Quick little tweetstorm on why, if you desire to have a small software business, you should prefer doing Boring Business Productivity SaaS to writing a video game, even if you really like videogames:
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A word about piracy, for fellow SaaS founders: it's a thing which affects videogames. Basically more than half of their customers are thieves and happily steal the product, which they can't prevent because they give every customer access to all their source code. Weird, right.
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That's a bit sardonic but game companies spend a *distressing* amount of their mental energy budget on piracy, and SaaS companies spend *nothing* because it is *almost impossible* to steal a SaaS product. (Exceptions: credit card fraud and account takeovers. Rare-ish.)
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Every company operates in an ecosystem. The ecosystem of partners/etc of SaaS companies largely is invested in the success of SaaS companies at the margin, because they get a percentage of the upside. The ecosystem around video games companies? Hive of scum and villainy.
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If you write SaaS for a living you will not find yourself drawn into any of the "the fights are so vicious because the stakes are so small" dramas which periodically sweep the videogame sector.
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If you're doing a software business you will find yourself drawn into Business (TM) and you will find that every relationship you have with vendors/clients/employees/etc starts to take on Real Business (TM) characteristics... and that this is normal and expected in B2B.
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Meanwhile, expect to have problems explaining to e.g. contractors for videogames "I need an invoice." "A what?" "A piece of paper, with numbers on it, corresponding to what you are charging me, so that I can put it in my books." "Lol make games not books!"
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You don't have to feel comfortable with the business parts of running a software company as of day one, but you've got plenty of time to learn, and a SaaS business is a great springboard for doing it. A video game business... not so much.
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End of conversation
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