I am working on a puzzle game right now, and I am trying to figure out what the best way to sell it on the store would be. With the advent of In App Purchase for free apps now it is possible to put out just one version. Is that the preferred way now? It certainly seems easier for customers. What are the drawbacks? My app is already 3.0+ only, so I don't have to worry about the 2.2.1 users. One thing I am worried about is app ratings. I have a game out already, and the lite version gets many more 1 star ratings. Would this mean my free with IAP app would suffer the same? Also, what "Top 100" list would a free app with IAP be on? Would it be on the free apps, or would it most likely be on the top grossing list? Is it harder to compete with free apps? I have seen some developers have a free version with IAP and a "Deluxe" paid version that has everything unlocked already. This seems great for people who don't like IAP. Again, I would be worried about trying to play in the Top 100 lists though. Wouldn't this split my sales in half, and then neither version would place well? I would love to hear other developer's experiences.
Sorry I can't say that I have an app out but I read another thread here don't know the title tho. I personally wouldn't use in app purchase to replace free and full. If it's free it goes on the free list which is harder to get on. Plus more people download it and can give it 1 star ratings if it's free. That's enough reasoning for me to decide not to use it. Oh to answer ur questions yes it would suffer 1 star reviews. I think it could go on top grossing but would be hard also would be in the free list. It's harder to compete in the free list because there are more free apps then paid.
I can't give you any personal experience on using this method but I wrote up a pretty exhaustive list of pros and cons to both options here, which also fostered some excellent discussion.
I would say do in-app purchasing. Because if you do "Lite" and "Paid", your app will be up on a certain Cydia program that you can pirate from shortly, and everyone will be getting the "Paid" for the same price of the "Lite" (free). Then you'll make 0 dollars.
But there aren't more then 5% of idevices That are jailbroken. Anyway if they pirate it they probably wouldn't buy it.
Benefit of paid version is I can keep the .ipa file and go back to it if it dissapears off the app store/changes/etc. To guarantee I can restore the free/DLC version I have to keep an iPod backup... But - the benefit of free/DLC is that I don't have to go back and clean up "lite" version apps after the fact (which is normally not a problem, but with 500+ apps on the device, can be a bit of a pain...)
the good thing about dlc is that the game cant be pirated the bad thing is that dlc puts people off. alot of people hate it. thats my knowledge anyway
actually itunes keeps records of dlc so if you lose the game without a backup you can buy the dlc item again and just like apps it will say since you already bought it you can get it for free.
DLC only prevents piracy if you actually make the content Downloadable. If you simply have the content in the app unlocked once a DLC purchase has been made but the content is already present in the app, just locked up, pirates can easily free your paid content as well. And if you do make it downloadable, you have to maintain a server to keep the downloads available on for your customers. I have heard stories about users hating DLC with one anecdote being that everytime you use DLC to dip into the wallet of a customer you will experience diminishing returns (i.e. each time new DLC is available fewer and fewer people will buy/download it). Q
