Well, I submitted my game app last Friday. I was hoping it would be up for this Friday, but I realize now that is wishful thinking. I'm going to be away on vacation come Saturday with limited Internet access for the next 3 weeks. My plan was to get it up and see how it goes and do a big marketing push at the end of the month. Here are my questions: 1.) Should I launch it when it is approved, even if I'm not around, or should I wait until I get back? 2.) Will launching it with minimum "tech support" be an issue? I can fwd any tech support to the developers, to correct obvious bugs. 3.) Will doing initial promotion for a game 3 weeks after launch a bad idea? Answers to the above will help me try to decide my launch date dilemma.
I believe the answer is "It depends" on all of your questions. EG: Our multiplayer app requires a server to be online so it's playable. I wouldn't have dreamed of releasing without our team ready to respond to whatever server crash on release day. A single player app, well ok, that's different. It might be ok to release without you nearby if you've tested the heck out of it and can all but guarantee a good experience for those important early adopters. For your question #3, I'd say at the bare minimum have the press prepared before you go. Send your PR, your press kits and promocodes so they can find out about it and start the ball rolling for you. An app released invisibly is exactly that... invisible.
My advice is to hold the game back and start doing marketing before it comes out. You really, really, really want to capitalize on the initial release boost. That includes sending promo codes to tons of review sites before your app is available on the marketplace. Set a release date, tell everyone about the release date and stick to it.
