said:
I buy a LOT of PSN games sight unseen and Derrick wasn't even a blip on my radar. I knew it existed when Kassatsu made the thread about too many games releasing that week.
Click to expand...

Yeah, even I haven't bought it yet.

Think about that for a second.

I keep hovering over it, and I think "Nah, this game just doesn't look like my cup of tea."

I'll probably pull the trigger eventually, but sometimes a game just looks unappealing.
 
Sintoid

Sintoid

Member
chris.trejo said:
Was the game good at least? I heard of it from Gaf but never looked into it, didn't even notice it came out (Haven't been into games lately because of work anyways)
Click to expand...

The game is funny but quite short. It's not expensive actually and in the end it worth the price.
 
C

Castor Krieg

Banned
Lord Error said:
You should (on PSN, anyway), if your game has sales potential.
Click to expand...

No, you shouldn't. No possible exclusivity sales will off-set initial loss of opportunity by selling on more than one service. Exclusivity deals for indies are modern form of slavery, you do not sign them if you can help it.

So what did exclusivity gave him? As others have mentioned there was no PR or marketing. Seems like Sony didn't give him any money. So what exactly did he gain?
 
B

BudokaiMR2

Member
The people saying release on Steam are over-simplifying things just a teeny bit imo.

It's not really that easy especially since they are currently forced to fight among 900+ other games in what is already a fairly dead community(Greenlight.)
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Speevy said:
I'll probably pull the trigger eventually, but sometimes a game just looks unappealing.
Click to expand...

That's my problem with PSN nowadays. Even if there are a lot of indie games coming to (and are already on) PSN, they don't look very interesting, to the point they're all starting to look the same (so many twin stick shooters, 2D/2.5D platformers).

The last indie games that I bought were Retro City Rampage and Machinarium. RCR was average at best and Machinarium was released on PC 3 years ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Lara Croft Crowned Most Iconic Video Games Character of All Time, According to BAFTA Poll
2 3 4 5
208
7K
ResurrectedContrarian replied
Coming to Xbox Game Pass: MLB The Show 24, Lightyear Frontier, Control Ultimate Edition, and More
Platform 2
70
3K
Jesb replied
INSIDE APPLE'S MASSIVE PUSH TO TRANSFORM THE MAC INTO A GAMING PARADISE
2 3 4
151
14K
RoboFu replied
[VGC] Cancelled Hyenas was ‘Sega’s biggest budget game ever’, it’s claimed
News Game Dev 2
93
6K
DaGwaphics replied
The State of Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks: A breakdown of all the Confirmed Projects, Leaks, and Rumors
Opinion News Rumor 2
84
9K
Ozriel replied
Top Bottom