Oops, perhaps I jumped the gun on the lifetime XBox 360 sales number. According to gamasutra, 178,069 XBox 360 consoles have sold in Japan during its lifetime as of last week. That's much higher than 100K and I doubt that the extra 78K units were sold just last week....or did they?
Indeed, Blue Dragon did outsell Zelda during Blue Dragon's launch week. According to the numbers at GAF, Blue Dragon placed 4th overall in Japan with 80,348 units sold during the week of 12/04 - 12/10. Zelda did not even make the top 10. However, Zelda launched the week before (11/27 - 12/03). In that week, Zelda placed 4th overall with 139,011 units sold. Furthermore, Zelda launched on 12/02 so that means it sold 139K+ units in just two days, whereas Blue Dragon launched on 12/07, giving it four days to amass its 80K+ sales.
Hardware availability had little to do with Blue Dragon outselling Zelda last week. XBox360 has been out for a year in Japan but had barely sold over 100K units before Blue Dragon came out. The Wii sold 350K units in its first two days. (Last week's hardware numbers have not been reported yet.)
Wow, thanks for all the feedback, good and bad. As I write this, there are 87 posts discussing my original post and I have read all of them. Here are the main points that I have gathered (and agree with or at least appreciate).
1. I picked the wrong type of program to attempt to sell. 2. Attempting to create hack-proof software is futile. 3. I should greatly differentiate my feature-set (i.e. more web-spider-type functionality), go open source, create a community, sell the product to an established company, or give up on this program altogether.
I also read some posts that suggested porting to Linux, but then I would just be competing with a different set of apps.
Its nice to see some positive feedback. I like your community idea. I am sure this works better with an open source project, but I'll consider my options.
You are so right. I have used at least 3 different protection mechanisms. It took crackers nearly a month to crack the last one and I got an anonymous e-mail as soon as they did.
A can say a lot in response to the comments above, but instead, I'll summarize.
I have purchased Opera, my development IDE, an image library, and many other software products (including MS Windows). (I have also sponsored Opera via banner ads.)
I have not donated to the Apache or JBoss projects since I haven't made enough money with which to do so, but I have their logos on my pages to give credit where credit is due.
You are very right about at least two things: Let the pirates have the software and try to see it as cheap marketing. I need to make my software stand out more than it already does.
Actually, I meant unsold merchandise that is returned to me by the store. Apparently, there is a good (bad) chance that some of packages may not sell and I will have to try to sell them through a different store or let them rot.
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Oops, perhaps I jumped the gun on the lifetime XBox 360 sales number. According to gamasutra, 178,069 XBox 360 consoles have sold in Japan during its lifetime as of last week. That's much higher than 100K and I doubt that the extra 78K units were sold just last week. ...or did they?
Indeed, Blue Dragon did outsell Zelda during Blue Dragon's launch week. According to the numbers at GAF, Blue Dragon placed 4th overall in Japan with 80,348 units sold during the week of 12/04 - 12/10. Zelda did not even make the top 10. However, Zelda launched the week before (11/27 - 12/03). In that week, Zelda placed 4th overall with 139,011 units sold. Furthermore, Zelda launched on 12/02 so that means it sold 139K+ units in just two days, whereas Blue Dragon launched on 12/07, giving it four days to amass its 80K+ sales.
Hardware availability had little to do with Blue Dragon outselling Zelda last week. XBox360 has been out for a year in Japan but had barely sold over 100K units before Blue Dragon came out. The Wii sold 350K units in its first two days. (Last week's hardware numbers have not been reported yet.)
Wow, thanks for all the feedback, good and bad. As I write this, there are 87 posts discussing my original post and I have read all of them. Here are the main points that I have gathered (and agree with or at least appreciate).
1. I picked the wrong type of program to attempt to sell.
2. Attempting to create hack-proof software is futile.
3. I should greatly differentiate my feature-set (i.e. more web-spider-type functionality), go open source, create a community, sell the product to an established company, or give up on this program altogether.
I also read some posts that suggested porting to Linux, but then I would just be competing with a different set of apps.
Its nice to see some positive feedback. I like your community idea. I am sure this works better with an open source project, but I'll consider my options.
You are so right. I have used at least 3 different protection mechanisms. It took crackers nearly a month to crack the last one and I got an anonymous e-mail as soon as they did.
Well thank you, Jordie. :-)
A can say a lot in response to the comments above, but instead, I'll summarize.
I have purchased Opera, my development IDE, an image library, and many other software products (including MS Windows). (I have also sponsored Opera via banner ads.)
I have not donated to the Apache or JBoss projects since I haven't made enough money with which to do so, but I have their logos on my pages to give credit where credit is due.
You are very right about at least two things: Let the pirates have the software and try to see it as cheap marketing. I need to make my software stand out more than it already does.
but really if you find a _good_ solution, screw your image browser, start selling that solution instead.
I like your last comment. I have thought about doing this.
Actually, I meant unsold merchandise that is returned to me by the store. Apparently, there is a good (bad) chance that some of packages may not sell and I will have to try to sell them through a different store or let them rot.
I have also been using NTI Backup Now. Its easy to use, works with CD-RWs, and is decently priced.