I used to like the freemium model.. until they were IAP littered and took an arrow to the knee. Seriously, signed.
Why people don't think other people will take advantage of them at any given chance baffles me! I wish I was a member of TA when the original guys predicted this! Edit To be fair, gamers are just as responsible as the devs at this point!
Thats exactly the problem right there.. you hit the nail on the head..per say. Gameloft doesnt make casual puzzle games for a few dollars ... they try and make full value games(high end)... using ideas from major gameing companies. at premium prices..I.M.O. Dont get me wrong there are a few diamonds in the rough..(N.O.V.A) halo esque..and few others that where worth the price...but its gone down hill..With the other game studios producing better quality games for same price or cheaper ..they might need to stay freemium to make any money.
An exercise in futility. You would've had to have signed that petition a year ago with your wallet. It's too late now. There's no stuffing Pandora back in its box. I tried to warn people that there was going to a day of reckoning for their 0.99c entitlement. That day is upon us. For all of those who made their own beds, they are now going to have to sleep in them. For every action, there is an equal but oppose reaction. Forcing devs to have to race to the bottom in order to remain competitive in the marketplace is not that dissimilar from stealing. With that Said, it sucks that all those selfish cheapskates dragged everyone down with them. I have purchased nearly every Premium game that Gameloft has developed, at full price, all the way back to paying $9.99 for Terminator. I know I'm not the only one. Now we are all stuck in the same, everyone being punished, in a sense, for something that everybody did not do. Most people who hang out at Touch Arcade are reasonable. But look at all those iTunes reviews from people who have no affiliation with Touch Arcade. Spoiled brats. They believe they deserve the world for 0.99c. They deserve nothing. And it's rational adults who get screwed in the end, likely because a bunch of 12-year-olds are crying about not wanting to pay $5 for a legitimate game. It is what it is. It cannot be undone. At least we still have a handful of serious indie developers around, so not all is lost. Games like Epoch and Shadowgun still provide us with hope.
@dumazz I wish I could shake your hand because that's how I feel. I do think there's a very small glimmer of hope, but IDK if I'm banking it in the ones you mentioned. **Remember I said IDK not I'm not.
There's a select part of the market that spends a considerable amount on IAPs. They ruin it for us along with the self entitled brats that Dumaz mentioned. This is a quick and to the point answer, but it could be made longer.
This IAP was in place before coming to iOS when it invaded Facebook. There are people who not only accept it but expect it.
I try to avoid facebook like its my job. I really don't like it. This just adds to the list of reasons why. Well, if they expected what more can you do. We are a small community, I see review sites that perpetuate freemium, Apple sure as heel doesn't care, devs are bending over backwards. The only answer is to keep pushing but how long can we push for. The trend needs to lean towards iOS being a formidable gaming platform. There's been plenty of times that I really thought I was leaving this platformer. The facebook thing definitely throws a bit of a monkey wrench into my b*tching, so I'll have to make adjustments to b*tch a bit more accurately. What will become of us when the PS Vita comes out? Will people tire of this freemium crap and just move the hell on? Me, I'll just go back to console/PC or just give it all up because I've never liked any of the portable gaming consoles after my Game Boy. I gave most of it up when I went college and the only thing that really kept me into gaming was my iPhone 3GS.
iPhone got me back into gaming. I used to love the scene but now release days are littered with disappointments. I've just bought myself a limited edition Zelda 3DS bundle because I'm tired of this freemium model ruining our scene. At least owning a physical cartridge means no joker can retro-fit my Ocarina of Time with IAP and ads !
As much as I agree that freemium sucks, it makes money, and therefore Gameloft will continue to use the freemium model. They won't care about a few hundred people complaining. I highly doubt they'll completely shift to freemium anyways.
Well youre almost there, but the answer I was looking for is that it is profitable. You would deny someone the right to make money? And I doubt it's a 'select part of the market' if they're changing their whole strategy.
Well, I know it's profitable. It's a select part of the market because only a few people access the big stuff. A LOT of people play these games all the way through without paying a dime. Trying to find analsis/stats for the iOS sucks, but the few I have seen explicitly state it's a minority driving force when it comes to actual revenue. The real question is why is it profitable which has already been talked in this thread among countless others. If you really want answers just go to the dev section. They are always talking about their plight. That's where the most insight is to be gained. They can answer all your questions about why freemium too.
I don't Facebook either but the explosion of those kinds of games that ripped off Farmville is astounding. Now stacked on the walls in stores with gift cards are not only iTunes cards, XBox and PSP points but Farmville and other Zynga game points cards. People have bought into this idea and it doesn't seem to be going away. It's unfortunate because it seems this might be the future. Though one can say it is a blast from the past because I still remember digging for more quarters when the "continue? insert quarter" screen appeared on arcade games. It is what it is. I used to be more angry about it, but now I know that is how many developers are eating these days - selling a few of the big time IAPs. As long as there is a market, and as long as it is profitable, developers will push it out. When people tire of it, that is when developers will have to change. But until then, hopefully we will have choices in the kinds of games we get. As unfortunate as it sounds, there will probably always be two camps of iOS gamers - those that freemium and those that don't.
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. If it wasn't for some of the great premium games on iOS I would've already left. When I first came on the forum I was angrier too, but after seeing all the I'll wait for it to go free/on sale comments, I know why we're here. It really does seem like a race to the bottom. Hopefully we hit it quickly, so we can brush of the dust and get back to real gaming. (i mean i still complain about it but not as heavily) It'd be awesome if Apple pushed iOS as a formidable gaming contender, but they have that 30%. This is the same company that can get people to buy the same device twice. Edit My flaw is being tempted by games like Zenonia 4.
I have an idea, lets attack a company for using a profitable, and obviously, successful business model. It works, yeah it sucks, but in the end they are in this to make money.
