Ngmoco’s CEO Neil Young took some time to speak with TouchArcade about their just-announced acquisition of Freeverse. The response to the acquisition in our comments and forums has been very lively both about the overall move as well as the adoption of the freemium model.
In the interview, we addressed their choice of Freeverse as a target, as well as their move into freemium content. The full audio recording is included in our podcast format, while a summary is transcribed here.
Addressing why they choose Freeverse, Young was very complimentary about the company and described them as “wonderful people" who shared their vision and values while also having a pool of talented people and intellectual properties that complemented Ngmoco. Freeverse will remain functionally independent and retain the Freeverse brand. According to Young, to the outside world, things won’t look very different initially.
One hot topic amongst our readers is Ngmoco’s recent move towards a freemium model — where games are free to download and revenue is generated through in-app purchases. The reason for this move was a combination of factors according to Young. Despite the running speculation, the move was not in response to the high piracy rates on the iPhone.
Instead, there were two main factors. First, they felt that there was a large pool of App Store customers who only participated in the free-download side of the store that were not being captured in the traditional model. Young cited download numbers 10-20x higher for the top free apps compared to the paid apps. And, second, in looking into the future of the App Store, they saw a general trend away from higher priced premium games, and towards these type of games that can be played over time.
Interestingly, Young admits that the first incarnations of their freemium models for Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs were somewhat “clumsy" and “1.0" versions of the model (and to be followed by 2.0, 3.0 etc…). Part of this is attributed to the fact that neither game was originally conceived to be freemium. Young said, however, they have continued to learn and made ongoing adjustments to the model for their upcoming games including God Finger and We Rule, and beyond.
Finally, Young confirms that Freeverse’s existing games including the upcoming Warp Gate won’t be affected by the acquisition, but that future games will be designed around the freemium model.
We recommend listening to the entire interview yourself, which is included here.
Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.
Interview Audio: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 14.7MB)
Already downloading, both :)
The magic system made sense if you compared it to the D&D system, which is what it was based on ^_^;
was about to make this very comment :)
Downloading now, can't wait! Hopefully this time I can finish them.
i have the game on gba and have been playing it for a while now and it is still fun my play clock is at about 40:00 hours so i would say that that long of entertainment is worth 9 bucks. with the bonus dungeons the game is extended from its NES form so that could account for the price diff.
great games i gotten pre releases on my country outs earyer ^^
Awesome! Bring on Shining Force!!
Yes please. And Shining Force II.
i think these are great, i want square enix to continue with the tactics series ... those will be a great addition (downloading doth right now )
should i get the first or second one? which is better because i'm new to this game
Get the first :)
I think these are tired. It's not just that they are old. Square-Enix has ported this game to every system imaginable. They've spent the better part of ten years releasing, releasing, and releasing again this same game. There's no milk left in this cow, as far as Im concerned. I'm over it.
Meanwhile, Square is busy making real Final Fantasy games for the DS. Something I imagine we will never see on the iPhone. No Final Fantasy game, short of a 20-year old port, will ever sell at this price point anyway. Those Crystal Chronical games, plus the 3-D remakes of 3 and 4, plus the RTS FFXII game all sell 30-40 a piece, or did when they first debuted.
As a DS (Lite) and itouch 3G owner, I agree with you that the DS FF games are great. I loved Revenant Wings, both Crystal Chronicles games, and the remakes of III and IV. However, it's still great FF I and II are available in the App Store for people who don't have a DS or PSP or whatever. It's not 99 cents, but $8.99 for a game that'll give you hours of gameplay is good. I was never around for both so I'll be giving them a try at some point. I do agree that Square Enix are FF I and II porting whores though.
And yet I've never played it or any other early final fantasy game so please don't tell me that there's no reason for me to be interested in this.
They did it for this reason: People love the freaking game man.. it's amazing.. oh AND.. us Adults.. ya, old people.. yep, ya know, the ones who had the NES and who bought the game when it first came out and spent freaking forever trying to figure everything out (pre-internet kiddos, lol).. yah.. this game, is for ME.. I don't own a DS or PSP, lol.. I have a life.. and an iPhone.. and now.. FF I and FF II (jap) (would have loved to see FFIV!!!! US: FFII).. Hopefully a few of you guys who are from the VII era and/or new players will give it a shot, with an open mind.. I mean.. comon, this thing is 20 years old.. still worth it for the story.. Not to mention it's one of the only RPG's where you grow up in the game.. still have yet to see tons do this as classy as FF1
Already bought FFI. Thanx Square Enix!
tim
Both look promising, but I think I'm going to save my money for the Fallout 1 and 2 ports (I doubt they'll ever be ported, but I can dream, can't I?)
crap, why did you have to mention fallout series... Now I will spend my nights dreaming about playing FO on my iphone. Curse you
fallout remake for iphone... GRAND idea
And while we're dreaming, how about Legend of Zelda?
Hey. If I can get Zelda to work under linux, how hard could it be for Nintendo to get it to work on the iphone?
HELP!
I'm new to the FF games. I'm having troubles battling the first boss guy (idk if he is a boss). My question is: How do you get health?!?!?!?!?! I'm still at the very beginning.
try battling and go back to inn to heal for the time being .when ur richer then buy potions.
Also buy the Cure spell in town if you have a character that can use it (like a White Mage).
Ooohh... I didn't see the inn thinger.
This might be a stupid question, but how do you get the menu to appear? I got it to come up once out of battle by clicking on the names in the bottom right of the screen, but those disappeared...is it something I did?
Just let go of the controls for a moment, and the character summary should return.
Well now I feel like an idiot O.o thanks so much!
Is there an option to switch this to the Japanese language? I really want a japanese language game to play and the AppStore Japan is not an option.
Some games (e.g. Gameloft's recent titles) have an option within the game settings to change the language, but most of the time, apps and games will run in whatever language your iPhone/iPod system is set to (as long as it supports that language).
Since there's no language setting in this game, you'll probably have to switch your entire iPhone/iPod to Japanese to get any games or apps (that have Japanese support) to switch languages.
I had my system in Japanese for about a year, during which time many of my apps (all bought from the Canadian iTunes store) ran in Japanese. It's currently set to English again, so I don't know if it works with Final Fantasy…but try it.
Yeah, last night after reading that someone hit a bug and it changed to Japanese I switched my iPod to Jap. and downloaded the game and it works beautifully! I'm quite excited. I just wish they'd make it more obvious if games are released with multiple locales.
I've been waiting for this for a long time! YES!
...Although double tapping an enemy to attack like in FFIII would have been nice. I mean, it's a TOUCHSCREEN. -_-
Ok, I've gotta say it. $9 folks! What in God's name are you waiting for? $9! what in the world
can you possibly buy for $9 that will give you the enjoyment of a Final Fantasy game? Tell me? $9!
The Quest, GTA:CW, Doom, Ravensword, Brothers in arms... maybe even some weed or beer :P
Ravensword? you serious dude, that game blew so badly, it doesnt even compare to the depth these games have, unless you just get off from seeing things in 3d.
Agreed! Ravensword is horrible.
haha weed + newer final fantasies = awesome. :D Can't wait for XIII, IMA BE TRIPPING WITH FINAL FANTASY IN HD!!! hell yeah!
As much as I love beer, I doubt you can get 40 hours worth of beer for 9 bucks. :)
Or a *really* cheap hooker in Thailand?
9 doodle jumps
Just so much negativity for the amount you would spend on lunch, and surely anyone who can afford an iPhone still has $9 left after buying lunch?
Wanna shout me lunch? I'm skint.
I downloaded but both crash on start up?! I have iPod touch 2g running 3.1
I've got the same question as DJ - Is there an option for Japanese language?
No in-game option but if your iPod is set to Japanese it works!
Really excited to play these. I never had the patience to finish either of the early FF series. With an improved save system and a phone I always have with me, perhaps I can this time.
Btw, now I'm starting to hope to see a Xenogear port to the iPhone!!
Great games.
However, whenever I'm in a village the framerate seems to drop down and my movement seems to be slower/less smooth.
I experience this only with FF1. Anyone else has this too?
Funny enough, it did this in the NES version as well... :/ but.. ah well.. it's an amazing game.. w00t
anyone knows the logic in the order my characters attack?
It's seems to be quite random to me but I'm probably wrong
Pretty sure it's top down, or front row then back row
Grabbed FFI this morning. Now have to wait for work to end so i can give it a spin. I remember my brother and I sitting around the TV playing these as kids...
VII
I agree, I bought Ravensword, hopin\' it would be reminscent of Oblivion (just scaled down) ... but yeah, Ravensword just didn\'t do it for me ... too generic ...
The price is relative. I don't think $9 is too much for this game, especially when one considers that it is at least the same quality as all other marquee RPGs on the iStore. That being said, it is too high a price for a game that I can freely play by downloading an emulator of basically any system that has ever been made, because Square has ported it there. Perhaps if I am taking a long trip somewhere I'll pick it up, otherwise it's not worth it.
NES games go for $5 on the Wii Shop channel, so it's kind of fair to expect a little less expensive. On the other hand, these games look excellent.
What's the rating ? Did you stop giving games ratings ?
$9 is a bit much for a 20 year old game that they didn't even care to update the interface on. This looks like an oversized GBA game.
are you kidding?
they... totally updated the graphics, and gave it a whole new touch interface.
the graphics in this are better than the Playstation version by leaps and bounds.. Check again.
I've got a weird bug here. After I saved my game for the first time, all the text in the game changed to japanese. Anyone else had this problem?
so does anyone know where the items that can be used to cast magic are located? I'm talking about staffs or rods you can equip but USE as well, and a magic spell is cast.. Anyone?
Spells can be bought at magic shops at almost every village.
Staffs can be bought at weapon shops
If you are talking about the glove that can cast thundara or the staff that can cast heal then to use the magic on that item, just go to your items and select the staff or the rod. It is unlimited use and your character does not have to equip it.
Grabbed FF1 immediately. It's fantastic. The framerate seems a little choppy sometimes, but it's not a big deal.
The one thing that really annoys me is that awful, loud sound effect that plays every time you touch a menu option. Which is all the time. It's louder than the music and all the other sounds. And you can't turn it off or even turn it *down*.
I don't think I'll last much longer before I just start playing the game on mute, which is a shame, since the music has been greatly improved since its original 8-bit incarnation.
Really hoping they throw in an option to turn that thing off.
yeah it makes it impossible to enjoy the game in math class! :(
I agree on that too. I posted that complaint on the iTunes store in hoping that Square will release an update to either lower or mute that menu sound effect.
Nice. Wish they'd release FFVII.
Toast.
I play these quality games on my psone. Nice to have them as backup on iphone though. Are they altered from the psx versions in any way?
I laughed when someone on one of these threads complained that it was the same as the GameBoy Advance version.
Gameboy Advance? Dude. Crazy. I was playing FF2 last night for like 2 hrs, I LOVE the music, the graphics are really really nice, and you get used to the controls after like 3 minutes. Wicked wicked strategy from Square.
I realize there's alot of really young kids on here (duh, its video games) but guys, they're not going to release FF7 now and waste the opportunity to make all that money. It's a business. You start from the bottom and work your way up...
Think about it,by the time they get around to FF7, iPhone 4's gonna be out (not to mention iPad) and Square can really take advantage of the graphical prowess of these new devices.
One little gripe about FF2... The controls don't seem as sharp as, say Inotia2. Square, just copy Inotia2's button size, etc and try to refine the responsiveness of the virtual keys, but other than that, awesome game.
it's a very good game, but i've got a question : what is the touch for open the world map ??
I figured how to get world map to show up...wait for menu in corner to show up and press and hold on menu. Hope my instructions are clear enough. ^_^
if they released Final Fantasy 4 it would be an immediate purchase. Hell if they released the DS version, I wouldn't even take a look at the price, it would be an instant buy. But these games are so low on story and so high on tedium I just can't bring myself to pay 9 bucks for 40 hours of torture :p
And this is coming from a huge Final Fantasy fan that owns and has played every game in the series, as well as SO MANY other JRPGs, like Xenosaga, Grandia, Star Ocean, and god does the list go on.
My point, these games are just too damn tedious.
Awesome! I think $8.99 is very reasonable for the hours of gameplay you can get out of these. Downloading now!
Oliath, why don't you just shut up? £6 for a 20 year old game is too much.
If you've got money to waste, then good for you.... Perhaps your spending mummy and daddies money?
So you're here to tell people how they should spend their money???
Dozens of iPhone games are just remakes of games from the late 70s and early 80s. Remember when simple was fun? That is what FF is and if you don't agree, go vent elsewhere.
This loads very slow to download but that's what you get for getting a game that's so long
Thanks for taking the time for posting that insightful comment. Captain Obvious has spoken!
Is it possible to access the snow craft mini-game on android?
Great !!