iPhone game made $250k in the first two months it was on the apple store. The game is priced at $5 and called Trism.
Surprised this wasn’t posted already.
has been posted with the original interview with the trism author unless I’m totally wrong.
Because it’s old, much-reported news and it was fair to assume pretty much everybody already knew. 
Should also be noted that the majority of games make little or nothing, just to keep things in perspective.
–Eric
oh is it… duhh I saw it posted on another forum and thought it was new. The article has today date on it…
Thats a lesson to learn.
CNN either is worlds behind “current” or just plain wrong.
If you think that you will make this kind of money on your game at this point in time, then you will definitely be surprised in a negative way.
Expect 5-10 sales a day once you drop of the initial interest list. Lots of more recent stats posted in other threads here on the forums.
Gold rush is over!
You can still make lots of money in the app store. It all depends on the type of app… and how much marketing you put into it.
I did a massive marketing pitch before I launched my first app… it’s on review sites across the internet, because of this… the app made it in the Top 100 paid apps list … once it dropped out of the top 100 … I still take in 60+ units a day … and that’s just US sales… add another 20+ from other regions.
So yes, the app store can still bring in great income if you promote your app.
Oh yea I know… Im’ not doing anything with the iphone. My stuff is strictly web browser based. I just figured some might like the article.
There is still always money to be made but typically it’s easier if you are one of the first, like this guy was.
60 (or even 100) units sold per day is nothing to sneeze at, but it isn’t great income either. That would be less than $50 per day after Apple’s cut (if priced at .99 cents). Which would be close to $20K per year … IF, and this is a big IF, sales were that strong for an entire year. I think it would be very difficult (for an indie) to keep a games sales that strong for more and a few months. Its a bummer, but I think it is true.
And to make a very good income, I’m talking quit-your-day-job and upper-middle-class-lifestyle, you would need multiple games selling this strongly.
I think trying to make income from iPhone games should be considered a part-time job (a second source of income at best).
Any one want to debate this? I would love to be wrong. 
I don’t think that’s really an issue, considering that you’re not limited to making one game per year. You just make more games.
–Eric
You beat me to it, Eric! Foiled again! 
Yes, release 6-7 games and that 20k a year turns into at least 80k - 90k a year.
With Unity, games for iphone aren’t as time consuming to make. You can produce a few games within a 5-6 month period and make a nice living off of it.
BUT, I do agree about it being a “part-time” gig. I personally would have to be making well over 150k a year before I quit my job and do strictly iphone programming.
Yes that’s true but, I also said "And to make a very good income, I’m talking quit-your-day-job and upper-middle-class-lifestyle, you would need multiple games selling this strongly. " So if we imagine that a game will have good sales for 4 months (before dropping down to very low digit single digit sales per day) then you would need at least 4 games selling well at all times, and be releasing a new game each month (to make up for the ones that are getting old-in-the-tooth).
What kind of a gig pays that much and isn’t a waste of your time? Or do you just have a lot of cats to support? 8)
Cats need tents!!!
:lol: :lol: I’ve started an underground Unity sweat-shop and all of my cats are doing the mesh modeling… Those tents will come in handy, thanks.
You can always move somewhere cheap, buy a nice smaller place, pay off the mortgage, and have a comfortable lifestyle on far, far, less than 80K/year. Trust me, I know. You don’t need mansions and SUVs, especially if you want to do freelancing for a living.
–Eric
Starving artist, eh?
I do agree with what your saying, somewhat. Although, $80k per year doesn’t get you a mansion, not even close.
Here is a picture of where I am planning on moving to when I “down-size” my life to fit the freelance lifestyle.
Maybe not if you have some kind of addiction to feed…
A friend of mine just bought a house for < $60 grand, near where I live, and something comparable in Boston, say, another place I’ve lived, would have easily been 10x as much. Mike Tyson sold one of his mansions, an hour from where I live, for $1.3 million.
http://retardzone.com/2008/09/23/abandoned-mike-tyson-mansion-in-ohio/
I’m sure you could either afford that on $80k/year, especially if you had an income-earning s.o., or get a slightly-less-nice mansion for less money.
Personally, I’m addicted to french burnt peanuts. I could never do this. Little bags of those things are like four bucks!
Nope, when I said “comfortable lifestyle on far, far, less than 80K/year,” I mean it, and that doesn’t include starving.
–Eric
I quit my day job two years ago and now live solely off money I make online. I did however keep my SUV but I do live cheap. I find it a nice trade off to not have a $2k/month mortgage vs doing what ever I like, when ever I like. 
Granted I’m not making my money from games online but internet marketing but still it’s the same basic concept. Start small and build up from there.