What would be considered to be a "gold" seller?

[Promaginy]

The music industry talks about albums going gold or platinum based on the number of units sold. Does the computer game industry have a similar system?

We all know that the Sims and Myst have sold millions, but in your opinion what is a "gold" selling game? What is a gold selling shareware game?

[Yossarian]

This may be changing rapidly since games keep getting more popular, but at least a couple years ago from what I'd heard publishers considered a good seller as one that could get 50,000 sales (which is generally the first production run of a game not named half-life or halo).

100,000 seemed to be almost the "gold" standard and would denote a real hit.

Of course, these numbers are also taking into consideration games with a budget of under a couple million. Halo2 and Half-life and the like almost require a million units sold to even break even these days.

Most indies I would think would consider their game a smashing success with 10,000 sales.

[cliffski]

10,000 sales retail is pretty damned good. but 10,000 sales diretc online is fantastic.
Assuming a $25 price and a £10 take from that, thats £100k. Thats very very good.
I haven't made that yet sadly...
I think if you make a game yourself and sell a hundred copies its a success. Its very hard to persuade 100 people to buy a game you make on your own. You don't need to compete with microsoft, their costs are astronomic ;)

[SteveZ]

I think if you make a game yourself and sell a hundred copies its a success. Its very hard to persuade 100 people to buy a game you make on your own.

I see this in a different light. I think this is just the state of mind of how one perceive his/her game. If one believes 100 units are hard to come by, than he will be satisfied by only a sale a day or two. However, raising the bar, if that same individual aims for a 1000 units, he won't be satisfied by 1 unit sold per day and probably would do be proactive about it.

Just a personal example: "Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys" has been launched on october 13th 2004, in one month, I have sold over 100 units already by myself. I believe that hitting over 100 units fast is possible and almost everyday I think of new ways to market the game.

-Steve Z.

[tentons]

Just a personal example: "Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys" has been launched on october 13th 2004, in one month, I have sold over 100 units already by myself. I believe that hitting over 100 units fast is possible and almost everyday I think of new ways to market the game.
Congratulations on the sales! Care to share some of your successful marketing methods? :)

[James C. Smith]

Assuming we are not talking about console games or retail PC games and sticking just to downloadable games, there is still no simple answer. Everyone has different development costs, “profit margins” and goals. A game that sold 1,000 units could be a huge success while a game selling 50,000 could be a failure. I think it is easy to understand that some games cost a whole lot more to make than others. What I mean by “profit margins” is how mach the developer receives for each sale of the game. If you sell the game for $20 on your own web site using someone else’s order processing service, you probably keep $17 from each sale. But if you let Real networks sell your game, you may only get $3 per sale. So it takes a lot more units to cover your development costs. (Many portals including Real will usually pay you more than $3 but it can easily get that low what promotions or subscriptions are involved)

You may just be curious about how many units are sold of the top selling downloadable games. I think it is safe to assume that at least 100,000 units (and maybe a lot more) have been sold of games like Zuma, Collapse, Bejeweled, Ricochet, Jewel Quest, Magic Inlay, and Feeding Frenzy. The newer ones may not have hit the 100k mark yet but they will.

The games I am talking about here are probably the “double platinum” games. I am not sure what a “gold” game would be considered. I am also not sure how many units have been sold of games that have stayed more independent and not been distributed though big portals. (Pocket Tanks and Mutant Storm come to mind)