A little iPhone game called Infinity Blade is more profitable for Epic Games than Gears of War.
That is, of course, if you look at it on a relative scale. Obviously, the company’s total revenue brought in by its blockbuster console titles far outweighs that of any of its mobile endeavors.
But the cost of creating, marketing, and distributing Gears of War, for example, and monstrous. And when you look at a strict scale of dollars spent versus dollars earned, Infinity Blade is at the top.
So yes, Epic co-founders Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein have gone on record as calling the iOS title the “most profitable game we’ve ever made.”
Now of course, Epic could not exist if it only made games like Infinity Blade. If you spend $10 to make a game and earn $50 in sales, but another game costs you $1 million to make $3 million, no company in the world is going to choose the former.
But it is still a very salient statistic, since many companies still consider the mobile space nothing more than a cash suck. For many, it’s still a platform for testing and research, but Epic is proof that it can be very profitable.
The company sees a bold future for mobile gaming, with a specific penchant for the iPad. After all, Apple’s newest tablet is nearly capable of processing the same kind of content as an Xbox 360 or PS3.
So while you shouldn’t expect the Gears of War franchise to evaporate any time soon, do expect to see many more Epic titles on the non-traditional gaming platforms.
