I'm not sure what to make of the current trend with in-app purchasing. On the one hand I think it's good that a lot of these games are now free. But when it comes to high scores, it doesn't seem right that you can now buy your way to the top. What do people think? Are you willing to spend money for upgrades and things if the game is good enough? Or do you feel like you're being cheated? Thanks, Adam
Look at the current list of top ten highest grossing games. Eight of them are free. As long as that continues more developers will use the 'pay to play' format. Can you blame them? Would you rather make a little money or a lot of money?
in a paid game I dont really have a problem with IAP, as long as the game is balanced enough, and not gimped to make it so that you have buy the IAP. IAP for full game unlocks/all item unlocks and not for consumable upgrades are the best/most tolerable kind. in a freemium game, you kind of expect to hit paywalls soon... i dont really care about high scores so much, but if I did I'm sure I would hate IAP more than I do now.
I only pay IAP for more levels (like in Cubis Creatures),new modes (Tilt to Live) or unlocking full games (cant remember). Never consumables or double coins or anything like that.
Wow, that's incredible, I hadn't noticed that. I suppose you can't blame developers with sales like that. I agree that as long as it's done in a balanced way, IAP is acceptable. You shouldn't have to buy upgrades to enjoy the game. Even if the game is free, I think it should still be a game in its own right without having to buy anything.
As a developer selling genuinely optional additional content via IAP, I hate the hell out of those sorts of games. They attract a lot of hate and before you know it, any game with IAP is branded "bad" by people who can't be bothered to check out what they're moaning about. I've had it a lot already. On the other side of the coin, we have many customers who were glad we provided additional fun built in and easy to get to. So it really depends. I just wish the haters would do a bit more research before painting everything with the same brush. And then there's the self-entitlement brigade. I think their view seems to go "I paid you three dollars, yes three whole dollars. Therefore I already pre-own everything you ever produce and for some magic reason I expect you to work for free from now on." As you can probably tell, I'm done pandering to those...
Football Manager, £6.99 sits just outside the top ten, closely followed by a ZX Spectrum collection at £8.99.
I don't mind IAP when it is content (maps, characters, new levels). I just downloaded 50 new sounds for one of my synth apps the other day. I will be happy to download IAP if it is an app I enjoy and want to get more out of it. But I don't play games where I need coins, gems, berries or any other in-game currency to play. Although if I did play one and found it enjoyable, I probably would buy a pack or two to help support the dev. There are just so many other great games out there, I am not tempted to even try these types of games.
I'd rather buy a game for a flat rate than get it free and then sink money into it. That said I think IAPs can be used by developers to provide shortcuts in their games and if people want to pay for them, that's cool. By looking at the highest grossing games you can tell it's a lot more expensive to play freemium games than buy a game like chaos rings 2. One of the more expensive iOS games. Content updates in the form of IAPs are fine, I think. In high score based games they seem like cheating.
I'm okay with IAP as long as it's not absolutely necessary to progress, as said above. There's also games where it might not be necessary, but the alternative is a ten hour grind (8-bit ninja and Mega Jump come to mind). In cases like that it becomes clear after a few plays that the game is not built to actually be interesting or fun, but to slowly annoy people enough to pay money. And there's those apps where they nag you over and over again to buy extra stuff... The only IAP I ever pay for is if it's for more content. Occasionally, cosmetic things if I like the game enough and want to support the developer.
I don't object to the idea of IAP - I've bought DLC for various different games across all the formats I currently own. I don't generally buy cosmetic stuff or cheats or what have you unless I really, really want them, though, and off the top of my head I can't think of a single instance where I have in fact given in to temptation. My main problem with it is, as always, while it's entirely a developer's right to implement IAPs and charge whatever the hell they feel like for them I wish they wouldn't hide behind moral or ethical arguments where they try and convince me they're doing me a favour. The recent Reddit AMA with two Zynga employees is a good case in point: Uh, pal, the issue under debate is the idea that by charging piecemeal you're actually tempting/coercing people into spending $400 or thereabouts on buying the Artist Special instead of the one-off fee. That's what's seen as "evil". Convenience or lack of it isn't really the problem. For example, after the arguments in this forum over Heroes Call and its use of wait timers you can only skip with IAP gems, I would love to have one of the developers say look, if you buy X amount of these things you'll have enough to skip through every single timer you could reasonably expect to see in one, two, three playthroughs, whatever. Just so the core gamer audience could know how much they would effectively be paying for the game. Because, I mean, I'd quite possibly go that route, if it fell within what I felt was reasonable. Technically they already have a "One-off payment to skip all wait timers" - they're just not letting us know how much it would cost.
I am completely against those IAPs. One of the worst "inventions" (okay they made it like Facebook games and they still don't stop implementing this Facebook crap) by Apple. I know there are games with "good" IAPs (but not more than 10% of games with IAPs). IAPs have a very bad reputation. So I automatically SKIP games with IAPs. There is only ONE chance that I care about such games: When there is a honest and serious explanation in the main app description text about what IAPs are doing. I recently made a poll on that topic in my blog and most of my readers have exactly my opinion. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2270170&postcount=5
the thing is most of the freemium type games are nothing more than money pits that might be fun but cost more than a xbox360 game to even be competitive. junk jack has a very good iap as does mage gauntlet they offer things you do not need but things that are cool and very helpful for completing the game. it can be made right but often it isn't.
It's our own 'fault' as too many people are too cheap and wait for a game to drop in price or for it to be free. I mean when a quality game is a tiny 2 dollars anyway I would buy it instantly to help the dev. I find too many people are cheap and wait for a price drop. Even when the games 99c they seem to wait for it to be free! Then moan when games are freemium! More sales the indie devs get the more games we'll get Heroes call is a good game but waiting for new quests unless you buy IAPs to speed it up is terrible
100% agreed. In any game where IAPs are basically a necessity it'd be nice if a dev would tell you exactly what you'd have to spend. Ie. gems to skip wait times for a full play through. Or alternatively an IAP for $5 $10 $20, whatever they thought was reasonable to skip all wait times. Options like this would probably help people to not feel ripped off and disregard games with IAPs entirely.