I haven't been too involved with iOS, at least not like many on the forum, so I'm curious for some opinions on this IAP/freemium model. It seems like lately, more and more games are heading towards freemium. Gameloft, who I remember being a big player in terms of premium games when I used to play a lot of iOS 1-2 years ago, seems to have almost completely transitioned to freemium. Aside from MC3 and Gangstar, it looks like their holiday season, including titles like Dungeon Hunter 3, are freemium games. Based on my limited knowledge, it seems like this whole $0.99 game culture has ended up shooting gamers in the foot. You can't experience premium game developers to make money if they are forced into $0.99 sales and seeing how much money people blow on garbage like Farmville, it seems like freemium is the only alternative. Does anyone think that this freemium/cheap gaming culture can change? I'm blown away by the capability of the iPhone 4S and it saddens me to think that the future is going to full of freemium games rather than premium titles that take advantage of what this hardware is capable of. I'm hoping this freemium experiment for premium games like what Gameloft is doing is a disaster, but I'm not confidence things are going to change anytime soon.
That's only Gameloft's politics,I didn't saw any other dev do that.Others using iAP is cool,because that way they can earn more money,but someone who is using iAP just to be able to proceed in-game is just not right.I think Gameloft should be ashame of themselves.
See facebook games. Most of them are constantly trying to get you to spend facebook credits, invite more friends to play and etc. As a developer I get where this is coming from but I think freemium games are getting overdone. Bejewelled Blitz is the worse offender. What, you expect me to pay to use a powerup to mitigate the extra difficulty you added? And pay for it? And it only lasts three games and then I need to pay again? WOW I don't want to keep being nickel and dimed this way. If I like your game just sell the bugger to me and leave me alone!
I cant STAND facebook/twitter integration, i mean Facebooks worse enough anyway, last thing i want is to read constant updates from friends telling me what level they got to on what game or spamming me on twitter with updates about a game theyre playing, urrrgh. But perhaps its just me, i dont see Gameloft as being that 'evil'. They havent released any freemium games before have they ? Loved the Dungeon Hunter games and other releases i've bought from them. Yes i've heard DH3 will be freemium and so will this new wild west game. But i want to wait to see what its like, Bulletime is freemium and works well. I've read the Gameloft games will be similar, you dont have to buy anything but it will make your missions easier. Read paranoid stories about how you can only get gold by buying it, i think it'll be like Bullettime where you can pick up coins or get it from missions But lets at least wait for Six Guns to see whether it is a freemium hell or heaven
