I play both F2P and Premium games. I prefer premium games all the way. With the whole F2P shift that's been going on the past year or so, I've found myself buying premium games just for the sake that they are that, premium and want to show my support and to show that there still are gamers out there that want to play and will pay for good premium games. Now on the F2P side of things. I really don't mind them. It is what it is I guess. I will say that I have saved a TON of money with the whole F2P shift though. I used to average 50 bucks a week on iOS games a year or 2 ago. Now, I'm averaging less then 10 dollars a week, unless we get a decent week with some good premium games. I refuse to pay for IAPs for timers in games unless it is to disable the timer. I'll also pay for an IAP to disable ads or unlock the full game. That's about it and besides the "disable ads" IAP, most games don't offer the other IAPs. So I find myself playing numerous games at a time now to kind of go with the timers. It's kind of a game in itself in a way. I know I'm getting a LOT more entertainment now for practically nothing. Now is the quality better? Probably not in most cases because everything is jacked up in price and there's 20 different currencies, ect., but I'm still having fun I guess. At one point, all I was playing was iOS games back when everything was premium. It was becoming where my iPad/iPhone was pretty much a handheld console. Now, with the exception of some games, everything has kind of gone the "casual" route, so I've found myself firing up my consoles a little more now to get my "core" gaming fix. The PSVita has kind of taken over the premium and indie scene where iOS left off a year or so ago. I've actually been getting a lot of use out of the Vita now. Bottom line, I still love iOS gaming and still prefer playing premium games on it. It's all about adjusting though. If there isn't anything for me to play on one device/console, I go to another. I just really hope there is still a market on iOS for premium games. I don't want to see premium games gone for good. Hopefully we can find a balance. Sorry for the rambling. On Topic: I love every bit of this game and would hate to see future updates not see the light of day because of sales.
sales wow! thanks for the detailed and honest input. I would love to get more into detail with this discussion. But first, let me give you a better picture of the scenario and why there might be no content coming. here are the hard facts: Up until now the game has sold around 4500 copies (ipad and iphone combined), where the majority was during our 2,99$ sale. As most know, 1/3 third of that money goes to apple and I think you can do the math from here. Needless to say, this is nowhere near the development costs of a premium game of this scope.
yep, we were as surprised as you are ;-) But back to the f2p discussion: Since it seems that most people in this thread seem to have played/bought Crystal Siege, I would like to pose a question. would you have bought the game if it was a f2p game? I know that it is a tricky question since you already played it and know a bit more about it. But would the simple fact that it was f2p have made you not buy it or would you have tried it non the less to find out if it is any good?
These days I generally give f2p games a pass. The only f2p I even try is the kind that sells a non-consumable multiplier and iAP that is not obnoxious ($50, $100 etc). I mostly ignore a freemium TD game, but since this is an FDG product I would have at least given it a shot if the game was launched as f2p. The thing about f2p games, and TD f2p games in general is that you can never know if a level is designed to be difficulty or if the difficulty is there to push iAP sales. Same goes for making sense of the grind requirements in the game. Every single f2p dev will say that consumable iAP is not required, and 90% of the time that is a lie. It's heartbreaking to hear that Crystal Siege did poorly, because it really is a wonderful game.
I would of tried it, but even more so if people were talking about it and saying good things like they were. I bought it after it went universal so I bet it didnt help it was iPad only for a long time.
It all depends on the monotinization. I would have downloaded it regardless, but if it had crazy timers and 20 different types of currency, I would have probably played it for as long as I could without buying any IAPs. Just dealing with the timers and playing when I could. It all depends on how F2P is done.
Personally, i'd download it, only because FDG made it. Even so, depending on how balanced the freemiumness is, i'd probably delete it in a couple days. The only freemiums i have left that im still playing are Temple Run 2, Dead Effect, Stormblades, Tap Titans, Marvel Future Fight and FF Record Keeper. Only the last 2 have timers, and the others not mentioned here are getting deleted in my nest cleanup.
I may have downloaded a F2P based on the company but more than likely I would delete it just because most F2P are online only games which I never invest my time into, save a couple Japanese apps. The last point would be that I've never played a good F2P Tower Defense on iOS. I just haven't seen anyone do it correctly. Usually it involves ridiculously hard levels that need power ups, heros that can't be leveled and stay weak, or timers that will limit the play time severely.
One that i know of is TTTTD. Everything can be grinded and overcome. Others have been too pushy for IAPs.
Honestly as was mentioned I belive launching as ipad only is a bad idea for anyone unless they have some massive hype around their game even then it's still better to do a universal launch I'm no expert but obviously more people have those devices than people that have iPads as it seems you rely on advertising or being lucky and being featured by Apple. Selling piles to get onto the charts when you launch rather than dropping off and never getting noticed. As for free to play if I think a game sounds awsome and think it looks good I'll try it as there is nothing to lose. After that it depends on how the payment model is and if I like the game on if I'll stick with it. At the minute I'm playing Crazy Kings which I'm enjoying and that was free and I even give in to buy 1 deal that come up. Generally I'll only buy 1 on a free game to act as if it were me paying for the game because of like to see more content.
Crystal Siege only 1$ I case you missed it, the game is 1$ now. For a limited time only. So go grab it while its still hot
