In App Purchases in Free Apps now available.

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by blt3d, Oct 15, 2009.

  1. NickFalk

    NickFalk Well-Known Member

    I find the level of negativity about this to be rather surprising. This will make it harder for pirates to copy our software, if we use this system. Personally I don't believe this will further strengthen the "raise to bottom" to me it seems like a lot of developers have started to fight this already and we're beginning to see a larger differentiation between apps price-wise.

    Undoubtedly a lot of people will start releasing free apps, but my guess is that the mere fact that they are free might make them less interesting to a group of buyers. Also, there is such a thing as a viable business-model and for a lot of titles this model is an ill-fit.

    Most of all though: Apple has just handed us another option, they have not forced us to do anything and as a whole I really can't see this as a negative at all...
     
  2. rdklein

    rdklein Well-Known Member

    Apr 3, 2009
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    sw developer, tv producer, hw developer (microcodi
    Munich
    #82 rdklein, Oct 16, 2009
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2009
    I think its good news in the frst place, I had incresed my lite poc to .99 before to prepare the in app purchase for upgrade now I can go back to a free version and allow the people to upgrade to the full. (increasing the prices stopped the selling of the free - I hoped for all who got it free to upgrade).
    --
    theone star rating etc for free games is a real problem, we see how this will work in the future of if Apple does something to change this.


    Currently its not possible to set an app free again after in app purchases have been defined -- will this change ? I just tried.
     
  3. jonesy89

    jonesy89 Member

    Oct 4, 2009
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    I can see positives and negatives...

    Positives:
    Huge reduction in "Premium" + "Lite" apps.
    Helps reduce piracy (don't flame, I said reduce not stop)
    Helps reduce dev costs, no need to create "Lite" graphics / specific code.
    Free apps stay free.. users just don't download paid content.

    Negatives:
    Dev cost to implement in app purchase.
    Server cost if content has to be downloaded, take note... Apple still take 30% even though their side of the transaction is reduced compared to app purchase and marketing.

    Neutral:
    We lose 1 Top 100 chart, but the "Top Grossing" chart should take into account in app purchases, so free apps that are not creating turnover will drop off that list...


    Just my quick thoughts.

    http://www.devilishdevelopments.com/Blog/Entries/2009/10/15_In_App_purchasing_in_FREE_apps!.html


    Jonesy

    www.devilishdevelopments.com
    www.twitter.com/devilishdevelop
     
  4. jaikben

    jaikben Well-Known Member

    Apr 8, 2009
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    Really bad news I think, personally I downloaded a lot of "lite" games just because they were free deleted most of them within the hour. If games are for free they will be downloaded a lot but with only downloads you don;t earn anything.

    I thought apple would raise the bar with a minimum price ( 1.99 ) and still a premium store.
    Why would rockstar port gta to iphone when they can only sell it as a 6.99 game against 30-40 dollar for a psp version? I hope GTA will be 20 and will still sell.

    Get rid off .99 games and raise the bars, look what the .99 did to the average price off apps, even worse consumers expect more and more for lower price points or even for free?

    And believe me extra content will be cracked
     
  5. NickFalk

    NickFalk Well-Known Member

    $7 vs $30 is probably about right if you calculate the cost of creating the physical media, packaging, distribution costs and cut to the retailers. All of these expenses are gone when creating for the iPhone. Also, the GTA will be a port of an existing game meaning a lot of the groundwork has been done already.

    Point taken though, for the App Store to attract the big titles there will need to be a market way above the 0.99/ free price-point!
     
  6. EssentialParadox

    EssentialParadox Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2009
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    UK / Toronto
    I think the real potential of this news is for those games whose design fits toward DLC as a natural business model… (MMO… Episodic titles… etc.) I don't think everyone else should be rushing to shoehorn an in-app purchase option into their games and business models which aren't naturally suited toward it in the first place, based on the belief it will convert more lite customers into paid customers. I think all it will end up doing is taking away sales from your paid version, and that's even assuming customers would find an in-app upgrade option so much more appealing than just buying the paid version.
     
  7. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
    Sweden
    I'm a bit late to the game.

    Initially I thought i sounded like a good idea, but the more I think about, the more terrible it seems, unless they change a few things.

    If Apple
    a) Moved these apps to paid instead of free (since it is misleading in the first place)
    b) changed the "Buy" button to "Try for free"

    That would help with lots of things, if people are smart enough to interpret "Try for free" to "You can try this app, it will server as a demo, but the app costs money". Not really likely, I know.

    The "buy small portions of the game via DLC" like in Rolando 2 is probably a bad decision business wise, but nice to customers as they don't have to pay for something they will never play.
     
  8. Zaz

    Zaz Well-Known Member

    Jul 14, 2009
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    I find this way interesting for the buyers who know a game and want to try it for free, and upgrade if they like it.

    All the others points seem really bad:
    - you can try everything which is Free so the games will have really poor ratings (don't help buyers and devs)
    - all the games will be in the 'Free Games', so lots of games will be lost forever
    - no Lite: no "new release section"
    - DLC: no update and so no "new release section"??? (I'm not sure about this but it's weird if there is a "paying update" for something which is free on the App Store...)
    - about piracy, well pirates won't buy games more than before. They don't want to pay, so no reasons they start to pay with this.

    Not sounds good for the moment...
     
  9. Sainter

    Sainter Well-Known Member

    Dec 8, 2008
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    From my point (As a consumer) I am on the fence at the moment with this one.

    For a start I was wary of DLC of paid apps getting abused by people stripping content to make a buck. Luckily it was used responsibly but free apps with DLC to me seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I am happy to pay for extras on a legit fully fledged paid game but a free game that has been halved just to make an extra buck isn't something I want to see.

    This all games will be free now is total bull**** in my opinion as only those who were releasing lite versions will incorporate DLC. Paid versions will still be the $4.99 or whatever and this is really the way to go. As long as the payment between the DLC in the free lite version and the full version are the same I have no problem with that. Some games like Eliminate will take the free version but as long as they don't make this an obvious ploy to rip up off by paying extra than we would have then I won't be happy. One example of this is BoxCar, which I could have bought for $0.99 with the option to use all features yet not you get one free feature and the rest you have to buy separately for $1.99 or $0.99 each.. about $7 in total. This is total abuse of the system in my eyes and I hope it fails miserably for them

    Piracy reduction is a great idea but if my thoughts above about only a few games going to free + DLC only happens then it shouldn't be reduced all that much.

    We will just have to see how this pans out
     
  10. the FABRIK

    the FABRIK Well-Known Member

    I'm probably repeating what's been said already in this thread, but I wanted to add my concern.

    This is why we believe this isn't a good thing:

    • The reviewing system will be a set back to 2008
    • What will the customer review? The free of paid version?
    • A free app with unlockable full version shows up in the free top 200 only.
    • OS 2.2.1 will be ignored
     
  11. EssentialParadox

    EssentialParadox Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2009
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    I know a few people are saying "this is a bad thing", but just so I'm clear, I don't think Apple making this change is bad, but some of the ideas brainstormed earlier in this thread may not work out so nicely.

    Of course, those developers are free to experiment with those ideas but they'll also be the ones who end up paying the price (bad reviews, lower chart position, etc.) I believe ultimately there won't be a huge migration of devs choosing to go this route after experimenting, so I don't think we'll see that much change. I don't really think there's much to be afraid of.
     
  12. Pamx

    Pamx Well-Known Member

    Oct 9, 2009
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    I'm not a developer but very interested in the business side of developing for the App Store. My (perhaps simplistic) analysis of this is - GREAT! Now maybe there will be room in the PAID charts for worthy titles to make an impact and the standard of FREE games will have to rise if they want to have a chance of being noticed (as they'll now have to compete with the likes of Ngmoco). I suspect that DNC sales will be pretty low and people will be happy to stick to the free lite version of the game meaning that paid game sales will suffer. I shall be watching with interest...
     
  13. Zincous

    Zincous Well-Known Member

    Dec 23, 2008
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    Wow boxcar's implementation is crap. Yesterday it was $.99. and in it's lifetime max was $2.99

    Now it costs $1.99 in-app purchase for JUST facebook. Let alone the other services it offers and is now charging individually for.

    It gives one service free, but still, weak that the whole app costs like $7 now :rolleyes: when at most cost $3 before for the full app.
     
  14. IUGOME

    IUGOME Well-Known Member

    Interesting move for sure. We are in a "let's wait and see how this plays out" frame of mind here at IUGO. It could go either way really.
     
  15. What should happen to the Lite versions?

    So now I've got two games in the App Store...Charmed and Charmed Lite.

    If I want to go the DLC route in the future, should I (or any developer in the same situation) continue to support both versions of my app? Or should I drop one and focus on the other?

    In my case, I don't want to lose the thousands of players I have with Charmed Lite. Some of them might convert into paying customers if a DLC option was presented to them while playing the game. So it feels like I should release an update to Charmed Lite that includes the ability to purchase the additional levels. But then it's not really a Lite version anymore. Perhaps I could rename it.

    Then I have the full version of Charmed, which already contains all the current levels and features. I could also maintain this version and add DLC to it for additional features and levels. I could make it free by default and then add DLC to it for the additional levels. This would remove the need for a Charmed Lite, but it would not automatically move the existing Charmed Lite players over to the full DLC version, which would be great if possible.

    Ideally though, I would prefer to have only one version for simplicity and to avoid player confusion between the two.

    Comments or suggestions?
     
  16. Sainter

    Sainter Well-Known Member

    Dec 8, 2008
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    Whatever you do don't make paid apps free with DLC extra content. Customers who paid for the app may buy the DLC but not if they paid for the app and they know others can buy the same DLC while gettig the app for
    free. With already released games either add DLC to buy the fullversion into CharmedLite (Rename it Or remove all stuff about it being a lite version) or add DLC extras to the already still paid version. I'm not sure how tricky you can get with this but maybe fine a way to make DLC but it free for precious owners of the paid game and paid for newcomers. This gets you brownie points and they may buy your games earlier in the future
     
  17. Yes, ideally I would be able to have something like this:

    • Turn Charmed full version into a DLC game with a few free levels.

    • All existing Charmed full version users are credited by Apple with having paid for the DLC of the currently available levels and features.

    • All existing Charmed Lite users are converted to Charmed users by Apple (at my request), but these users still have to pay for the "updgrade" to the full version using DLC.

    • Charmed Lite as a separate app disappears.

    • New users will get Charmed full version with the limited levels and again can "upgrade" to the full version using DLC.
    This would make sure everyone who is a current customer keeps what they paid for, if anything, and ensure that any new DLC is available to everybody equally.

    I like my proposal, but I don't see that this is currently a possibility though.
     
  18. FastLaneJB

    FastLaneJB Active Member

    May 2, 2009
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    I think that's a great idea about what you plan with Charmed for the consumer (Of which I am one) but Apple isn't going to do that for you which is a shame.

    I believe free apps with DLC that make a lot of money should be able to get into the top grossing apps. I think they need a new Top field for free apps which are selling the most DLC. As there is so many apps in the App Store and finding good stuff is hard, having one or two more Top sections would not hurt. I'd even like to see a Top Paid Games to split apps and games as well.
     
  19. ElectricGrandpa

    ElectricGrandpa Well-Known Member

    Sep 5, 2009
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    Game Developer
    Brampton, Ontario
    Sorry, I didn't read through the whole thread, so just ignore this if it's already been mentioned:

    I think could be huge for "donation-ware" apps and games, I'm not sure how the system works, but you could have all kinds of payments for different things.

    You could have charity apps where you donate certain amounts of money to a charity as part of their fundraising. You could also have open source collaborative games/apps that are funded through donations. I think it's a great thing.
     
  20. Little White Bear Studios

    Little White Bear Studios Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Aug 27, 2008
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    Unfortunately, Apple doesn't allow causes or charity apps anymore. Too many scams out there, and I'm guessing they didn't want the bad press if something went bad. I believe you are free to say that you are donating to a cause on your website and in media, but not in the app or the app description. I believe they don't allow contests in the app or descriptions anymore either.
     

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