Its a way for the dev to get extra cash if an app is free or cheap. I think its fine as long as the IAP don't hinder the gameplay or make it unfair for you to play vs other users that spend $ and overpower you as a player because of the IAP. If that does happen, I and my friends always leave terrible reviews stating that the game can only be played or finished using IAP. that does suck! Some of the worse games are where you need to heal for hrs or days or be forced to buy healing IAP. I would rather have the full game for a price.
I have not read this entire thread yet (lots of really long posts). I hate IAP but I understand it. Before The Apple ecosystem you bought a game and that was it. No one expected continuous updates with new content. Now people expect to pay $0.99 for a game and get constant updates adding new content for free. Yes "free". When you bought the game you paid for it as it was at that time which compensated the developer for their work to that point. Any content you get after that you got for free. It's crazy and not economical for 99% of the developers out there. I can understand developers trying to come up with a system that has you pay as you go. As long as the IAPs pay for ongoing development they will continue to develop and add content to the game but when it doesn't the development will stop. Otherwise the price of the games will have to rise to support good game development. Again, I hate it but I understand it.
could see if you pay for the game and dont get free update beyond, but they need to make the old download available to your account if it's deleted off your ipad etc. would rather see price of games rise, or the company does a 2nd/3rd; jeep 2, jeep 3 game with more level or updates if paying only $1 or 2. if the game was good people will buy the sequel for same price or more $. if iap in the game hampers your overall gameplay with nags or finishing a level or game then that's a bad thing. BIG QUESTION??? Do IAP stay with your game if you delete it off your ipad/iphone (to make room) and reistall to play later? iaps come back?
I'm pretty much in the same mindset as Royce on this, don't really think I need to add anything else as he's put it so well.
its not that cheap players dislike freemium/paidmium... its that cheap players *LIKE* freemium/paidmium. the cheap players are the ones who will wait for games to go free no matter how long it takes. these are the people who will download multiple freemium games knowingly and play it until they hit the wall where their skills do not match the difficulty level, then delete the game and complain on forums. sometimes this only takes a few minutes for their skills (or lack there of) to be overwhelmed, while sometimes all it takes is to look at pictures of the game itself before they fill themselves with frustration. these people do exist and they are a lost cause. fortunately not everyone is like that, otherwise we wouldnt have ios games at all. unfortunately, its those cheapskates who have all the valueless time in the world to spend it with their mouth open.
Starting to sound like Sylvr is talking about the majority. People who don't usually play games/don't know much about games/aren't very good at games have recently become the main target for developers the world over. One of the easiest way to reel them in is by releasing a game on a platform they own (everyone needs a phone) and not charging them for it upfront.
Ok, wtf. A gamer actually wants free games with NO paywall and if he feels really really generous, he leaves a buck for some interesting IAP to support the dev? That's the same as if I want to have a free tasty burger and only pay for a bit additional coke. But only if I want! Can it get more stupid?
I'm really not trying to plug my own game here, honestly, but it's some good topical data: http://www.topappcharts.com/508002149/app-details-great-big-war-game.php We just dropped the price from $2.99 to $0.99 and look what happened. That shows an amazing gap between sales volumes, and the price change was just nearly free down to really, really nearly free. This is the difference between the people that say they don't mind higher prices, and the abject reality of the app store. And why many devs are trying something else. Not complaining here, looks like we're in for a good weekend, but I think it does end a lot of speculation right there about the spending habits of the wider audience.
I prefer to pay games up front, whether its one dollar or two. Again i think the quality of game you get for the price is amazing, when my friends first told me about iOS gaming i wasnt keen, thought it'll be like the PSP, 15-20 dollar games or more. When i saw most games were 99c or a bit more i couldnt believe it ! I bought an ipod touch and was buying tons of games in those early months as there were so many i wanted, so cheap ! I think games should be $5 minimum, i cant believe how cheap they are. I dont instantly dismiss freemium. Some people seem to, the second you have to buy ANYTHING in a game they seem to hate it. Again some games are a pain as you seem to 'have' to buy things to get further. But i find many others arent, just have a bit of patience and you'll get to 'level 20' with your basic gun etc. Want to quickly move ahead then yeah buy stuff. Again back in the 80's we had games on tape, you waited 5-10 minutes for some to load ! Could you save your progress ? In 99% of games you couldnt so you would get 480/500 gems and then had to go to bed or go out with your parents ! Start again the next day. Or often you had saved up for weeks for this game and you were determined slowly but surely to complete it. As games are so cheap on iOS people seem to expect tons and tons of levels constantly or moan when they only get 4 hours play of their 99c game ! I mean come on ! Again i want iOS gaming to be huge for a long time, i dont want it to fade away and people move to the next gadget. I believe if devs make money then they'll keep making games. If they dont make money (too many people moaning about spending a dollar) then they'll move onto a platform where they can make more money , the less devs we have then iOS will start to decline. Thats something i dont want
You're supporting and feeding a model you don't like, by putting it on sale not that long after release anyone can check history and go "oh well, it was $0.99 soon after, I'll wait for it to be on sale again". You're playing into the mentality you're opposed to.
Please don't put words in my mouth, I'm not "opposed" to anything. And ftr, it was released nearly four months ago.
I agree completely. With so many games, I am glad when a game is not too long and I can actually finish it. I never understand why people want tons of replayability out of a 99 cents game. I feel that TouchArcade is guilty of this too though. In the Huebrix review they actually said that "monetization is a problem" because even though the game offered (at the time) 100 puzzles for a mere 99 cents, additional level packs could be purchased. Of course the level packs are a bit more expensive than the levels in the main game. That's true for practically every game. It's great, in my opinion. You have a cheap game with lots of levels, and if you really like it, you can get even more levels and pay a bit more to the dev. Win/win in my opinion.
Oh you edited. I didn't put any words in your mouth, your posts make it fairly obvious to me that you're not exactly thrilled about lower price point and consumer expectations, here and in other threads. Forgive me however if you're not opposed to the idea
Speaking as another dev here, I worry that indie game development is unsustainable. I'm worried that we're experiencing market saturation. The number of gamers has gone from maybe 20-30m in the 16-bit era, to a few hundred million today (judging by console sales in both eras). Rather than waxing poetic about the supply, this site gives a a pretty good image depicting it: Competition mind you is mostly now a matter of time-share, not money; there's just only so much time in a day to play games, regardless of what they cost. We're producing them so fast no one can even play all of the best ones. But we may even be approaching a much scarier point - not just time-share saturation, but mindshare saturation, where there are so many you don't even have time to hear about the good ones. Not only that, but gamers are paying us a tiny fraction per sale. They do buy a few more games now that cost isn't an issue, but not a lot more because they're not buying (more than a few) more games than they have time to play. So sales haven't gone up remotely near as much as prices have gone down, and we're not making it up on volume. This is me speaking as a developer; from my own experience, from the experience of other devs I know. My biggest worry - especially evidenced by the recent collapse of Zynga, and the kerfluffle going on with Ngmoco, is that even IAP, ads, and all the scummy stuff is just prolonging the inevitable. To me, it seems like many devs try to make the traditional upfront model work; when that fails, with the gun of "going out of business" to their head, they put all options on the table, including the things that morally disgust them. But what if even those don't work - what if even places like Zynga aren't actually printing money hand-over-fist, like we think they are? What do we do when all options fail? I'm scared.
It's not that I'm opposed to it, it's just that the options we have right now don't work well enough to sustain things in the direction we'd all like to see the appstore go. I'm trying to give a general impression though, personally I'm happy enough with our positioning in the store - we may not have had any meteoric successes, but we are at least surviving where many are not.
There are two types of IAPs. One type is the kind that unlocks new levels or adds content of some kind. These IAPs are permanent, once you've purchased the new level or new character (or whatever it may be) you always have access to it. You do not have to repurchase this type of IAP if you delete and reinstall the game, the original IAP is tied to the Apple ID you use for purchases just like the game is. When you go to buy the IAP you will get a message that you've already purchased it and a prompt to download it for free. In fact, if anyone else is sharing your Apple ID they can download the IAP too without additional charge. This is why I would suggest families use the same Apple ID for purchases but each member of the family have their own unique Apple IDs for iMessage, Game Center and iCloud. So when I bought my son The Mighty Eagle for Angry Birds, I also got it and so did my daughter (not to mention I only had to pay for the actual Angry Birds game once for all of us to get it.). The fact that I can buy a game once and the whole family gets it probably frustrates developers too. The other type of IAP is items used as consumables such as in-game currency or ammunition. This type if stuff gets "used up" in the game. With this type you are charged every time you hit the buy button. Most of these types of games I play use Game Center or something to back up your data. So if you were to delete the game and reinstall you would start right where you left off. If it was not backed up and you had to start from scratch you would lose those IAPs. At least this is how the games I play work.
