Games › Choices Matter › Choices Matter + Mechs
Should I ship a Mech Choices Matter game?
Choices Matter + Mechs
Only 15 developers shipped a Mech Choices Matter game in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, The Forever Winter, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 28 more are announced, ×4.7 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $3.5k, ×5.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $480; 1 in 20 cleared $19M, ×30624 the market median. Revenue is down 85% on the market; 28 games are announced against 6 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $480 (exactly $480) |
|---|---|
| Median | $3.5k (exactly $3,506) |
| Top 25% | $64k (exactly $64,136) |
| Top 5% | $19M (exactly $19,231,987) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 15 |
| Released games | 37 |
| Announced | 28 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $8.99 |
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 down 85% on the market, supply 35% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 3%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Choices Matter
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
- Mechs
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Choices Matter
- Price point
- $8.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 10 games average 69% positive over 23,072 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $480. 4 in 10 of the 9 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 28 games are announced against 6 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.7 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Choices Matter with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVStrong odds
- + Escape RoomFair
- + SportsFair
- + RhythmFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + TriviaFair
- + Board GameFair
- + RacingFair
- + ChessFair
- + Real-Time with PausePoor odds
- + RomePoor odds
- + World War IPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Forever Winter | · EA | $29.99 | 21,376 68% | 641k | $19M (exactly $19,231,987) | Fun Dog Studios |
| | Baldr Sky | older | $49.99 | 1,524 93% | 46k | $2.3M (exactly $2,285,543) | Sekai Project |
| | LEFT ALIVE™ | older | $59.99 | 622 31% | 19k | $1.1M (exactly $1,119,413) | Square Enix |
| | ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE | older | $34.99 | 698 90% | 21k | $733k (exactly $732,691) | MAGES. Inc. |
| | Mech Armada | older | $19.99 | 653 81% | 20k | $392k (exactly $391,604) | Lioncode Games |
| | Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog | $14.99 | 843 90% | 25k | $379k (exactly $379,097) | Space Colony Studios | |
| | ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos | older | $29.99 | 379 95% | 11k | $341k (exactly $340,986) | MyDearest Inc. |
| | Heaven Will Be Mine | older | $14.99 | 709 92% | 21k | $319k (exactly $318,837) | Pillow Fight, Worst Girls Games |
| | BE-A Walker | older | $9.99 | 651 72% | 20k | $195k (exactly $195,105) | Tequilabyte Studio |
| | 9th Sentinel Sisters | $7.99 | 273 69% | 8.2k | $65k (exactly $65,438) | Live Wire | |
| | Mech Academy | $9.99 | 214 91% | 6.4k | $64k (exactly $64,136) | Space Samurai Studio | |
| | Bonaparte - A Mechanized Revolution | $24.99 | 72 68% | 2.2k | $54k (exactly $53,978) | Studio Imugi | |
| | Slyders | $9.99 | 162 85% | 4.9k | $49k (exactly $48,551) | Kato Games | |
| | Genesis Survivors | · EA | $4.99 | 107 69% | 3.2k | $16k (exactly $16,018) | Aeternum Game Studios S.L |
| | Starbug Troopers : The 4 horseflies of the apocalypse | $8.99 | 13 84% | 390 | $3.5k (exactly $3,506) | Big Loot Games | |
| | Triptych Book I: Blockhead | · EA | $13.99 | 6 66% | 180 | $2.5k (exactly $2,518) | Mords, Tootsie |
| | STEEL SERAPHIM: PROVING GROUNDS | $6.99 | 6 100% | 180 | $1.3k (exactly $1,258) | TYPE THREE INDUSTRIES |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.