Need some quick responses - pros and cons of changing an app's name?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by wemakegames, Jan 26, 2011.

  1. Hi fellow devs! I'm putting together some info for a project proposal and need some solid pros and cons on the effect of changing an existing IP/app's name and rebranding it? In what situations would you or wouldn't you choose to change an app's name? Very curious to see how other devs feel about this! TIA for answers :)
     
  2. Ovogame

    Ovogame Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
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    Game Developer
    Morestel, France
    The only situation you wouldn't do it is because your app is succesfull. I'm guessing this isn't the case for your app or you wouldn't rebrand it.

    JC
     
  3. Gravity Jim

    Gravity Jim Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2009
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    Commercial music producer
    Santa Rosa, CA
    Agreed. If the game is tanking and you can be fairly certain a bad name is part ofd it, then a change might be in order.
     
  4. Thanks for the answers so far, guys. The problem is less with the game and more with the name - we are doing some major overhauls on the game and are trying to decide if a name change makes sense. Right now the name is a very common phrase, making it nearly impossible to find our game by searching just the name. We are also debating which makes more sense - calling this overhaul a sequel or just rebranding the whole IP. The original game was actually quite successful so the consideration is whether the appeal of the original name is a big enough draw that it should be maintained despite the problems of findability, being too common, other games similarly named..
     
  5. headcaseGames

    headcaseGames Well-Known Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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    Mobile Game Developer
    Hollywood, CA
    it's tough. my instinct says that if it is still selling, then don't mess with the name. If it's crashed (or close enough to it), then consider it dead and do whatever you feel like.

    renaming/changing the icon are some huge things you can do, and they can have wildly positive or negative effects depending on your situation. My favorite case is the story of a game called "iLaunch," I believe it was called. Released and dd nothing. They changed it to "sheep launcher" and it rocketed to the top of the charts simply because of that. Go figure :p

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  6. schplurg

    schplurg Well-Known Member

    Unless I'm mistaken, you can't change the name of in app in the App Store. If so, you would need to create a whole new "app" in the store, which would mean existing customers wouldn't be able to update to the new version, unless you updated both.

    Like I said, perhaps I'm wrong.
     
  7. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Apr 28, 2009
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    Pennsylvania
    You can change app name (and keywords) when submitting an update.

     

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