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Should I ship an Alternate-History Character Customization game?
Character Customization + Alternate History
Of 25 developers who shipped an Alternate-History Character Customization game in the last 2 years: 3 in 10 made under est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 4 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 20 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 99 more are announced, ×8.3 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $600, level with the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $300; 1 in 20 cleared $5.6M, ×8935 the market median. Revenue is up 185% on the market; 99 games are announced against 12 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $298 (exactly $298) |
|---|---|
| Median | $599 (exactly $599) |
| Top 25% | $6.2k (exactly $6,236) |
| Top 5% | $5.6M (exactly $5,611,465) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 25 |
| Released games | 132 |
| Announced | 99 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $6.99 |
momentum: how a niche's revenue percentiles and developer count moved between two equal, adjacent periods, divided by the market's own move. See method., 12 months: revenue up 185% on the market, supply 10% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 20%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Character Customization
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Alternate History
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry JRPG, RPG, Strategy
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $59.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Anime, Pixel Graphics, Story Rich
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $59.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 82% positive over 19,755 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $300. 8 in 10 of the 20 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 99 games are announced against 12 developers who shipped in the last year, ×8.3 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Character Customization with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Football (American)Strong odds
- + Real-TimeStrong odds
- + Music-Based Procedural GenerationFair
- + TransportationFair
- + MinigamesFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + BikesFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + GamblingFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + TypingFair
Comparable games
The Outlast Trials 2024 · $109M 
XCOM® 2 2016 · $48M 
Digimon Story Time Stranger 2025 · $33M 
HUMANKIND™ 2021 · $33M 
ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV 2020 · $24M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Outlast Trials | older | $39.99 | 90,997 92% | 2.7M | $109M (exactly $109,169,101) | Red Barrels |
| | XCOM® 2 | older | $19.99 | 79,998 84% | 2.4M | $48M (exactly $47,974,801) | Firaxis Games, Feral Interactive (Mac),… (Firaxis Games, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux)) |
| | Digimon Story Time Stranger | $69.99 | 15,845 89% | 475k | $33M (exactly $33,269,746) | Media.Vision Inc. | |
| | HUMANKIND™ | older | $49.99 | 22,165 68% | 665k | $33M (exactly $33,240,850) | AMPLITUDE Studios |
| | ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV | older | $59.99 | 13,086 62% | 393k | $24M (exactly $23,550,874) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
 | Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII | older | $59.99 | 5,828 57% | 175k | $10M (exactly $10,488,652) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. |
 | Sprocket | · EA older | $19.99 | 12,336 92% | 370k | $7.4M (exactly $7,397,899) | Hamish Dunn |
 | Steelrising | older | $49.99 | 4,568 73% | 137k | $6.9M (exactly $6,850,630) | Spiders |
 | ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE | $59.99 | 3,118 49% | 94k | $5.6M (exactly $5,611,465) | KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. | |
 | Phantom Doctrine | older | $39.99 | 3,821 73% | 115k | $4.6M (exactly $4,584,054) | CreativeForge Games |
 | Grit and Valor - 1949 | $19.99 | 274 75% | 8.2k | $164k (exactly $164,318) | Milky Tea Studios | |
 | Arisen Force: HeroTest | $10.99 | 374 82% | 11k | $123k (exactly $123,308) | Lemport | |
 | Class of Heroes 3 Remaster | $29.99 | 52 67% | 1.6k | $47k (exactly $46,784) | ACQUIRE Corp., Zerodiv | |
 | Geo Mythica | $14.99 | 50 100% | 1.5k | $22k (exactly $22,485) | Guin Entertainment, LLC | |
 | Ascendant Dawn | $15.99 | 13 84% | 390 | $6.2k (exactly $6,236) | Nikous Studio | |
 | ErMa (Early Mammal) | $7.99 | 11 90% | 330 | $2.6k (exactly $2,637) | AlmyriganHero | |
 | Wizard Confidential | $5.99 | 12 75% | 360 | $2.2k (exactly $2,156) | Choice of Games | |
 | Legacy of Ancestors | · EA | $6.99 | 6 33% | 180 | $1.3k (exactly $1,258) | 命运测试 |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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