blog: xplorer2 sales SOS

[pdavit]

could it perhaps be that,
X2 is way to complicated for the average user.
Interface isn't intuitive for average user.

That won't justify a sales drop in between a few months or so. But on a much broader time span it can be a factor I presume.

[kunkel321]

Not sure I agree with dunno...
I will agree that some of the features are beyond the average user, but for the most part I think bells and whistles are at a minimum.  Frankly, I’m one of the people that would like to see more “beautification,” with skins, hi-rez icons, etc.  My impression is that this has been avoided because the developer is into function over form.  I.e. He’s not into bells and whistles…   As far as the copy bug you mention, that’s a pretty specific thing, that should be posted as a separate bug report.  I don’t think your one obscure bug should be factored into any consideration regarding the overall health of the company, for the direction x2 should go…  Just my $0.02…

[Tuxman]

x² sales are going down because most interested people already have bought it, and since there is no "Windows 8" yet in sight, another peak may not be faced during the upcoming months.

I became an x² user when I first got confronted with Vista's "new" "file manager". I needed an alternative. x² has always been "an alternative", so it has been filling a hole on the Windows applications market. "SOS" may be quite theatrical here. It's not that you had billions of € per year with it.

[nikos]

this week there was a regression to the mean, thank the 12 olympian gods

[Kilmatead]

...thank the 12 olympian gods

Well, 11 of them anyway - Hermes was made redundant (his taxes are showing a 404 error) with the advent of digital media, and the IMF decided two others were to go on protective notice, as Greece hasn't made enough sacrifices just yet.  And a couple of satyrs haven't been seen for awhile - which isn't in and of itself suspicious - but they do owe some back rent.  :(

[dunno]

this week there was a regression to the mean, thank the 12 olympian gods

Praise the gods, Polytheism seems to have advantages over monotheism, more is surely better.

my favourites are, Ares, Athena, Dionysus, Hermes, and Poseiden.

[Kilmatead]

Not directly related to Nikos' blog about some mysterious instant drop in sales, but more to the over-all state of trying to survive online, the owner of a small independent games company recently "bared all" when it came to his finances for the lifetime of his business.  What makes it interesting to read is that he's very specific about numbers - no hiding details - this is what he earns, this is what he pays, and these are the monthly incomes/breakdowns.  That this is about a "games" company is somewhat beside the point - any independent developer of any type could probably identify with his story.

Read the full story here, with a small follow-up here.

[nikos]

interesting read although i didn't read all of it
assuming he is telling the truth, he needs to think about his expenses a little bit as the game clearly sells, but his costs are lousy (pink champagne is good but you can survive with coffee too )

also if i count all the hours i've spent developing x2 burning the midnight oil, weekend and holiday overtimes then the 'profit' will be negative, but that's lousy costing for your own project!

i bet that after all this publicity his sales are going through the roof!

[profess]

although i wasn't too interested in reading the article, i just wanted to see the money flowing through his business and how much profit (or losses) he was making.

and i did go to check out the game.  looked a bit too hectic for my noggin though so i think i'll leave that one

but 'free' advertising isn't it.  loads of people would have read the article and he'd have made a few new customers from it also...

[Kilmatead]

I don't think the man's so Machiavellian that he'd imagine this as a means to boost advertising - heck, he probably didn't fully think through the ramifications of "pledging 100% of the profits from sale of [the expansion] (excepting any taxes and distributor fees)" to charity at the time.  Give away $3 per sale in the hopes of drawing more people to the core product is fine, until you add up the numbers... (what is it about humans that they always fall for the "sick children" appeal? )

The game itself is a bit of a niche animal - rather "hard core" strategy (with, frankly, downright spooky AI) that won't appeal to a lot of people, so he's already starting from a limited market.  A little off-topic, what might be of interest is a series of articles he wrote pertaining to designing emergent AI.  Fascinating stuff (for those of a particular technical disposition), and shows he takes his craft seriously, so he's no charlatan.

Considering that x2 is now apparently using social networking (the worst thing ever of human existence) to sell itself, any means necessary to garner attention seems to be the focus of the day for developers.

[nikos]

i don't give a rats @rse for social networking, i don't do facebook or the other stuff... but some people do, and as x2 used to have a 'recommend to a friend' command which used email, I just did a natural extension which includes email and other avenues that kids like

[flaps40]

Just love Xplorer2 but also I sometimes use (and get frustrated with that Opus thingy)

Have you ever looked into marketing thru BitsDuJour ?  Could be worthwhile if you have never tried it. I found X2 thru friends recommendations, not thru Google.

Also, I would like to see it re-named Explorer2

Flaps.

[nikos]

here's another more successful (?) game
http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/ ... opic=24174

[Kilmatead]

Yeah, Minecraft is a bit of an anomaly though, as far as indie-games go... made by some Swedish lad for his own amusement, it's sort of grown out of all proportion for a product technically still considered Alpha.

Aside from creating an interesting game mechanic, by chance he caught the attention of the Magazine crowd, PC Gamer (both the American and UK variants) and the lads there just won't shut up about it.  They write about it, they podcast about it, they reference it every 5 minutes "in relation to" some other game, ad nauseam .  Basically an infinite amount of free advertising directly at a core audience - and kids (mostly) being kids, they play what their friends play.  If he can translate that fluidly via his micro-transaction economic model that many games are adopting these days, he'll be a happy bunny.

You don't even want to know how much money the companies behind subscription-based gaming (World of Warcraft, EVE Online, etc) rake in each month from their millions (literally: millions) of players.  And what do these companies have to do?  Very little, really, besides host massive servers, and come out with random updates or "expansions" every 6 months.  It's scary what people will pay through the nose for, if they have the incentive, and more importantly, if that incentive revolves around its own social world.

That said, for every successful game, there are thousands of total failures - like anything it's a combination of decent-product and luck.  And largely revolves around the concept of "blowing shit up" or "shooting things" and "beating the crap out of your mates" online.  

As soon as you make the cover of File Manager Monthly, you'll know you have it made (for a month, at least).

Until then, it's the old "I like the look of your product, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter" world of dogfighting.

[pschroeter]

Every time I check my RSS feed for x2 I see "blog: My sales down the drain" and its freaking me out. I know this is serious news and I don't actually expect you to change it, but it does make me very uneasy.