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‘Radiation Island’ is Staying an Apple Exclusive – Because Android Users Don’t Buy Games

TouchArcade Rating:

Are you a die-hard Android hater? Well, good news, you get to stick it in the craw of Android gamers, as Radiation Island ($4.99) is an iOS exclusive. Why are the developers, Atypical Games, sticking with iOS only? Because Android owners don’t pay for stuff. According to Atypical Games CEO Andrei Lopata, after a release of Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders ($4.99) on Android was disappointing after being in the top 10 paid games on Google Play: “For the moment, it’s quite clear that Android users don’t pay for premium content. Google is also not pushing premium content either."

Ouch. Well, they’re not wrong – iOS has historically done better for paid games. Monument Valley‘s ($3.99) iOS sales have far outpaced Android sales. Piracy is also a problem on Android just from a technical aspect, where any Android device can theoretically pirate a game. But it might also be because a lot of Android users are in countries that don’t really pay for apps, or even lack the ability to do so. For example, I talked with Sebastian Gosztyla, developer of DUAL (Free), recently. He said that downloads of the game on Android were far outpacing the iOS downloads, though the actual number of in-app purchases were about the same on both platforms.

Still, this is kind of why free-to-play and ad-supported models are rising in prominence. Android has so many users – twice as many as iOS in 2014 – so targeting them is key. But for developers that want to do paid games? iOS still is the top dog.

  • Radiation Island

    Radiation Island is a survival adventure game where you craft your own destiny in a huge open world environment. As part…
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