Despite currently sitting above the likes of GTA 5, Elden Ring Nightreign, and Dune: Awakening in the fourth spot on Steam’s most-played chart, a Bongo Cat clicker game is “actually losing us money in the end”, according to its devs.
So, why are developers Irox Games and their CEO Marcel Zurawka keeping this app about a meme cat that sits on your desktop and drops a big slap every time you click on a thing going? Well, in an interview with Eurogamer, they explained that the bot-infested idler’s true worth is in helping advertise another game they’re trying to vault up the Steam pre-release popularity charts.
“Some people said, ‘Oh you’re now rich.’ That’s bullshit, I didn’t make it for the money at all,” Zurawka said, revealing that in its biggest month so far it raked in $4,050 once expenses like Steam’s cut were factored in. That was in April, when the game was at its attention zenith, with the number looking like it’s steadily dropping in the couple of months since.
“It’s not even paying a developer for us,” the CEO claimed, “If you just look at the numbers, it’s actually losing us money in the end.”
This is where things get weird. Like some other free-to-play clickers seemingly attracting high player numbers on Steam, a lot of the folks the data counts as ‘playing’ Bongo Cat aren’t people, they’re bots farming and selling the cat hats and skins it dishes out on Steam’s community market for real cash. Zurawka estimates that “roughly 50 percent” of Bongo Cat’s player base, which currently ranges from about 150,000 to just under 200,000 at peak, is made up of these automated auctioneers.
Despite that, the developer says money made from this robotic wheeler dealing only amounts to roughly half or less what the game makes each month. Where does it prove its worth, then? Well, as a big bot-infested advert for another game Irox Games are trying to ensure doesn’t drown in Steam’s discoverability maelstrom.
After having a roguelite city builder called EcoGnomix flop, Zurawka and co are using Bongo Cat to promote their next game, Oku – a very un-Bongo Catty monk adventure. They’re even giving out some of those cosmetics to folks who do stuff like watch Oku’s trailer. The exec says he’s had publishers ask how much Bongo Cat cost to make, something that Eurogamer note could lead to potentially less ethical Bongo copycats.
I’ll be honest, Steam’s already bulging ranks being filled up even further with games that mainly exist, at least from a practical perspective, to advertise other games isn’t a future I’d be a fan of. Though, given the times we’re living in, that probably means it’s the one we’ll end up with.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see devs working to find themselves solutions to the incredibly tough task that is making smaller games stand out from the crowd in the great rat race for Steampremacy, and Zurawka does appear to care about making Bongo Cat a good game real people do actually enjoy playing. It might be a tad idealistic, but I’m just hoping there’s a better way that’ll allow devs to concentrate on just making the games they want to, without having to consider aiming for a short turnaround viral hit that the robo-grinders really love.
As the dev told EG: “It’s a bit disappointing to see that it takes you to having to be successful to be successful.”
