How to establish a profitability forecast for a PC / Console video game?
The objective of an investor is to know the profitability forecast of your video game before proceeding with its financing. This forecast is all the more strategic as the development of a PC / Console video game requires hundreds of thousands or even millions of euros of investment.
Economic crises usually bring investors to their senses, even if financing has been provided in the past on a whim. These investors want to have visibility on the profitability of your video game well before its release.
Predicting profitability by analysing the profitability of competing video games is an illusion
Many studios present their video games as direct competitors to the huge blockbusters on the market. After all, if these competing games have been enjoyed by gamers, your game is bound to interest them and they will rush to buy it! However, once funded and released, the game may only be of interest to a very small number of people. This is the case for many of the projects currently on the market, which unfortunately have not met their public.
What is most surprising is that studios seem to forget to assess the interest of their market for their product. These companies very often confuse "competitive research" with "market research". Competitive research is the study of the characteristics of competing products. Market research is studying the expectations of the people who will buy your product. And these are two very different concepts. Currently, for a financial expert, financing a video game is more of a gamble than an informed choice. Under these conditions, your arguments are insufficient to convince an investor of the success of your product.
Bigwhoop helps you predict the profitability of your PC / Console game
From the pre-production phase, our agency allows you to estimate the profitability forecast of your video game. We use real data from social networks (more about our market analysis method). This method allows us to determine the preferences regarding the game's features and the level of interest of your market. We can also identify the distribution platforms on which your future buyers want to purchase the game.
By estimating the selling price and production costs, we are able to estimate the marketing costs necessary to reach the break-even point. When the break-even point is reached, the net profits generated by your game pay back your production and marketing costs. Beyond this threshold, your additional marketing expenditure is converted into net profits until your market is exhausted.
Bonus Stage : Break-even can be achieved more quickly by lowering your production costs. The use of the video game tax credit or by_obtaining a subsidy via the video game support fund can help to ensure this cost reduction.