So, I've made a game (a 3D MMO), that I first published for mobile phones, and recently got the computer version accepted on Steam (through Greenlight).

When I first published the game in mobile, I did it under my personal developer account.

While I did not any marketing of the game, I still got around 100 thousand downloads. "organic" downloads, is that what you call them?

My logic is, the visibility in the mobile market is almost null, and still I got lots of downloads, so in Steam people probably many will probably find my game.

To tell the truth, I don't really know what to expect of Steam in terms of sales and such.

My question is, should I make a company or just continue doing business as an individual?

Some facts:

- I'm the total owner of the game, made most of it myself, the rest was done by remote contractors

- I've thought about the possibility of getting an artist working together with me full time (either for a % of sales or a fixed ammount per month?)

- I don't live in the USA, I live in Portugal. Making a company here costs around 400$ to start, but I'm not sure if there's any extra cost (maybe accountant?)

100 000 downloads on a F2P 3D MMO on mobile?

Are your in-game sales recouping your investment in time and effort? If so, I would definitely suggest starting a company and building upon this success.

Steam will undoubtedly improve your visibility, but it would be very tough to determine how much just from the above.

Can you link us to your actual product?

100 000 downloads on a F2P 3D MMO on mobile?

Are your in-game sales recouping your investment in time and effort? If so, I would definitely suggest starting a company and building upon this success.

Steam will undoubtedly improve your visibility, but it would be very tough to determine how much just from the above.

Can you link us to your actual product?

I did not know it it was against rules to link the game, but here it is the link for the Android version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.terra.minimon3d

However, I did some kinda experimental with this game, I released the game in a beta state for Android, in order to get enough feedback about features, bugs etc, something similar to Steam Early Access, altough for free.

The initial versions were buggy, and simply did not work in many devices, so I lost a big chunk of players because of that. Others continued playing since the very start, and gave a lot of feedback.

I did make some money from it, but much was invested back in improving graphics or paying for server costs etc.

But of course, the sales are increasing with each month, since the player base continuous growing, and now with the Steam release it will probably be more popular.

What advantages are there in having an company, if I am just one guy?

I think there might be differences in terms of taxes and stuff, but course, that is something that I need to investigate myself, people here don't know my country laws.

A friend told me it would look more "professional" to have a real company, but other than that, are there other advantages?

Thanks Andy, that seems a good point, something that I need to investigate, maybe be similar to US, or different, I really need to check!

Actually, a company would need to be an LLC to shield you from this. (LLC stands for limited-liability).

Not all companies are LLCs.

There are other advantages to having a company, but without more information about the system in place in Portugal, there's hardly anything we can help with that. This, however, underlines your need to get in touch with a lawyer. A local lawyer will better be positioned to help you identify what you should do in that regard specifically.

Don't worry, getting in touch with a lawyer is actually simple (I used to see this as a big obstacle myself). Setting up a company is, actually, quite simple at that. Talking to a lawyer is simpler yet. Chances are, you might not even end up paying a fee for asking this question (lawyers often want to foster long-term relationships with businessmen, and will freely answer some general questions to give you confidence in their ability, it's like a salesman pitch really).