Sales increase in the holyday season

[ninjasamurai]

Is there a noticeable sales increase for indie games during the holyday season? Is it a good time to release a new title like the retail games do?

[Sillysoft]

Last year December was my best selling month by quite a big margin. I'm not sure how much of it was because of holiday buying, since I had some good press that month also. Still, I am hoping for the same bump this year and will be trying to make it very easy to buy my game as a gift.

I don't know if actually launching a game in this period would be the best. My game was already out for a long time before then.

[arcadetown]

Been discussed a few times here but can't find the threads. To me the best time is asap, any time you miss having your game on the market is time you miss generating revenue. Plus if you launch during perceived slow times you have less competition and more chance for better exposure. Here past sales spiked Nov - Feb and May - June however the difference wasn't worth talking about (max 10 - 20%). In fact recently all summer long was kick butt here so not even sure that observation is still valid.

[DFG]

December and January are screamin'

[ninjasamurai]

I couldn't find any thread about it either. I was planning to enter crunch mode all october to make it for a late november release, but maybe it's not worth it anyway.

[gmcbay]

My guess is there isn't too much point in going that route.

It is likely that you may see a lot of sales around the holiday months since people do tend to spend more during gift-giving season, but when big retail games release during this period, they are accompanied by multi-millon dollar marketing efforts (and thanks to previews and such people have been aware of their impending release for months if not years).

As an indie, the chance that you'd gain enough mindshare to take advantage of this seasonal buying if you release in November is essentially non-existent.

[Nexic]

Just want to point out that in my experience time makes a huge difference. For example pretty much all my direct sales come during weekends and bank holidays. And for Desperate Space my summer direct sales were lower than Xeno Assault II's, even though the game is proven to be a much stronger converter and seller on other channels.

Heres an interesting one, on ArcadeTown I get a lot more sales during the weekends, but Brian says for other games weekends don't make much difference. Both I and him think it's down to the kind of games I make and the audience they attract.

Possibly puzzle games attract housewives who are available during the week, where as shooters appeal to the male husband who is more likely to be at work.

[arcadetown]

Shoot can anyone dig up a link to the previous threads on this? Looked but can't find it. Basically never any concensus as many different experiences.

[1EyedJack]

Some info can be found here:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=3245
http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-447.html
http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-1720.html
http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-787.html
http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-3374.html

[arcadetown]

Thanks, those links were exactly what was thinking of.