Jeez - $3000 a month is only 5.5 sales a day. It's really not all that much (though significantly more than what I'm doing at the moment). It's also only 36k a year. I really don't understand why anyone would think it's an outrageous target. Sure - lots of us don't make that on a game, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.
I wouldn't call it "bad" - that's really what I was meaning by my starting question. Game launch, etc. - that explains a lot. But as I said our games are selling a little better with ever day - so we don't know yet what the game launch means for good developed company like Steve has. Just one more mention how are we different here - nothing more
Thinking more about it, is non-sense talking about amount/month for a game. What matter should be the total amount (which is difficult to determine). A game that still sells even a few copies month but for 10 years would be better than one that sells a lot the first month then practically stops (I don't have such examples to make with my games since they're all still relatively new).
So svero's point is that success is really a matter of return of investment. The success of a three months game with a one man team and programmer's art is judged differently from a one year game with a team of 5. Actually, if they bring in the same amount of money, the one that sells a lot in the first month is much much better than the 10 years one.
Yes obviously I meant something like: game A = 200$/month x 10 years game B = 2000$/month x 6 months then 10$/month
The second game would keep me working fulltime on indie games for a year, the first game wouldn't even finance one month. Considering my goal to reach self-sufficient levels, I would rather have a B game on my hands. Besides, you never said anything about the sequel of game B. Would it earn $2K x 6 as well?
I can't think of a reason why a game would make 200$ for 10 yrs and another would make 2000 per month for 6 months then die off. The one that makes more money will probably continue to make more money in the long run as well unless there's something really topical about it.
Well the classic align 3 colors or puzzle games comes to mind. This could be an example of game B. The niche games like Spidweb games could be a good example of game A. Those are only my supposition since I don't really know the sales figures of those games But is a long story since you should also take into account the time spent working on game A-B...