Ask HN: SaaS or mobile game?

2 pointsnullundefined3 comments

If you were equally skilled at crafting games and and SaaS products (assume you enjoy creating both), which would likely be more profitable?

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Assuming you identify an area for SaaS for which there is minimal competition, I would tend towards SaaS because it probably would take less effort to get to MVP and then with some upkeep it would have a longer revenue generating life.

Games and Apps need to be more polished to sell (if at all) and then if you don't have new releases new sales will rapidly decline. All successful apps and games end up getting a lot of on-going upkeep.

BUT ... in either case, it really depends on the marketing investment (money and effort). It's rare to create something that just sells itself.

If your SaaS does $10k/month you're paying expenses proportionate to how many people use your service and you've probably got upkeep.

If your app does $10k/month that can be pure profit and not even have a website.

True-- I keep hearing the game (or app) market is incredibly competitive, but what market isn't? The way I see it, with SaaS you can get to 10k "easier" with fewer customers. I feel a game may require many more customers and isn't reoccurring revenue, but the "no upkeep" is a nice perk for "passive" income.

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