Yacht Club Games may have removed Shovel Knight's Nintendo exclusivity in recent months, but the game has still performed best on Nintendo consoles.
According to Nathan Vella, president and cofounder of Capy Games, 30 percent of sales have been on the 3DS, with 20 percent of total sales on Wii U. 14 percent came via Sony, and 4 percent on Xbox. The most successful single platform was Steam, with 32 percent of sales.
Vella - who gave the information during a Gaming Insiders event in San Francisco last week - states that this data proves that indies shouldn't ignore certain consoles when it comes to developing and publishing their games:
Shovel Knight broke the impression that indies don't sell so well on Nintendo, and Broken Age has a surprisingly huge following on Mac. All of these games are generating significant amounts of net revenue from a whole bunch of different platforms. If you were to remove a single platform, these developers would be leaving a significant chunk of money behind.
All of these games defied the belief there is a right platform or a wrong platform. Porting is really inexpensive, and you don't have to do it all at once.
Shovel Knight's connection with Nintendo has become even stronger of late, with the game getting its own amiibo figure.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 46
Most of the indie games don't sell that well. What about Swords & Soldiers 2 and Affordable Space Adventures and many more? Awesome games and some with a unique gaming experience but not so awesome sales figures.
"Shock as game sells best on systems it was first released on"
Or it reinforces the belief that you have to be a platformer to sell well on Nintendo hardware.
Should also account for people who have Wii U and PS4/Xbox who didn't need to buy it twice after it lost exclusivity
@boatie
It never was Nintendo exclusive.
@ShanaUnite fixed Or it reinforces the belief that you have to be a very good platformer to sell well on Nintendo hardware.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Edit: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3030529/infographic-of-the-day/hilarious-graphs-prove-that-correlation-isnt-causation#1
That's because Nintendo fans don't buy shovelware. They buy good games that fit their system like Shovel Knight.
It's not like Nintendo users have a huge selection of third party games to sink their teeth into. I might buy fewer indie games if that wasn't the case. Still, shovel Knight is a great game that deserves success on any platform.
Without a simultaneous platform release, this means very little.
@Balki What does "Yacht Club Games may have removed Shovel Knight's Nintendo exclusivity in recent months" mean then
@megamanlink Affordable Space Adventures is supremely good, if you're sleeping on it.
@Artwark 50% of total sales came from Nintendo hardware, 3DS & Wii U combined account for half of all Shovel Knight sales, I don't see how it's misleading?
Well, it is a great game in general and suits a wide audience. Unlike many other Indie games, it is not in your face artsy, hard or gross.
No-one has ever said indies don't sell well on Nintendo. I think the most people have said is that only particular kinds of indies sell well. Generally platformers and generally colourful art styles.
@Artwark How is it misleading? 50% of sales were to Nintendo players.
@Balki I'd be curious to see some sales figures for some of the games you mentioned as well as stealth Inc2 and swindle for example. Just to get an idea how successful they were with Nintendo consoles!?!
I think the basic message from this is: it was worth SK being on Nintendo systems.
Also worth noting the emphasis on how inexpensive it is to port games.
Obviously each game will have different degrees of success, as all indie games aren't created equal but I get what he is saying. I guess really depends on the type of audiences you are developing your game for. Shovel Knight is the type of game that easily fits on a Nintendo console, so its success wasn't a surprise. Yet, there are plenty of other quality indie games like Year Walk and Affordable Space Adventures that don't get anywhere near that success, even with GamePad exclusive features. I think people tend to gravitate towards retro style games more naturally, games that evoke memories from their childhood, because when a consoles sells as low as the Wii U you know most of the sales are from die-hard fans of Nintendo. They are the ones most likely to buy indie games.
The sort of people who bought Shovel Knight are the sort of people who played Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Mega Man, Duck Tales and Ghouls and Ghosts. These sort of people tend to own the Wii U. Expect these sort of people to do the same with Yooka-Lele.
The sort of people who own of Wii U are the sort of people who's sort of preference to games is not Sports, Shooting, and QTE lead Sandboxes.
Maybe its because Yacht Club didnt treat Nintendo platforms as a second thought choice and didnt make up any excuses why it didnt have this or that feature, why they cant support it in the future etc.
Also, it reached its main target audience. Most Nintendo fans grew up with platformers and are still coming back to Nintendo systems for them. Shovel Knight, being a homage to NES platformers, fits right into Nintendos Portfolio.
@Balki
They maybe good games but those are niche titles or unappealing. Or not marketed properly. Plus most of us prefer good platformers with good art styles, and not just on Nintendo systems. Look at Mighty No.9, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Shantae and the Half Genie Hero, Yooka Laylee etc are all successfully kickstarted platformers. I heard Ori and the Blind Forest is awesome as well on the XOne
Affordable Space Adventures (on my list to buy, but not on top of my list) is beautiful but looks boring story/lore wise. Swords and Soldiers looks like a mobile game. This is just my honest opinion and in no way an insult to these games. I have yet to play them. Maybe a demo could convince me to buy now rather than later.
Of course it sold well on Nintendo consoles. The games' appeal is largely based on the NES-era platformers, so the chance of reaching people who grew up with the NES or are generally fond of these older games on WiiU and 3DS is substantially higher than on Sony/Microsoft consoles, both of which entered during the 3D hightimes of gaming.
Also, Yacht Club games made an effort to actually promote each target platform with exclusive features and/or content, not to speak of the generous free DLC expansion. They simply made the market an attractive offer, and Nintendo fans were delighted to see a quality title being offered to them without any major drawbacks.
Nonetheless, Shovel Knight is an exception to the rule, not the other way around. The vast majority of indie games doesn't really fare that well at all, for various reasons I partially don't fully understand.
@boatie Affordable Space Adventures is easily one of the wii u' best games
@ULTRA-64
Well you could take a look at the Miiverse. Few posts could indicate bad/not so well sales figures. But I guess ASA sold good enough because there will be a free DLC. ASA is one of the best games of this generation. Especially in coop. I would say it is the best coop experience since Portal 2.
But it's still sad that many Nintendo fans prefer to buy old VC games instead of new great and unique ones. It's especially odd that they're complaining about how much some games costs but then buying VC games for 7-10€/$ which they have already played many times. And at the same time they're screaming for new games. That makes no sense to me.
@boatie
Shovel Knight was supposed to be on PC, 3DS and Wii U. So it never was exclusive. Also it never was Nintendo exclusive in terms of consoles. No one said it would be just on Nintendo consoles/handhelds. It was kinda obvious that the game would be on other systems as well.
It was a rather high profile release so the strong sales do not surprise me. I don't know if it suggests Indie games as a whole perform particularly well on Nintendo platforms though.
Well as Steam, 3DS and Wii U are the 3 key platforms without a specific subscription service is it really that much of a suprise? I would imagine the majority of X1 and PS4 owners on the fence would simply wait for their Subscriptions to give this to them for free.
What is good to hear is that Yacht club didn't diss the 4% X1 sales, still citing each platform to contribute a sizeable chunk. This infers that the game has done so well even that comparatively meagre 4% was a resounding profit making success. That reads as great for Gaming, where well marketed and reasonably well made games are getting positive sales in an industry that is relying more and more on a subscribe and play mentality, rather than the more traditional, buy it an own it, which is a much a harder sell for Downloadable games (an yes I am aware Shovel knight is also getting a physical release, because of it's success, they can put that profit into getting it out to even more users).
while I personally didn't think much of Shovel Knight, enough people love the game and I wish Yacht club every success with future projects, I will certainly be keeping my eye on them.
As too poor sales of Swords and Soldiers 2 and Affordable Space adventures, in an ideal world those two games would be high in the pack on Wii U, because they are both solid uses of the hardware that encourage the player to actually 'think', which is exactly the way I want gaming to go. Unfortunately they needed a better 'hook' to draw people toward them (affordable space adventures needed more Star Wars/Star trek, Sword an Soldiers needed less Cartoon more Golden Ax vibe, simple fixes to appeal more to the masses).
Considering the hardware numbers, I'd say 20% for Wii U is pretty impressive. I wonder how many they have sold over all......1.5 million.....2 million? I think I remember a report about them being close to a million sold not long after it's release.
@MrGawain You took the words right out of my mouth. The game was clearly influenced by old-school Nintendo games and has attracted buyers who love old-school Nintendo games. But on a side note, the only reason it's sold well is cos it's a great game in its own right. So many indies think they can milk the nostalgia cow, without bringing any flair or polish to the table
It's a good game therefore it sells wells for Nintendo gamers who know how to recognize good games. The dudebro audience doesn't like games like this unless it has some rifles and stuff.
Nintendo also gave them free advertising, Kit from Nintendo Minute in particular shown multiple times how he is a fan of the game.
This seems pretty logical. You know, target audiences and all. Shovel Knight is trying to be an 8-bit stylized game in a modern era. There's a large portion of PS4 & XBone players who don't even recognize that 8-bit gaming ever existed.
@luke88 I second that. I hope it doesn't get overlooked come awards season.
@boatie they could make even more money. More store fronts more money
@Dpullam year walk came out in America on the 17th and it is currently at the top of the indie sales chart so what are you talking about.
I would love to spend all of my money on indie titles for the Wii U if I could, because I know I am missing out on some fantastic experiences. However, I just can't afford to do that. So I have to be selective and only buy games that are truly superlative. Maybe when I have more money I can go back and fill in the gaps on my wishlist, but there are a lot of those.
@FargusPelagius
I'm actually curious about the meager sales on XB1 and PS4. Was it worth it to port to those platforms. It's entirely possible it wasn't. The implication is that it is worth it to port to all platforms you can because some may have a larger audience than expected and it's difficult to predict where it will be successful.
That said, you may be right and, if the porting process was cheap and painless enough even the small percentage of sales was worth the effort. It's not stated here, and I'd like to find out, honestly.
I only had to buy it once on PS3 to get both versions as was cross buy / save with the Vita version.
@Artwark By two percent higher than 3DS sales. Plus steam has more user than any other system.
@Damo I'm sorry. My bad. Didn't notice that 20% there. I thought the 30 % meant for both the 3DS and Wii U. :3
I honestly can't imagine playing shovel knight on any system but my 3DS, it just feels so nintendo-ish!
@Artwark No worries, easy mistake to make!
More like: "Excellent Shovel Knight Sales Prove That Good Games Sell Well"
This and Cave Story are the ultimate indie titles for e-shop. I hope they don't give up on such support on next consoles.
@linforcer This.
@faint That is only because the game is new. My point is that it won't have the sales success that Shovel Knight had. It can still be a success, but getting the number of sales Shovel Knight has won't happen. That is practically a guarantee.
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