Would it be possible if you gave numbers about which platform earned more or at least percentages like android generated 5x more than iOS?
whatever the reason is, they should have made a new free app. People who bought the game 4 bucks may be inclined to pay more so certainly they didn't want to loose that stream of cash cow. It's not a mistery that free brings in more DL(but we also know that even with millions of DL, the conversion rate is just a little percentage but you have all these people who just can't help buy more&more). This is not their first try on the Appstore, so they did already know how this would turn up. It seems to me more like a very well thought strategy of starting premium(squeeze from the early adopters) and then switch to freemium in order to cash in as much as possible(hoping the same people who bought the premium version would be more likely to spend money in the game). This will be my last game from these devs, who show no respect to those who bought a premium game; not a crapium game.
No respect? They gave you $20 of in-game currency as a way of repayment. 5times what we payed upfront.
Interesting idea about getting the premium early adopters money then go free to play to get everyone else.
I don't blame the developers and published for a move like this, as the AppStore is such an unhealthy place for games. I know it sucks but this is true that developers cannot support games for long without bringing in more revenue. It makes me wish that the old days of Iap was to add extra levels to games earlier on in the AppStores life but that failed in a model. The thing I cannot stand about IAP is that I shouldn't have to pay to speed up a game or buy extra lives in a game. How about the game is free up front and then I can pay to unlock features instead of having to constantly pump more and more into the game to continue to play it.
This is a great game and I'm glad the devs made an effort to repay early adopters. But I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't also point out that once again this is a freemium conversion that hurts early supporters if you have deleted off your phone. I've said it a million times but the only fair way to do it is a separate app. And, yes, I know as a computer programmer that it takes a bit more work to support two versions. But I do it all the time to support the customers we work with that want things slightly different, etc. I admire the work the clearly talented devs into the game, but my stance against this kind of move still stands and I can't let them off the hook. I deleted this (as many people do) to juggle apps for new ones, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have wanted to download it again. But now I don't get the benefit of being an early supporter. And people like myself are the ones who may think twice before getting your next game. And I do want to say I understand why you did this but the more this happens the more it makes it harder to want to buy apps at all. It sucks. I like premium games. I like paying just once. But if this keeps happening I have to start asking if it's worth actually BUYING games at all.
^100% This. Sorry devs but I don't have a 1 terra iPad to keep all the games in and have just to upgrade to catch the benefits as an early adopter after the FTP adaptation. For me was just 4 bucks paid for one game round with as it seems no use in the future. For you now I am just in the same place as anyone that haven't give you one penny and can download the game for free. Not fair at all. And for those who's telling about the 20 bucks revenue and bla bla I don't catch it at all. When I am buying a chocolate I want just to taste my chocolate whenever I want and not someone to take it from me and give me even 10000000 of chewing gums. For me is just a big big flaw of Apple who let these things happens. This gonna be my first refund request after a 300 premium apps I have bought over these years._
To quote legendary frontman David Lee Roth..."Here Today..Gone Later Today". These guys had to evolve and adapt to the current business model out there. You can't expect these guys to sit back and not want the game to generate income/revenue. I don't know why so many are giving these guys such a hard time.
Do people who make other products that don't sell well have the same opportunity? No. Physical products. Hell, physical video games that fail. They just have to suck it up. And we don't have to lose the product that we originally paid for. So, yes, I'm sorry but this is no different. Release a separate app. Period. I know it's more work and frankly anyone who wants to be successful also has to suck up extra work if they want to be good at their jobs. Like I said, I'm a computer programmer myself and I have to "clone" programs and maintain multiple versions. I do it because I want my customers to be happy. I do it even if I have to work overtime to get good reviews and keep my job. I don't go back to my earlier customers and say "sorry, I've got to change the way this works so you just have to deal with it". The ONLY way to do this is release a "new" product reusing the assets you had. I genuinely feel for indie devs and the struggle it is. But this is a practice that really needs to be banned from the App Store. It's happening more and more. Why should I keep spending money on "premium" apps if they may change in ways that take away the experience I once had?
Gameloft is pretty guilty of this. A quality game like Asphalt 8 for a buck? A lot of users in TA called the "soon-to-be-freemium" and they werent wrong. They basically took advantage of the fact that people WILL buy a game of that quality at a buck, but they knopw their design was intended for a freemium model since day one. For Dead Effect though, i dont see it as that. From what i see, they arent making money out of the premium model and have to change the balance of the game. What i appreciate here, is the fact that InDevBrain took time to consider the balance of the switch to freemium, and how they could reward pre-freemium buyers of the game. The ads are still very annoying, but everything else seemed to be well thought out.
I don't see it as that either but the problem with all of the games that switch to F2P is that they don't think about people who deleted the game who may download it again. To me it's simply not acceptable unless a separate app is done. I guess I just need to give up buying premium games and wait for everything to go free because by making it okay for one dev makes it okay for everyone, regardless of any "reward" for early adopters. I just can't make an exception regardless of how much I may have liked a game.
Sorry to say but I'm pretty sure on closer analysis that doesn't hold up. Taking the physical video games that fail example, the discs will be sent back by the shops that stocked them and simply destroyed in the majority of cases. Of course some will still be floating but in all probability difficult to source. So what happens when you lose that physical copy of your own? Well you can either invest a substantial amount of time trying to source another physical copy (and when physical, I am talking about a physical copy not a digital downloaded copy if one sticks to the comparison legitimately) or its simply gone forever. Further to that, one has every opportunity available to make backup copies on hard drives or computers of the app they downloaded and simply ignore the update. It's really very simple. I'll grant you they will then have an unsupported and unupdated app, but if we all apply our hippocampus and remember back to when at the beginning all apps had a premium price with no iap in the early days, they were essentially released and forgotten about with some rare bug fix updates in the immediate month or two after release. Essentially the same process as a physical copy. Digital downloads are an evolution of the early process where something can have a longer shelf life, so to speak, with updates and the like, all of which still costs money to implement so recouping that investment has to be done. Essentially you have every opportunity to still have the app you paid for. If one is negligent enough to not back it up, well that's not really the developers fault, now is it. If you lost that physical video game, or whatever, you wouldn't be entitled to a refund either. So really the choice is yours. Backup or don't, update or don't. It's not like if you paid a one off price that something will be infinitely upgraded and supported anyway. I also recall a time early on that if you downloaded something, deleted it, you had to pay to download it again. Or if I lost a physical media cd, I'd still have to buy it again. Would it have been better if they just implemented the new content and released Dead Effect 2? You'd still be out in the cold where the new content is concerned. Ultimately though, everyone seems to have forgotten a lot of stuff and while digital downloads offer a lot of convenience and do differ from physical media in a lot of ways, the ultimate responsibility of storage is your own and if you avail of that storage option, you can just as easily ignore any update that changes the structure to something you don't like and maintain what you bought. Exactly what you bought, nothing more and nothing less. Just as you can store a cd with a game on it in a cabinet at home. The choice and responsibility is your own and the means is most certainly available so the best thing to do is avail of it rather than relying on outside sources to do that for you. The price you paid for the app may include a 30% distribution fee to Apple, but the key word is distribution, not infinite storage. And before someone says I don't have a max iPad this or a multi terabyte hard drive, few have infinite physical cabinets either and if you collect thousands of physical games, expect at some stage to have to get rid of some forever in that situation as well. And if you buy tens, hundreds or thousands of games, you surely have enough to be able to spend 50 quid on a terabyte hard drive for added protection against any switches or stuff getting dropped from distribution and removed from the store completely.
Screw it. I give up. I WORK in IT. I know how this should and could easily be done. I'd get fired if I tried to pull this crap on my customers just because it's "digital content". That excuse is BS. All it takes is one thing - A SEPARATE APP. But I guess everyone knows better than me. And everyone has time to bend over backwards just to keep what they should have already owned. I give up.I work hard to please ALL of my company's customers, regardless if it takes some extra effort.
I think Apple needs to make developers disclose all pay models for the app up front(Paid, Freemium, ads or no ads). This info would be upfront on the app page and all combinations marked. Once this is decided the developer cannot change the model without resubmitting the app as a new app. The consumer can make a better decision and not have the price model changed after the fact. I get tired of paying for a app and having the pricing model change or ads added.
Doesn't everybody work in IT? We all know how it can be done. Some times its a question of resources and perhaps its worth considering that not everybody has the same resources as your employer. It doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong or vice versa. It simply means there is much more to consider. You can take it or leave it but there is no point in getting worked up over it if all you're looking for is someone to agree with you and are not open to an alternative point of view and consideration of limited resources or at least less resources or time than you or your employer has.
Then you cut your losses and move on. That's the way 99.9% of the business world has to work. They have no choice. So why should the App Store be any different?
Everything is about ROI. Business 101. So I disagree that 99.9% of the business world works like that. It doesn't. If you have zero chance of a return, well then, yes, cut your losses and move on. However if one has a chance of making a return by changing something, be it a pricing policy or a single chip, well only a fool who wants to fail or simply doesn't give a crap wouldn't avail of that opportunity. Why people are getting so upset over 4 measly dollars is beyond me. Especially when they got compensated with 14 dollars of iap. And even more especially as that 4 dollars represents nothing in comparison to what the developer and publisher has invested in it. If they walked away from it, I can guarantee you they would never, ever again receive any outside investment because anybody who is willing to give up so quickly doesn't give a damn and doesn't deserve it. And we are not talking about a game that was universally hated and destined to be a flop. If it received universally negative reviews, well then, yes, walk away. But we are talking about one that got good reviews and recommendations and most certainly has a chance of success. And one which had serious download numbers with the free model on another platform. So you're 99.9% way that the business world works doesn't even apply. Anybody who gives up and walks away when the potential is still there shouldn't be in business. On that note, I'll finish my participation in this thread and discussion but note I wasn't looking for an argument, I'm not disagreeing for the sake of it. I'm simply offering an alternate pint of view with out getting worked up about it. So just take it that way, an alternate option or an opinion that you can choose to ignore or consider elements if it. I find in most cases that alternate opinions add to my understanding of a situation and allow to come to a more informed opinion of my own. Not necessarily the right one, but it does give me the option to consider something other than my own opinion or emotions on the subject which can be very helpful when some thing is outside my own direct field of reference or experience.
Man I agree! Apple should make developers set there pay models and not allow them to change it. Sales are fine but turning a premium app into a F2P app seems like bad business.
