Freemium IAP Poll

Heh, a couple of days ago I was wondering what IAP meant, found out it was In App Purchase(s).

 

It only means one thing. iPad owners are Smart(er)

Or maybe they got nothing left after splurging on the iPad

 

I think people are kind of obsessing a little too much on this topic... IAP are going to happen and freemium games are going to reign over the app store no matter what. I understand you are just curious about it all but I dunno.

 

Freemium IAPs are devs sucking money out people who don't know better.

biscuits/crops/levels/berries/cats/dogs > Aralon/infinity blade/real racing/world of goo??

Anyone with decent taste in games knows that's not true, it's not even about opinion.

IAPs that actually enhance gameplay are more than ok, and I pay up in games that are worth it. I'll never ever spend real money on fake money though. If I wanted fake money I think I have a few thousand monopoly dollars in my closet for free

 

IAP is starting to go to far in my opinion I have a app I bought at 2,99 you have probably heard of called awareness! it sounded good in theory but never really worked right despite this people were forgiving and waited patiently for updates to fix the issues myself included and it had mainly positive feedback on the store.

Yesterday the update dropped and the developer thought it would be a good idea to charge for absolutely everything in the options menu while fixing none of the problems needless to say it now has a 1 star review from myself and others are starting to follow suit.

They might get some morons who click buy but they are going to end up with a one star application most people will avoid and I'm glad as far as I'm concerned they ripped me off.

Most of the high ranking freemium games are there due to trickery and have been bashed for it in the uk media things like this will eventually push people away from the app store altogether in my opinion.

 

I hate freemium games and avoid them like the plague.

 

I think it's because kids don't own iPads.

 

Different type of audience/gamers. Only the very serious and dedicated players would pay for the IAPs. Most of the time you can find better value with your money; I mean, $0.99 can get you some great value at the AppStore, how much can $0.99 give you in terms of IAP?

 

I think IAP rip us off. For 99c, you could buy a game like Spider Man: Total Mayhem or Bad Company 2. For IAP, 99c will get you about 1 gun in freemium shooters.

 

I think Freemium is a good idea if it is done right and gives the users the choice to spend money or not. Take Gun Bros for example, it is an excellent dual stick shooter that you can play for free. You don't have to pay anything if you don't want to (there are plenty of weapons to buy using currency you earn through gameplay) but the option is there if you want to get stronger more quickly.

As a developer who is also shifting to the freemium model (Shadow Era), I can say it makes a lot of business sense. It will allow us to get a far larger user base by offering the game for free, while still earning more incremental income than would be possible if it was a paid app.

As for the top grossing charts, they do not show up on the iPad only list because most Freemium games are now universal or only have an iPhone version, which is counted on the iPhone Apps list even if it is bought and played on an iPad...

 

It's funny that you mention Gun Bros as an example. I would actually use that as an example of how not to do freemium. (Of course, everyone's entitled to their own opinion.) I've never been against the idea of DLC/IAPs and have generally defended devs that have gone that route, but the latest Gun Bros update was the first that made me say "Wow, WTF". While their players were having tons of issues with server downtime, losing saved data, and even worse, losing their IAP purchases, Glu prioritized releasing more crappy games plus an update which added even more ridiculously priced ($30+) IAPs over fixing the current one.

But if we ignore cases that like and look at the devs that understand the idea of a symbiotic dev/player relationship, I think freemium is very valid business model. Obviously, the sales numbers are supporting it, but it also makes a lot of sense if you think about it. One benefit is it allows for some price discrimination. From an economic standpoint, this is good for the devs (obviously), but it has benefits for the players as well. If you only enjoy the game somewhat, you can pay $X, but if you really love the game, you have the option of paying $X+Y or $X+Y+Z for more utility. Plus, certain types of games just wouldn't work that well otherwise. Imagine playing one of those freemium simulation games, except that you had an infinite amount of the paid currency because you paid $5 for the game rather than $0. It'd get boring rather quickly.

 

Well looks like my mini crusade against awareness! is starting to pay off a bit

So the developers went from trying to charge for every option to promising everything will be free next version.

I don't believe they ever intended it to be free to early adopters like myself but if they keep true to their latest announcement I will remove my one star review but I think this shows how these things can backfire.

I really think without the change of decision they would be looking at the one star app I predicted earlier.

 

while i was working for a ios develop comany as PR manager, i got really big sum of complaints on IAP...horrible...the most frustrating thing is, as develop, you could do nothing but patiently tell them that they need to ask Apple. apple loses nothing but you might lose your reputation.