Oh, I know they aren't personally aimed at me. And please don't take my posts as an attack on you. I love Secret Exit, and have all three of your games (at full price). I'm totally looking forward to Zen Bound 2. Im just debating you because, well, I think you're wrong. Fair enough. But don't confuse the complaints with the whining. By lumping them all together, you seem to be throwing out all criticism as "people just don't understand what the app market is like". My complaint is that if ngmoco is going freemium only while canceling a game I was looking forward to simply because it doesn't fit in their model now, then I don't like that. It's not whining, it's just me sharing my opinion. And walking away from ngmoco. If you really think there are a significant number of app buyers out there with "the intention of guiding the App Store to be a marketplace with high production value games" then you are living in a dream world. Most app purchases boil down to "See app. Like app. Buy app." And they always will. Sure there are diehards out there who care about the business end of the app store, but c'mon, you cant seriously believe that those people, at any point, are going to be any more than a VERY small percentage of app store buyers? I also find your attitude toward "quality" = "expensive" and ".99" = "cheap laughs" troubling. The price a game is sold for does not determine quality. I don't know how much Capcom has spent on SFIV, but I'd be willing to bet a plate of tacos that its significantly more than the average iPhone game. I'd even bet it's significantly more than the average ngmoco game. i think Capcom has a pretty good idea of just how well SFIV is going to do to make the investment. As for ngmoco, I respect their decision to change course, butI don't have to be on the ship with them. Time will tell if the lessons they learned were the right lessons. Your right, you havn't made a claim like that. I did feel inclined to point it out, however, because of your continued stating that people should only buy $10 games, and how "unsuccessful" ngmoco's former business model was. I was just showing that .99 price points can and do work in the app store. As I've mentioned already, if more customers had been like you, this current "outrage" at freemium games would have never taken place.[/QUOTE] I dont think so. I think people just hate being nickel and dimed. For the record, I DON'T hate DLC. I have bought every Pocket God DLC. The earned it with all the free updates. I bought Cogs, and the first level pack. Actually Cogs is perfect example of why the freemium model doent work for me. It was at the top of my want list for months, and I was expecting it to be a $4.99 game. Had they offered it at $4.99, I still would have just as fast as the .99 offering (I realize that I'm in the minority on that). I beat the ten levels, and bought pack #2... but I'm stuck now, so I'm not really inclined to buy the next pack. So, Cogs could have had my 5 bucks up front, but now they only have 2 bucks. I may get the other packs eventually, but who knows. Whats more, I don't really like having my gameplay interupted to shell out more money. Remember in the pirate in the bar in The Secret of Monkey Island who is pimping the game "Loom" and Guybrush comments about what an obvious marketing ploy that is? Well, it's not so funny now.
Cheers No, I don't believe that for a second and the market has proven their absence to be a fact. My posts were written simply to guide those who are complaining about the freemium model to take the right actions in order to change the situation. Building consumer awareness and explaining how the small individual choices affect the big picture is important, particularly in the App Store where radical changes can happen within months. I'm not knocking on Flight Control or any other one dollar success. They're well-earnt. But yes, price does determine quality and scope. There is only so much content and polish that can be crammed into a dollar. And there's no chance in hell that a company with valuable branded IP would de-value it down to that price-point. I doubt any publisher is able to make confident sales projections in the App Store, and I won't speculate on the budget of SFIV. But it is much cheaper to develop games in China, and you can usually spot the games from big publishers that have much content but lack polish. To my understanding none of the ngmoco games have been outsourced to cheap development countries. Correct, but nobody in the right of their mind would invest the budget of a premium title on a $0.99 game. Even with a huge amount of sales of a top ten hit you would barely break even, if even that.
Ok, but they seem to be ditching Rolando because it wouldn't be freemium, so it seems different to me.
C'mon Hodapp, are you telling me that you support this decision? From a gamer's POV? Here's a petition to try and bring R3 back. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Rolando3/
I just want to point out that the comparison between NGmoco and Zynga is a little...off. I play Zynga Poker Live almost every night, at least a little bit. Have been for over a year and I have yet to pay a single cent, and I can play all night if I choose. The choice to buy chips is optional. The only thing that can stop you from playing the game is if you run out of money. I've been playing for a year, full featured by the way, no pay. I would have paid for the initial game, but I opted for the free version starting with only $2000. With Eliminate and Touch Pets, you can not play the game full featured for as long as you wish without paying constantly. I find it amazing that people will pay Zynga $50 for poker chips, or for farm equipment in Farmville, but they do. But if they don't they can still play it as long as they wish...with no limitations. I don't know how much NGmoco made last year but I know how much Zynga made. Tens of millions. That's all. Carry on
Where did you see Hand Circus was leaving ngmoco? Everything I've read has lead me to believe that ngmoco is retaining Rolando, and just trying to figure out what to do with it now that they're going freemium. Have a source for this?
