Making games is harder than building any other startup. And I've gone through it countless times.
With a SaaS product, you ship an MVP and iterate based on feedback. Users tell you what they need. You build it. They pay.
Games don't work like that.
You can spend 2 years crafting something beautiful. Perfect mechanics. Stunning art. Flawless code. Then you launch and... crickets.
Why? Because fun isn't a feature you can A/B test.
At Next Games, I remember that we killed 14 games for every 1 we launched. And we were the "experts."
The brutal math:
• 95% of games make less than $1000
• Top 1% of games make over 80% of revenue
• Often, you won't know where your game lands until it's too late
Unlike other startups, you can't pivot a bad game into a good one. You can't add a feature to make it fun. Either it clicks or it doesn't.
And when it doesn't? You've burned through $2M and 18 months with nothing to show.
That's why most game VCs have moved to B2B, platforms, and infrastructure. Predictable revenue. Clear metrics. No magic required.
But here's what they miss:
When a game works, it really works. The top mobile games companies make $5-10M per day. Per day.
The difference between failure and billions? Often a few simple insights about what make people smile and come back.
That's what makes games beautiful.
And impossible.