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[Saty]

Mode 7's Paul Taylor has wrote a sort of a commercial postmortem of the game for Gamesbrief. Check out the article, too much to quote.

Frozen Synapse cost £140k to make. Mode 7 targeted sales of 100,000 copies in the first year. The results:

•Over 300k units sold since May 2011 (across all distributors, majority sold at a discount)
•Paid beta raised $135,000 and enabled us to switch to full-time work on the game
•Over $300k total in direct sales (i.e. via www.frozensynapse.com)
•Steam Top Sellers list for several days around launch
•28.8% of direct revenues came from special editions
•Just under 50% of free keys are used

Frozen Synapse has been a success for Mode 7, both for us personally and for the company. We proved that we could make a game that was creatively satisfying and commercially viable. We have been able to put our “best case scenario” plan into practise

Mode 7 are now working on a new IP, DLC for FS and the iPad version of FS.

http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/frozen-synapse-a-business-mini-postmortem/

 

[Dog Problems]

That's great news, it definitely deserves it. I'm sure the sales will go even higher once it hits iOS.

 

[subversus]

the game I want on iOS. This and Dungeons of Grimlock (or something like that).

 

[Ledsen]

Very deserved, amazing game.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Well done. Really looking forward to the iOS version.

 

[Riposte]

Just getting into this game, though very slowly since school is getting serious. One of the few good indie games(of notable stature, anyway).

 

[Neuromancer]

Glad they were successful, this game sounds great. I'll buy day one when it's on iPad.

 

[ghst]

for all the rhetoric regarding "achieving the game's intentions" that gets thrown around in linear aaa autogame defense threads, no title this year presented gamers with a more perfectly distilled and executed concept than fs.

using that barometer, it's an easy goty.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Frozen Synapse cost £140k to make

Wow really? That seems like a lot of money for a game of this scope. I hope some small time developer releases their budget break down. I want to know where does the money go in these types of games.

Anyway, congrats M7.

 

[snack]

Wow really? That seems like a lot of money for a game of this scope. I hope some small time developer releases their budget break down. I want to know where does the money go in these types of games.

Anyway, congrats M7.

Exactly what I was thinking. But congratulations to them nonetheless! This game is sweet.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Since they apparently made this game just for me I'm really happy that it turned out so well and kept their bank manager happy.

 

[Corto]

GOTY.

 

[Nabs]

That felt good to read.

 

[Cromulent_Word]

Aaaand it's coming to iPad soon.

Huge respect to Mode7. They did it right and they did it damn well.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Aaaand it's coming to iPad soon.

Huge respect to Mode7. They did it right and they did it damn well.

I dunno, it's a great game, but with all the waiting involved it was almost unplayable around launch.

:\

Waited a whole month before trying to get into it because of that.

 

[Sinatar]

Wow really? That seems like a lot of money for a game of this scope. I hope some small time developer releases their budget break down. I want to know where does the money go in these types of games.

Anyway, congrats M7.

Employees getting paid, office fees and bills, marketing, etc... 140k is a drop in the bucket really.

 

[Corto]

I dunno, it's a great game, but with all the waiting involved it was almost unplayable around launch.

:\

Waited a whole month before trying to get into it because of that.

Waiting for multiplayer games? Or for the opponent to make his play?

 

[Instro]

Good for them, FS is fantastic. However, their patch support of the game has been pretty bad. The delays on the last major patch, and the eventual subpar patch that was put out, pretty much killed the FS tourney we had going at GAF.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Waiting for multiplayer games? Or for the opponent to make his play?

Waiting for the server to load everything up and deliver it at all the points where it happens. The game communicates with the server a lot, so it made doing a ton of things multiplayer related really slow.

 

[Dascu]

Pretty great game. Glad to hear it's selling well, though I'm somewhat surprised by the dev costs. 140k pound seems pretty high, given the minimal graphics and such.

 

[Evlar]

Does anyone have any clarity on whether "300,000 units" means "300,000 copies of the game" or "300,000 purchases"? Frozen Synapse was (is?) sold as a two-copy bundle.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Employees getting paid, office fees and bills, marketing, etc... 140k is a drop in the bucket really.

Fair enough. Would love to get a more detailed break down, though. That said, I still think £140k is too high, even with these in mind.

 

[dLMN8R]

Does anyone have any clarity on whether "300,000 units" means "300,000 copies of the game" or "300,000 purchases"? Frozen Synapse was (is?) sold as a two-copy bundle.

Sure seems like it's actually 300,000 sales, since he later goes on to say that fewer than 50% of the free keys have been activated.

Also seems like this doesn't include Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle sales, since that event alone got hundreds of thousands of sales.

Fair enough. Would love to get a more detailed break down, though. That said, I still think £140k is too high, even with these in mind.

What kind of number are you expecting? Do you want people to live in poverty not taking any salary? People cost money. I don't see how 140k for a few people + outside art assets over 2-3 years is remotely unreasonable.