Popular ‘Monument Valley’ Game Earned More Than $5.8M, Saw 1.7M Sales on iOS

Ustwo, the developers behind the hit game Monument Valley today published a detailed infographic that gives a rare inside look at what it takes to develop an ultra popular game and the rewards developers can reap from creating an app that soars to the top of the App Store charts.

For those unfamiliar, Monument Valley is a highly popular indie puzzle game that asks players to lead the main character through a series of mazes spanning 10 separate levels. The game was highly praised for its design, which included a unique and striking art style.

According to Ustwo’s infographic, it took Ustwo’s eight person team 55 weeks and $852,000 to develop the original version of Monument Valley ahead of its April 2014 launch. The app’s Forgotten Shores expansion, released in late November, took an additional 29 weeks and $549,000 to develop.

Monument Valley received some negative attention after the expansion was priced at $1.99 in-app by users who believed that the update should be free, but the half a million in development costs for the Android and iOS apps explain why it would have been largely unreasonable for the team to release an expansion at no cost.

The more than $1 million that Ustwo poured into the development of Monument Valley paid off, and the game earned a total of $5,858,625 from 2,440,076 sales. 81.7 percent of all revenue came from iOS from 1,736,431 sales while Google Play and Amazon represented a combined 18.2 percent of revenue. The game’s highest one day revenue was $145,530, which it earned on the first day it launched.

Monument Valley saw upticks in sales after earning an Apple Design Award in June, following the launch of the Forgotten Shores expansion, at Christmas, and after the December announcement of its status as iPad Game of the Year.

The majority of iOS sales came from the United States at 38 percent, and the game ended up being translated into 13 local languages. 12 percent of sales came from China, five percent from the U.K., and 4.4 percent came from Japan. Half of the players who purchased Monument Valley finished the game, and 24 percent of players went on to purchase Forgotten Shores.

Ustwo’s full Monument Valley infographic can be seen over at the company’s blog. Monument Valley can be downloaded from the App Store for $3.99. [Direct Link]

iPhone 6 Gets Sent Into Space By Urban Armor Gear [iOS Blog]

Back in late November, iPhone case maker Urban Armor Gear sent an iPhone into space using a weather balloon, and in early January, the site shared a video depicting the iPhone’s journey to the stratosphere in an Urban Armor Gear case.

The iPhone soared 101,000 feet into the atmosphere, and was subjected to 70 mile per hour winds and temperatures that dropped to -79 degrees Fahrenheit. Though turned on at launch, the iPhone later shut off and froze due to the cold weather

Urban Armor Gear hooked the iPhone up to a weather balloon rig that also included a GPS locator and two GoPro cameras for filming. Upon descent, the iPhone and the flight rig withstood 150 RPM rotation speeds, and at landing, the rig broke while the iPhone managed to remain unscathed.

“Our cases already meet military drop-test standards, but now we can officially say that they are space tested as well,” said Steve Armstrong, co-founder of Urban Armor Gear. “The fact that the iPhone survived its space adventure and returned fully functioning showcases our commitment in providing our customers world-class, or in this case out of this world, protection for their premium devices.”

The iPhone was protected by an Urban Armor composite case which promises military-grade protection, but it did not have a screen protector and still managed to come out undamaged. After landing, the iPhone powered back on and was fully functional, demonstrating the durability and solid construction of the device.