How much can a Clash of Clans clone earn?

Startup Space Ape Games shared its first successes: their game Samurai Siege earns about $ 50 thousand a day with a DAU of 200 thousand users. 

Samurai Siege is a clone of Clash of Clans with an “oriental flavor”. Instead of harsh bearded men and valkyries, samurai and ninjas fight with each other in it (curiously, however, the style itself is the same – “Street Fighter meets Disney”). So there are no questions about which market the game was created for.

The key innovation that distinguishes the project from the original is the ability to attack the enemy with alliances in a full–fledged synchronous multiplayer.

Samurai Siege was developed by 18 employees in 8 months, it took them another 2 months to polish the game in the markets of New Zealand and Australia. 

The worldwide release of the game on the App Store took place on September 30 and October 5 on Google Play. To date, the number of downloads has exceeded 700 thousand.

Considering that the DAU of the project at the moment is 200 thousand, and the project is already earning more than $ 50 thousand a day, it may seem that Space Ape Games is a beautiful success story. A young startup shoots a cool-made clone and slowly begins to conquer the market. Almost a sample. 

However, everything is not as simple as it seems. There is no success story of “princes in the mud” here.

In general, when you look closely at Space Ape Games, it seems that the startup itself is, if I may say, of a project nature. It was created with the expectation of success. 

The company is headed by John Earner, the former head of Playfish product. The monetization of Samurai Siege is handled by Simon Hade, who was responsible for the monetization of Skype, as well as for social games in Electronic Arts. Among the observers on the board of directors is a group of investors. By the way, not without the help of the latter, the company raised $ 4.4 million. 

In other words, there is no such thing as “my friends and I made a game that suddenly became popular”. IT’s just that IT venture finance specialists and social gaming veterans have come together.

Do you think the mobile market is waiting for the emergence of a large number of such small teams, headed by former stars of the social market?

A source: http://venturebeat.com