Wow, the last time I did this was for first quarter 2014 (Jan to Mar). That’s a long time with now data. Not that anyone was hanging their business plans on this, but I wanted to be transparent. So let’s dive in and get you the rest of the picture. I’m actually going to start with Total to Date before diving into a year’s data (Apr 2014 to Mar 2015) and then the second and third quarters of 2015.
One very interesting result is that of free products switched to pay what you want. Both Operation Nearscape and the Sword’s Edge System were switched, and the number of downloads in a year went from hundreds to under ten. I think this better represents the actual interest, meaning very little. Although the two games that use the Sword’s Edge System, which are not pay what you want, outsell it.
I have some theories but no actual evidence, so I’ll keep those to myself.
On to the numbers!
Total Sales to Date
Albenistan
Albenistan: Election Day (Modern Dispatch 113), 41
Khorforjan Gambit, 121
Qalashar Device, 134
Raid On Ashkashem, 176
Arcane Kingdoms
Arcane Kingdoms, 63
For Simple Coin, 62
Gifts of the Elder Gods, 39
Charity Products
Relief Effort, 55
Covert Forces
Canada’s Combined Security Reconnaissance Section, 110
Covert Forces, 100
Covert Forces Redux, 181
In Her Majesty’s Service, 155
Other
Centurion, 155
Cyber-state Avatar Toolkit, 42
Line Zero, 40
Operation Nearscape, Free Product, 430
Sword’s Edge System
Crossing the Millers, 147
Kheufer Scrolls, 192
Kiss My Axe, 206
Suffer the Witch, 93
Sword’s Edge System, Free Rules 1646
Sword Noir 603
It’s a bit astonishing to me that Sword Noir has sold over 600 copies now. That’s kind of amazing. Centurion is also doing really well, considering that 169 people also have copies of it through the Kickstarter. It’s honestly a bit humbling.
So, what does a year of sales for SEP look like?
Sales for Apr 2014 to Mar 2015
Albenistan
Albenistan: Election Day (Modern Dispatch 113), 3
Khorforjan Gambit, 3
Qalashar Device, 3
Raid On Ashkashem, 4
Arcane Kingdoms
Arcane Kingdoms, 6
Gifts of the Elder Gods, 1
Covert Forces
Canada’s Combined Security Reconnaissance Section, 5
Covert Forces Redux, 7
In Her Majesty’s Service, 7
Other
Centurion, 27
Cyber-state Avatar Toolkit, 3
Line Zero, 2
Operation Nearscape, Pay What You Want, 3
Sword’s Edge System
Crossing the Millers, 15
Kheufer Scrolls, 16
Kiss My Axe, 17
Suffer the Witch, 2
Sword’s Edge System, Pay What You Want, 9
Sword Noir, 36
This shows which products are SEP’s strongest sellers, and there is no surprise there. Also, many of our products sell only one or two copies per year. Sales of For Simple Coin, my sword noir fiction collection, have pretty much dried up. Gift of the Elder Gods sold a stunning one copy.
That’s not really fair as these numbers are from an RPG sales site. Still, my fiction does not sell well. Kind of makes me sad.
To get better into the weeds, let’s go to the quarterly reports.
Second Quarter 2015 (Apr to Jun)
Arcane Kingdoms
Arcane Kingdoms, 1
Covert Forces
Canada’s Combined Security Reconnaissance Section, 1
Covert Forces Redux, 1
Other
Centurion, 4
Sword’s Edge System
Crossing the Millers, 2
Kheufer Scrolls, 1
Kiss My Axe, 2
Sword Noir, 5
The second quarter of 2015 looks pretty familiar. This is what sales are like outside of periods of heightened interest – such as around a Kickstarter or when a product is otherwise showcased, like in a Bundle of Holding. You’ll notice the almost complete lack of d20 sales, although still a couple. Even the Sword Noir products are having a hard time holding on. Still, the main games – Sword Noir and Centurion – sell a game a month. Not a huge amount of money here (for your edification, the take home from this period was $94.35 USD, or $31.45 per month . . . beer money).
Third Quarter 2015 (Jul to Sep)
Albenistan
Albenistan: Election Day (Modern Dispatch 113), 1
Khorforjan Gambit, 1
Qalashar Device, 1
Raid On Ashkashem, 1
Arcane Kingdoms
Arcane Kingdoms, 1
Covert Forces
Covert Forces Redux, 1
In Her Majesty’s Service, 1
Other
Centurion, 23
Sword’s Edge System
Crossing the Millers, 2
Kheufer Scrolls, 2
Kiss My Axe, 2
Suffer the Witch, 2
Sword’s Edge System, Pay What You Want, 1
Sword Noir, 21
I am wondering what happened in the third quarter, and my suspicion is that this was the Gen Con effect. Now my actual sales at Gen Con were 9 Centurion and 10 Sword Noir. That’s not bad. Also, I think there was some spillover into August and September sales from people I met at Gen Con, or from interest due to Gen Con posts. The other possibility is a higher profile due to daily posting at SEP during August. It’s hard to say, but it was a good quarter.
I’ll do posts for the last two months in the coming week, just so I am up to date.
Isn’t this riveting? 😉
I haven’t been working myself to death this holiday season, just almost. Along with my job, I’m taking two Masters courses and the along with 4-8 page reports every week, sometimes – when I’m very lucky – with one week off, I also have to write two short essays of 500 words – properly sourced – for the forums, and then need to discuss with properly sourced 250 word responses. That’s at least 2,000 words of academic work per week, usually closer to 9,000.
No love for Kiss My Axe in November, but then it is the least popular of the games I have published. Not quite sure why that is, though it may be its size. It is the smallest game I’ve published. Perhaps I have also not marketed it well – that can honestly be said about all of my games.
Something that was missing from my other data was the Nefertiti Overdrive Quickstart Rules. This was due to a glitch in how that gets reported from OBS. Also, I’ll never have a real number for that because it was available through other methods which are not tracked. I’ve included the historic numbers downloaded on the Totals, but have just October’s downloads in the monthly numbers.
Other
I’m home now and the paper I’ve been working on for school has been handed in. Is there anything more awesome than that?