I just bought the game Wild Wild Train. This game clocks in at above 60Mb. By the looks of it, it has a lot of content. It was earlier at 0.99$. I wonder what the reason could be for the developers to make it free. If an app such as this, relatively good, with a good amount of content, niche if at all, needs to resort to sales to garner viewership, what's the future of the App store? IMO, it points to poor discovery of apps and overcrowding, because of which even good apps find it difficult to make a mark. What are everyone's thoughts on this?
Good question. Since this has been done before, I assume this sort of thing is going to happen again. I really wonder how much devs get out of such offers if anything. Frankly, I find it a bit doubtful that it accomplishes much. Sure, one could argue that it helps visibility, but does it really? I think it's a bit more akin to shooting yourself in the foot because if this becomes a trend you'll soon have people not buying anything at all and just waiting for those freebies. On another note, I did buy the mentioned game a few days ago. It's pretty good actually, and I don't feel I've been cheated somehow by this move (as some might), but it begs the question: was it really necessary? Whatever happened to the premium content part of the app store that was being talked about?
My point exactly...this game is easily worth 0.99$. Its understandable if a more expensive game were to drop down a few dollars, but 1 dollar to free makes no sense at all. The only possible reason is not enough sales and the need to get visibility. Most likely the devs will increase the price later to more than a dollar, to compensate for lost revenue. And probably wont sell enough, so it works out to the same thing eventually. Premium content looks some distance away, with even RR dropping down to 6.99. And the battery life of the ipod/iphone needs to improve for the richer games. I hope the base price on the App store moves up to 1.99. That way sales if needed could be at 0.99, with the regular price at 1.99. The reason why the 0.99 price point is so popular is because people are so used to seeing every other app go down to that price.
While it can be seen as a strange move, I can understand it a little bit. At least if they have other games which DO cost money, or have some new games in the making. It *can* get you in the top 25 of free games for example, and make your name visible to alot more users. And by having this game on your iPhone/Pod you can get recommendations with genius with games from the same dev I just downloaded it for free, and I'm sure i would have never bought it for 0,79... And if i like a game, I do checkout more from the same dev sometimes, or at least I'll be (more) interested when I see news about a new game from them.
I think developers are shooting themselves in the foot with stuff like this. They all complain that App Store customers all expect really low prices, but when developers pull stunts like this, how can you blame anyone? I know this has taught me not to buy games when they're first released, because almost every game I've ever wanted to own has gone free a month or two after it appeared on the App Store. Why spend money on something I could just get for free a few weeks later? It's really a very silly sales "tactic" but I'd imagine a lot of developers have no idea how to properly market their products.
I hate to be the one to say it, but "the need" in my opinion seems to be that the game isn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just mindlessly hating on it... but when I first saw the screenshots I expected something much more entertaining than what I got. It's a shame cause I'm still looking for a good train game with somewhat decent graphics and they're few and far between.
Remember Railroad Revolution, by AmazingGames? They seem to have completely vanished, together with the $95.000 grant they got...
I am kind of disagreeing on this. A giveaway of a good quality game gives a start-up developer a full exposure in the Appstore and people start to learn about this company. It paves the path for easier marketing for their next game. To put it in a different perspective, that's the cheapest way to promote yourself. What other marketing channel is as effective as this, and it has no "up front" cost.
Just wanted to correct the above, as it appears they have not vanished at all. More info on the specific Railroad Revolution thread. As for WWT, I'm rather enjoying it, if only for the artwork and the fact that they bothered to wrap the whole game up in a fun if cheezy storyline.
AppBox Pro Strategy I just wanna add that I like the way the Dev of AppBox Pro does the marketing/Promotion, without making the app free in the first place (Earlier, They have the free version: 9-Toolbox). Right now, the free version of 9-toolbox is gone, and the 99 cents AppBox Pro is still the no. 1 paid app in Applestore. I think, this strategy could be applied to games apps as well.
Completely agree with you on this one. The reason why the 0.99 price point is so popular is because the developers have made it so, with frequent price drops. So much so that now the majority of games release at 0.99 and then gradually if ever increase in price. What the App store in general and the indie developers in particular sorely lack is a viable marketing strategy. Maybe Apple could help in this regard, giving some direction to devs' marketing efforts. @MidianGTX - Gonna have to disagree with you on this one. Even if the game was not great, that's no reason to give it away free. Especially since it is originally a paid game and there is the need to recover costs. This is where the 0.99 price point really hits them. It would not be so if 0.99 was replaced by say 1.99, cause then they could still make money on a sale. What Apple should also do imo, is to have Top Grossing Charts for the various sub genres of games as well. That would help more games get the visibility. Also they need to specify what time period the 'Top Grossing' is for.
$Q0.99 is doing more harm than good overall IMO. If APple could have a minimum price point of $1.99 or $2.99, and allow for example a max of 14 days a year sale at $0.99, and 5 days free, it would do everyone a world of good. Devs would get more for their work, fewer poor apps would litter the appstore since few people will spend $2.99 on rubbish, and at TA we would still be able to snap games at $0.99 or for free!!!
An interesting article on Gamasutra regarding marketing iphone apps - http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25263
In regards to that article: This coming from a guy who may have used questionable tactics. That I can agree with more. I'm always amazed when browsing through the app store and see some utterly stupid comments from people - probably kids, although I don't count out adults either - who are either overly impatient or just downright dumb. I've seen so many reviews which made it obvious some people don't even try to learn how to play some games. If they don't get it within the first ten seconds they call it crap. So customers are going to establish what is the cream of the crop? Really, Apple? With those rampant 'apptards' - I really like that term as it suits them well - only being featured will earn most that breakthrough they're hoping for.
@Mister Mumbles - I would be fine reading a review by the developer as long as he/she identified himself. That would be credible enough for me.
