Looking for the Latest Industry Information..

#1 I think one of the difficulty metrics with any research in this area is a confusion of terms. Many traditional marketing firms utilize terms as adopted by the industry, therefore "indie" often becomes "casual gaming" which can often mean different things to different developers. Usually, aside from general articles on sites like gamasutra, most of the market research and statistics come from funded institutions. This means that you will have to specify their search criteria and pay for their services. I have seen a number of industry watch-dog sites pop up here and there, but I'm not sure if they're around or if they have fallen prey to waning interest among transitional developers. I'm sure others will be able to help more.

#2 Quantifying indie game sales to solidly indicate trends can be difficult. Unlike retail sales channels, indie games are much more decentralized and are usually privately held, so they don't NEED to report their numbers to anyone. I mean, if you are joe schmoe with a website and you enjoy a small but steady stream of sales each month of your own games, how is anyone going to find out how those games are doing? While alone you might be statistically insignificant, when you've got a few hundred Joe Schmoes out there all over the world doing the same thing, their combined sales may actually be something to write home about.

So getting "solid" information is hard. But here's some impressions I have received:

1. The CASUAL Game market has grown substantially in the last five years. The IGDA has a couple of white papers full of information on this. I don't have the link currently, but if you look at the IGDA papers on downloadable games, there's a wealth of information you can pick out.

2. Key changes in the market: I think XBLA for the XBox 360 could be considered a pretty significant milestone. There are several true "indie" games available on the XBox now, from PopCap, Reflexive, Ninjabee, Pom Pom, GarageGames, and others. Will it stay this way, or will all the major developers now jumping on the bandwagon squeeze the indies out? I don't know, but it is a fascinating development nonetheless, and also legitimizes the concept of downloadable games in the eyes of "hardcore" gamers. (Valve's "Steam" technology, and a couple of rumored competitors to that, are also doing this).

3. New Markets: XBLA for the 360, and we can certainly hope similar technology MIGHT appear on other consoles in the future. This is not to say that just anybody in their basement can create games for the consoles now. But if you are a "proven" indie, it is currently still possible. If this indicates a trend, then there's some exciting potential up ahead.

And of course, what EVERYONE is talking about these days is China. Asia has its own game industry, but there is also potential for other games to find strong Asian sales. There are also potential markets in eastern Europe. Russia and other countries in that region are getting more and more people online and playing games, often with refurbished machines with 3-5 year-old technology. I know of at least one indie developer who has experienced far more success in that sector than regular, online domestic sales.

#3 Thanks Jay, you hit the nail on the head on why my questions were posted here due to the limited research capabilities you've mentioned. I'll be sure to check out the IGDA as they are probably my best bet for finding such information. Thanks for helping me with my other questions as well and the information on the overseas market is very helpful.

I'm still curious as to if any developers, even more specificly the GarageGames team, are willing to disclose any hard numbers on their market findings with me for general purposes of understanding the current market. To be more specific on this research, it's actually something I need to find out for the class I'm taking on small business start-up, at the end of which I hope to have obtained some business knowledge to finally start up a development studio specificly for the indie market, hence the greater emphasis on GG. Realise please that I only ask for general information and not private information. A business wouldn't feel comfortable disclosing such facts, not to mention they also wouldn't pertain to the general information I require.

Should anyone wish to help further or include anything to what Jay has posted, please feel free to post here or attempt to contact me through this forum post for more private discussion. I forward my thanks and appreciation.

- Ronixus

#4 Jeff Tunnell talks a bit about a couple of your questions in his new professional blog, Make It Big In Games.