Ingests payout reports from App Store, Google Play, and Steam to calculate net revenue after fees and taxes, then generates contractor rev-share statements and payment-ready splits for small game studios ($99-249/mo). · Game Studio Finance
DEAD SLOW · CAUTIOUS
5.6 ShipScore / 10
Productized SaaS scores well on time; need is unproven and niche scale caps upside.
Condition: At least 10 small studios with rev-share contractors confirm they reconcile store payouts manually and would pay $99+/mo to stop.
Part I — The Verdict what the instruments read
01 — The ShipScore breakdown
Control
7
Three store exports (Apple, Google, Steam) mean no single landlord holds it.
Entry barriers
5
No tracked rival in game rev-share; report parsers are cloneable but tedious.
Need
4
Zero Reddit signals and near-silent X; tracked comps (Calendesk, Cryptobytez) are unrelated.
Time-freedom
8
Automated ingestion and statement generation; little operator labor once parsers work.
Scale
4
Global, but limited to small studios with contractor rev-share deals.
What the five commandments measure
C — Control
Do you own the customer, or does a gatekeeper stand between you and revenue?
E — Entry
How hard is this to copy once it works? A rival's existence isn't the question — the durability of their advantage is.
N — Need
Is demand proven with money rather than vibes?
T — Time
Can income detach from your hours, or did you buy yourself a job?
S — Scale
How far does it reach without linear cost?
Scored on the evidence below, against CENTS as we've adapted it plus a Buffett-style moat reading of every rival — the same referee for every idea, including the ones we generate ourselves. The verdict follows the arithmetic: we never relabel a score to make it read better, and the weakest commandment is always named. The exact rubric stays in-house so the scale can't be written for.
02 — The pace test — $1M/yr
At $129/mo (assumed category price), you need 646 subscribers for a $1M/yr pace.
Deel — Referenced on X for contractor payroll scale; could bolt on rev-share payouts to its existing contractor base.
Tekton Billing — Automates billing reconciliation; could pivot its recon engine toward store payout reports.
Paytiko — Auto PSP fee/reconciliation reports; shows fee-recon tooling is being built adjacently.
04 — Demand evidence
No Reddit demand signals found for these keywords.
X chatter is 'almost none'; only occasional notes on manual spreadsheet stitching for fees and payouts.
The 2 tracked similar products (Calendesk $21k MRR, Cryptobytez $5k MRR) are not game-finance tools, so they prove nothing for this category.
Demand is unproven in this scan, which is uncertainty rather than a negative.
05 — Risks
Small studios may handle rev-share in a spreadsheet and refuse a $99-249/mo fee.
Rev-share contracts vary wildly (recoupment, tiers, per-platform), so statement logic may become custom services work.
Tax and withholding calculations across jurisdictions create liability if numbers are wrong.
Store report formats change, creating ongoing parser maintenance.
06 — Kill switches — what kills this with one decision
Steam/Apple/Google report formats or access — A format change or a shift to API-only access with restrictions breaks ingestion, but this is fixable rather than existential.
Payment-ready splits via a payout rail — If you move money, payment-provider or money-transmitter rules could block the payout feature.
Part III — The Plan if you insist on proceeding
07 — What this scan can't tell you
Cannot tell how many small studios actually run contractor rev-share deals versus flat fees.
No pricing or conversion signal exists for game-specific finance tools in the corpus.
Cannot see whether publishers or existing indie accounting firms already provide this as part of their service.
Scores judge the market and business model — not your ability to execute. Verified MRR = independently tracked revenue; reviews/upvotes = platform-reported. Judged 2026-10-18.
08 — The wedge & the next step
Steam-first indie teams with 3-10 rev-share contributors: one-click monthly statements that contributors trust, replacing the founder's spreadsheet.
Cheapest next step: Post in indie dev communities (r/gamedev, Discords) asking how studios calculate contractor rev-share, and offer to process one month's Steam report by hand for 5 studios, checking whether any will prepay.
Not quite it? Spin the model
Business-model variations of this idea, engineered to beat 5.6 — different vertical, audience, model, or wedge. Same harsh scale. Pro feature.
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Close — but conditional. Every morning the engine files one mined gap, scored on the same harsh scale as this one. Free at 7am AEST, unedited.
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