hey, I actually have some insight on this! Was talking to publishers a LOT last GDC about a mobile game I have been working on. Basically, here is what I gleaned from them (gonna make a lil thread here...)
1. Mobile games are very much a zero sum game for everyone involved...due to app store saturation, it is obviously hard to punch through and be seen and sell copies
as a result, there aren't really sales tiers like you see on steam. 100k copies, unbelievable, 10k, alright, made our money back, 1000, welp
On mobile, you almost always sell few copies, rarely you sell a LOT of copies. That is not a super great place for a pub to be in
On mobile, you almost always sell few copies, rarely you sell a LOT of copies. That is not a super great place for a pub to be in
2. Typical marketing approaches don't really make sense either. I have seen a lot of mobile folks try to market thru touch arcade, various iOS/Android centric blogs, reddit, twitter, etc. And unfortunately NONE of that matters because apps live and die by the App Store Feature
So for a seasoned publisher or a first time student, it all boils down to having a good Apple contact and making a product they are interested in featuring. Apple can grant/deny features at any time at their discretion, and are generally pretty fickle about it
So the big advantage that a pub gets you here of course is having that Apple contact at the ready which are notoriously hard to find on your own. If you want your first mobile game to be a hit and not try your luck with Apple, then a pub might be worth it
(Have to walk to work! Will be back shortly!)
3. So we know marketing doesn’t work in the usual way, but we still want to promote our game outside of getting it featured. Personally (untested advice following) I think the best way to think about this going forward is to approach your game like a more traditional art piece
Instead of talking to gamer-centric publications, talk to art and design blogs, or your publications specific to your city (we have Made In LA for example). Sell yourself, and your process. The dream article about your game is not in Game Informer, it’s in TIME.
Maybe this all seems obvious, but I still see so many folks marketing their mobile titles for gamers, and that is just not the App Store at all! You should be marketing to grandparents, your teachers, your younger cousins etc
Anyways, the App Store redesign is super focused around providing that kind of content around featured apps, so it helps in that regard as well
4. So as far as answering the question goes, I think a publisher is worth it if you have already done as much as you can to minimize the risk of the project and need help with marketing and/or navigating the nebulous task of getting featured on the App Store
Maybe numbers will help too - I was pitching for an 8 month dev cycle for one full time person (me) and another part time person for $75k (small, small budget). I talked to one minor publisher and two major publishers, and all agreed that number sounded about right.
That is the kind of risk I think most major publishers are interested in for mobile - sub-$100k and under 1-year dev cycles.
One other thing - obv same situation in other marketplaces, but even more so on mobile imo:
Aesthetics really matter, both for talking to publishers and in selling copies on the app store. The game I was pitching is super polished, off-brand but cohesive
Aesthetics really matter, both for talking to publishers and in selling copies on the app store. The game I was pitching is super polished, off-brand but cohesive
and all the publishers I talked to about it seemed to genuinely think that it would get impressions based on that aspect alone. As a result, I think going into any mobile project with a super clear aesthetic design language is very important
Finally, IT IS SUPER WORTH NOTING that Thomas and I decided in the end to not pursue a publisher arrangement, even though we had gotten quite far in the process.
There were a lot of factors in this decision, but mainly it boiled down to wanting to reduce scope and getting the game out sooner, which would increase risk for the publisher (less product to sell) and we didn't want to spoil any relationships we had made with a stressful launch
Well I am rambling so I will wrap this up! But I think that if your game sounds at all like my above situation, (short dev cycle, sub $100k budget, small team, aesthetic stand-out, needs help with app store feature) then you are probably in a good fit for a publisher arrangement
If you have any questions about the process I went through, feel free to @ me or DM! Really like talking about biz stuff like this so I don't mind one bit
