+1 This is "freeimum" done fine. One thing Apple should do is allow users to download old versions (if they aren't removed for legal reasons) then this wouldn't be an issue in any way. I think it is an okay move on their part. Makes the game more accessible.
Pretty funny that you predicted these posts before they came... Wonder if I'm I the only one who reads the, "I'm OK with this kind of Freemium" posts as actually saying, "I'm sorry you had to pay for it, but I got it for free, so I'm OK with it being free..." DBC
Let's just clear things up the simple way and end the abstract talk. So for new users, the app is now a pretty good freemium with only one reasonably priced ads remover. So far everyone who has updated the app claims to have seen no ads. What about those who have purchased the app but never installed/deleted it? Anyone willing to check for any sign of ads? This group seems to be only ones that are potentially "screwed."
Just take the "Abstractness" out of it, I assumed this would be implied, but I updated and see ads. There wouldn't have been any point in posting otherwise, right? DBC
Someone already did this, and owners that download the new version without having an old version to update are seeing ads. Some existing customers also are seeing ads. So pretty much you can never get a new iOS device and do a fresh install straight from the appstore... and updating to the new version may cripple the premium version for some people. Here's an example, post #22 from this thread (page 3)... I could find other posts from around the web but I think there are those that will defend EA/Popcap at all costs... for whatever reason. Personally, bait and switch like this should be illegal and I hope someday someone does a class action lawsuit.
What is truly sad about this: While I understand that people by nature tend to be relatively myopic, everyone gets "screwed" by this increasingly ubiquitous practice, including those shining knights who bravely proclaim that "nothing is wrong (and thanks for the free game)." Sure, it's fine if you lucked out this time and got a game for free. I mean, who cares how many (in the specific case of a PopCap game) millions of buyers end up with a broken game. You didn't, so why all the complaining from the "cheapskates?" Eventually? It will be your turn, and you'll be posting the same sentiments. In the meantime? It gets harder and harder for anyone to buy anything, lest their product get broken. I'm surprised we haven't seen the, "you don't understand business" posts yet. Business 101? If no one buys your products anymore, you can't make them anymore. The result? This happens more and more, and by the time enough people have finally been personally affected by it, it's largely too late to do anything about it, and we have almost nothing but FTP to choose from... Oh wait... With regard to the faux EA bashing/defending crap, I'm not even bothering, because I cannot improve someone's reading comprehension simply by posting more words. DBC
I can understand why they want ads in the game, but why not write it in the description instead of being unclear, clearly they're trying to hide the truth to the masses. Here is an extract of Bejewled HD update 1.5 "In our on-going pursuit of excellence, we bring you bug fixes and optimizations! updated Game Center icon..."
On a positive note, while I am actively avoiding games from certain devs and stuff, I am actively seeking smaller true independent devs to support and as such have found a lot of really great devs out there. The beauty is a lot of smaller devs post on the forums and will be completely open about their business model and are actual gamers too so they don't want to mess with anyone anymore than they are willing to be messed with as a customer. So many devs flat out say they won't put IAP in a game or that it'll only be for cheating or donations or something. Sure there are still those that bait and switch, or go freemium after a couple days on the store... but all this has done is paired down the number of devs I'll actually buy from. Which given the massive overload of game devs out there... this is only good for the backlog. Hence recommending VictorVictoria's Jewel Next, or getting hyped over Monster Robot Studios (aka Ashley Jackson) and their latest release, Steam Punks. Or being able to just easily recommend games like Survivalcraft, Manos, Limbo, 9th Dawn, Cavern, Sword & Sworcery, Aliens Versus Humans, Ninja Striker, Siege Hero, Mecho Wars, Cytus, Gemini Rue, and so on and know the devs behind them are reputable. Other devs can try the freemium route. They can try the get rich quick schemes out there. The store may be changing but there are so many really good devs out there that just want to make good games it's getting easier to just throw the bad ones the middle finger and move on to something better. Not to bash EA, but I burned out on them so many years ago during the Dreamcast / Game Cube/ PS2 days that I never buy anything from them anyway. Buying devs to liquidate them for their IP just never set well with me.
Great post. Yeah, I'm not going to try to explain it either, but having deleted this game just days ago, I'm not a happy camper knowing what will happen if I redownload it. A huge company like this should also know better. On Android, there's a lot of big name publishers that put out two versions - one free and ad-supported and one paid. In fact, ironically, EA has done this with most Angry Birds titles on Android. So the question is why don't they do the same on iOS? And more specifically why wasn't it done in this case?
And I'm guessing you can also understand why 90+% of "average" iOS gamers outside TA don't pay anything for games... ever. I'm responding to this because I have a pretty good sense of your intelligence/maturity level, so I'm fairly confident that you'll know I'm not arguing with you... The problem, as I suspect you know, is that anyone on that list could be the next to do exactly what we're talking about (as much as it pains me to suggest it, considering how I feel about a couple of them). How many "amazing indie developers" have we lost already? [*cough* WIMP *cough*] Shall I list just 10? 20? I said it before, I'll say it again. Minus the troll posts and those who got the game for free, the practice stinks. It's far from the most important thing in my life (that would be my upcoming clinical licensure exam... *gulp*), but it stinks. I love iOS gaming, I love the App Store, and I hate watching what it is quickly becoming, while people sit on their thumbs... If you want to chat further, PM me. I deleted a game I honestly thought would outlast my iDevices this morning, so I'm done with it, and subsequently this thread. DBC
No, no, no. If you're talking about the game quality and benefit to (most importantly) the gamers, quit kidding everyone, and yourself. I had this on my wishlist, and I took it off. I keep all versions of ipa's on a storage drive for this particular reason. I don't want to by a game that is successful AS A GREAT GAME, and then later on in life have a bunch of crap developers add to it (or take from it), rendering it just annoying to have it wasting space on my iPhone. I'm sorry to be rash, but anyone who supports this junk is part of the problem. And no, a strong opinion to fight my statement proves nothing but near-sightedness.
So, among those who have updated their app, there're unlucky people getting ads and more fortunate others not. That seems messed up. Apparently switching to freemium model always messes things up Curious if Popcap is not doing well with PvZ2 to resort to this? Or maybe just ...EA.
It's money. What gives EA more of it other than making a great game turn Freemium at the end of its Premium money making lifecycle? EA, get that monnayy!! Read the charts, EA. It's time to go Freemium!!
How exactly did you store your IPAs on a storage drive? I have way too much clogging up my hard drive.
In iTunes, go to your apps. Right click on any and select "open in windows explorer". It'll open the folder where all your ipa's are stored. At least the most recent ones. Previous ipa's of apps are moved to recycle bin upon updating. Then just select the ones to you want to backup and copypasta into your external hdd.
Something just isn't adding up here. I'm going to avoid this whole political/philosophical topic on the ethics of "freemium" because my opinion literally won't matter anyway, BUT I'm really confused as to how some people are getting ads after an update or install and some aren't. There aren't many times I've come across a situation like this (none I can currently name), which is motivating me to test things out. For science! After I uninstalled the game from my phone and reinstalling the newest version, I still have no ads. I have not made any additional purchases; just the 99 cents when I bought the game a long time ago. This leads me to believe that some of us have different license purchases, or, perhaps there's a device specific license that I wasn't aware of (Similar to Xbox360?). I really want to be able to reproduce this problem but I can't figure out how. My guess is that some of us bought the game with real money while others received the game from a price drop in the past and the update resulted in the previous free purchases to begin to display ads. Can we get any input on how those of you that got screwed over actually acquired your copy?
What I tend to do is when apps are deleted by itunes on my pc I'll restore them from the trash bin back to the original folder. New apps will have a later version # in their name so they can all just exist in the same folder. Then I just use iFunBox to install any apps where there are old versions that are better for whatever reason. Sometimes when I have confirmed a version is good or whatever I'll delete the old ones. It's not a perfect solution, but it works.
Just for grins I decided to redownload it. I paid for it ($.99 like yourself) and have ads. So I honestly don't know what could be causing people to not have ads. I also thought when something like this is done there's no way for a dev to know if you previously owned it or not. So my assumption was if you deleted it, you'd have ads no matter what, which strangely doesn't seem to be the case with you. Perhaps it's because you had it installed at the time of the update? And from that point on it knows that you had already paid for it? No matter. In my case, it's history. Not going to put up with this garbage. And it's sad because prior to the EA takeover, I had respect for PopCap. Oh, and my son got an Xbox One as an early Christmas present - don't be fooled I'll be playing it too and am cash poor because of it -- so I was actually thinking of grabbing Peggle 2 next week. Um. No. I'm not mad. It's just a game. But it does affect my view of a dev and whether to support them.
Pretty sure I've already said this at least once in this thread, but "Bejeweled" was one of the first apps I paid for, alongside "Bookworm," when I first got an iDevice. Paid for, never removed, EVER (until this morning at least), and now has ads. Not even sure why I'm bothering to post the information, because the two have nothing to do with one another, at least based on over a year of personal experience with exactly this trend... I wrote a much longer response regarding the "ethics" part of your post, but I'll suffice it to say this, your voice and choice very much do matter. If gamers stand around wringing their hands and/or pretending everything is fine each and every time situations like this arise, we will indeed end up with exactly the App Store we deserve. DBC
In your zeal to justify the decision to go freemium, you must've missed my post on page 3 that said... To be clear, I purchased the iPhone version in December 2011, and the HD version as soon as it came out in early 2012. I have ads in that one too. Because of space limitations on my iPad, I regularly switch that one out with Heroes of Kalevala. Despite it being returned to my iPad a week before this update, I have ads. Not sure if it has to do with save game problems, or it's device-specific, but I definitely have ads in both my fully paid copies of this game.
