German market

[Natalie]

Can anyone tell me the German game market capacity (in $), please?
Recently I was contacted by a German publisher who offered us a flat fee for 3 years for one of our games. But I do not really have a clue about the exact size of this market.
Many thanks in advance,
Natalie

[Didier]

It's not like US market ofcorse but it's one of the biggest markets in Europe for indie games. A lot of potential customers...

[JoKa]

There's also a lot of competition ;)
I don't know numbers of top sellers. From my own experience and other authors (some of them created shareware applications, some of them games) I have learned that you can expect between 2000-5000 CDs which are produced initially. When choosing the base value for your calculation, keep in mind that "german market" often means Austria and Switzerland, too.

[Didier]

There's also a lot of competition

That's also true. Another thing to keep in mind is that most indie games sell for $9.99, $12.95 or $14.95 instead of the normal online price ($19.95). So that alone is already a big downside :)

[JoKa]

At least our prices are in Euro :)
So a price of 14.95 Euro comes close to 19,95$ and the lower segments are more interesting than their US$-equivalents.

[Natalie]

So how much (in $)would you take as a flat for retail for 3 years?

Many thanks,
Natalie

[JoKa]

Insecure about this, so far I only had some low-price flat deals for older games used in games collections, which isn't comparable. I'd use 10-20% of the planned sales price and multiply with the number of CDs. Of course, this number is the critical point. Like said before, 2000-5000 CDs is a realistic range. I doubt you can expect more in a flat deal.

[jcottier]

Hello,

Could you provide me with a list of distributor in Germany?
I am looking for small distributors that might work directely with supermarket.

My game OvO (www.ovogame.com) is doing very well with these kind of distributor: they bundle it with a webcam and sell them in supermarket.

Thanks a lot.

JC

[MerscomMan]

At least our prices are in Euro :)
So a price of 14.95 Euro comes close to 19,95$ and the lower segments are more interesting than their US$-equivalents.

One thing to keep in mind is that the German retail price is VAT inclusive while the US retail price is excluding tax. Thus, if a product sells for $19.95 in the US, the retailer gets $19.95 and tax is paid separately. If a product sells for Euro 14.95 in Germany, there is a 19% VAT tax included (thank Mrs. Merkel for the recent increase), so the price paid to the retailer is actually only about 12.56 Euro (or US $16.47).

It's a long way of saying that your retail price is still significantly less than your ESD or US retail prices. Just something to keep in mind when selling anywhere that has a VAT.

[Natalie]

Many thanks to you all! I think I will try to count it on my own now :) Though, the percent seems too small :(
Again, thank you ever so much for your help!

Best regards,
Natalie