I just want iOS gaming to keep doing well, a few years ago it was crazy with all the apps, i was buying about 7 a week. Now i dont buy as many, still lots of quality games but in my view not as much. I would hate if say 3 years time iOS gaming was dying a death and everyone jumped to say the 'x box mobile' or whatever the latest gadget is which is all the rave. When a systems popular then you'll get more and more games and good ones. So yeah i'm selfish buying lots of games as i just want iOS gaming to be better and better and popular as ever. Again if we all waited for price drops iOS gaming will eventually be screwed. Support your local devs ! (Even if you have to buy the app twice But its a funny mentality, if Tabletop racing was $10 people might not mind so much, but as 'some' of us had to buy it twice (Say two lots of $5 to make it easy) people arent happy. Just 'pretend' it was $10
Exactly right. What we need to do is support devs more. I mean this premium one could simply be viewed as premium unlock to a Freemium app, something I recall many people on here saying they would be willing to support. Okay, it wasn't done in the exact way people would have liked and there was legitimate reasons why it couldn't be built in to the Freemium version that can't be discussed here but it was essentially giving them what they wanted, a premium unlock. I recall discussing that point with PSJ in the original thread and we both agreed that it was fair to view it that way. And ultimately we are missing the key point here. We have an extremely talented team here who developed an outrageously attractive game that runs at a solid 60fps at full res without draining all your battery and managed to make it fun and entertaining at the same time. A game that got universal acclaim in reviews and I think averaged a 4.5 out of 5 rating in just about every review. But because they launched as a "premium" app (I still don't consider 2.99 a premium price point but whatever, that seems to be what people think), they didn't get enough traction. Switching to Freemium was the only option they had available or shutter the doors. Not ideal, but you know business is tough even when you make great things. They then brought out a premium version to satisfy demand for it. They didn't do anything wrong at all, they just responded to the market demands and did their best to adapt. They obviously had a bit of inexperience on the platform because it was their first mobile game and may have been guided in the wrong direction (I can take some of the blame for that) but some of the guys on this team have been responsible for some of the most amazing console games you'll find out there, Wipeout being the standout. Their intent was to make a solid fun racing experience for mobile and they achieved just that. It just happens that the market didn't want that and didn't support it. And to make it worse, and to get back to my key point, they have now moved on to Steam and Playstation primarily with mobile a possible consideration later on. Their reasoning is solid and admirable because they don't want to be a "Freemium" company, but dammit, it's an awful shame to see us lose such a solid talented team that would have released some amazing stuff. I can't help but be disappointed at that and people should be more focused on that part becasue I take that as a bad omen in general for mobile.
^ It's a two way street, I've gone from spending a fair chunk weekly on iOS to a pittance yearly, it's not because I don't think there are any good games or developers on the platform, but because I've been duped a few too many times. It has made me focus on other platforms primarily where I don't have those worries. I'm not adverse to spending money, but I am adverse to throwing it away.
Well I hope when you bought in first time round, you got your $2.99's worth of fun out of it. We did our best to bring new content and car and Drift mode and everything else, but the big on is the cost of building new circuits and integrating them into the game with new championships or special events. There is so much I would have loved to have done with it to make it better and better - but without a lead programmer for 8 months, things got very tough very quickly. Anyway, on-wards and upwards. Rip73 - thanks for the very public support and rational assessment of everything that's gone on - but I certainly don't thing you're responsible in any way shape for form. I run the business, I take responsibility for its successes and mistakes. That's the job. I've taken a lot of advice off a lot of people in the mobile business and to be honest so much of it is out of date before you've even executed it. We've really enjoyed out time in mobile and believe me - we'll be back - specifically for you guys and real mobile gamers. If the market has shifted to 100% f2p then so be it - I';ll have to go back on my word, but I'll never do things like wait-timers or pay to win....we'd only ever see it as "Pay for More Fun". My belief for our future is that, if we are going to ask you to put your hand in your pocket, then we need to give you new gameplay and cool stuff. Selling coins....well that's just an accelerator towards a pay-to-win scenario - so I'll be avoiding that.
Not really no. It's like taking a bite out of a cake of chocolate you've bought and thinking you'll savour the rest for later only to have had someone switch it for a Brussels sprout when you get back to it. Any extra content wasn't really the issue, one I missed it, two I didn't ask for it, three I certainly wouldn't have wanted it if the deal was going freemium. Bringing it up as a reasoning side steps the problem (and other reasons for updating your game). Anyway I've said my piece, I certainly don't think you're a bad person and I thought the intital game was nicely done, but I am not going to say the relatively common practice is okay just because it can be done. Some people obviously don't care, some do, that's life - we move on and learn from it.
Crikey - hows about - when we do a minor bug fix update to the premium version - I dish out some more codes - ensuring you get one? Would that help you out?
Expanded: The fact that you offered to make it right is enough, I'd rather you put any codes you got to better use and maybe acquire a review of the update or switch a potential future customer onto your games with it. The offer was appreciated, there wasn't anything negative intended in my response.
