Seriously? Here's a list of what's (imo) good and bad freemium: The atrocious: Glu The bad and getting worse: Gameloft freemiums The bad but still acceptable: Gameloft paymium The acceptable: Jetpack Joyride The good: NimbleBit
Personally, I consider most freemium atrocious. I've been avoiding the vast majority of them like the plague. It used to be how long could I stand them, but my patience has run short. Paymium is heavily unacceptable IMHO if it's not for aesthetic purposes only. TBH, Blot is a double edged sword IMO. They added IAP for powerups (which I typically hate), but you can acquire them with a very,very normal grind. However, they were implemented as a way to make revenue--don't know how much Blot cost to make. I wonder how much attention the game would've gotten if I didn't champion for it as hard as I did. So, they implemented the IAP the best way possible, but according to my laurels IAP for powerups should never be added into a game, especially if a leaderboard or multiplayer is involved. It's a hell of a conundrum.
This is definately a big no-no in my book as well. Remember getting Warp Dash when it first came out and found it somewhat enjoyable. But then they added power-ups and after just a few...you had to pay for them. Completely unacceptable in a leaderboard driven game.
Yeah! Siegecraft was one of the only games I bought IAP for where online was a factor. However, I felt weird, so I only played single player and never multiplayer. It was also during a time when i wanted to really support the devs and help them out, since iOS became the race to the bottom. I've mostly just hit my breaking point. I absolutely hate MC3 and it's implementation of IAP. For the most part (nowadays), I just try to ignore that it and Gameloft even exist.
From a game developer's point of view : Someone wrote that freemium is killing the platform. While I can see the point, it's actually quite the opposite IMO. There would be much less quality games if it weren't for freemium. It's nearly impossible to build a sustainable business while selling games for 99c, the de facto price for most paid-for apps. Sure there are dozens of counter-examples (anyone that mentions Angry Birds or Cut the Rope gets a punch ! ), but really, those are a drop in an ocean of unprofitable games. So basically if it weren't for freemium, there would be less and less quality apps on the Appstore. Only the big publishers have the reach to advertise paid-for apps. Freemium at the moment is allowing developers to make the games we play. I hope it lasts.
Yeah, but at what cost, at least to us devoted gamers. I guess devs will just be spewing out crap IMHO and the hardcore crowd will just leave. *Basing this off of fact that most games do freemium wrong IMO. Devs need to take some action as well as hardcore gamers or at least have a future plan in place, once the casual gamer tires of crap and having their money taken. Look at everything in the Biggest Fraud thread in the dev section--shady tactics and some casual consumers fed up with cash farms. I'm glad stuff like this is starting to surface more.
freemium sucks....bring back the good old days of fun and balanced gameplay. There's real art in making fun. I mean, if you get a single person to spend 100k USD for a game, that's not a game anymore, it's a casino. http://news.yahoo.com/former-zynga-engineer-one-player-spent-100-000-151415937.html and just like casino's, there ought to be rules. 99.99 USD for a packet of whatever? Really?
If people want to buy it, why not let them? It allows the developer to make money, and the player to be able to play more.
Honestly, while the "shortcuts" I mentioned are sometimes OK, the only true freemium model that is somewhat beneficial BOTH the developer and the consumer is the "app unlock" IAP. This allows users to try the game out and, if they like it, the developer can feel free to charge as much as feel is appropriate for it. This helps prevent gamers from immediately ignoring a game that is - God forbid - above the $.99 price tag. They can play the game and if they're hooked then they might be willing to spend $2.99, $6.99 or whatever the unlock cost is that they feel is reasonable. Unfortunately, just due to the sheer competition, there's still going to be gamers that won't spend a "premium" price for the unlock. But at least this gives the gamer a chance to see what a game is like before making a decision. There's some people that will fall into the consumable/Facebook style apps where the spending becomes unending. But I will never be one of them. Consumable IAPs are ridiculous to me and most hardcore gamers. If you notice the freemium apps with consumable purchases that do the best are the more casual Farmville variety. As GoofyMaster said, the way many IAPs are implemented is not what devoted/hardcore gamers want. Most would rather pay the premium price than a possibly endless amount of IAPs to enjoy a game.
I think freemium has the potential to offer good things, the trouble is just that it's highly abusable. I support it as long as it's used in positive ways, and I kind of expect gamers eventually to become more savvy about what they expect. There's such a psychological barrier for many people to even spend $1 on something - it's nice that games can be made available for free, bring more people in, and then still have an avenue for a dev to make a bit of money and keep on doing what they do.
Hey there awp69, tbh it's not beneficial to both. Great part of the reason the economics of freemium work is because consumables remove the cap players can pay for a game they like. So while "app unlock" works for the player, it seldom works for the developer. I do agree with you on that point. IAPs in many core games are poorly implemented, part for lack of knowledge/ideas from the developers, part for development budget reasons.
In my very humble opinion the most respectful attitude is releasing one LITE version without ads + one FULL version. In-app purchases I do not find so annoying if well crafted and discrete.
Gameloft shouldn't use freemium !!!! They have become so lame now !!!! However Chillingo has made a good start in freemium with Spice Invaders
I disagree. Spice Invaders wasn't horrible but it was more tedious/monotonous than what I'd like for a TD game. Plus, pretty soon I won't be buying anymore of EA/Chillingo's games.
13 million downloads for Jetpack Joyride. 36 million for Temple Run. For fans of serious gaming, those are horrible numbers. If you are not a fan of casual/casual gaming, this market seems largely screwed. Once you open Pandora's box, there's no going back. It's not that this system is highly abuseable. The entire system itself was created with the intent of being abused. People are not corrupting a once admirable business model here. They are taking an already corrupt business model and running up the flagpole.
