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Post by tenbsmith on Jun 8, 2016 14:35:24 GMT -5
Changing attitudes toward IAPs is something to keep an eye on. The really negative reaction to IAPs are probably driven by experiences with unscrupulously designed games using IAPs to milk customers. Hopefully, over time, people can come to see that IAPs can be reasonable.
It is certainly reasonable for developers to want more money for more content. That would support ongoing development of games that were released long ago. Reasonable, but hard to communicate. Maybe the IAPs should be a bit like the demo, wait until the game is well established, before introducing them. Then make sure they provide value. New content that goes beyond the original scope of the game, b/c it is separate from the original game. Then you need make sure you package it in a way to give that clear message.
With HoS, you said all along there would be multiple chapters. Would people have been more accepting with an approach like this. You only mentioned 2 chapters at the beginning and don't release the game until those are done. then you wait a year or more, then you announce a new story will be available as DLC/IAP. The other approach is to release HoS II, same engine, new content, maybe that's cleaner from the customer perspective.
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Post by fallen on Jun 8, 2016 14:40:16 GMT -5
Changing attitudes toward IAPs is something to keep an eye on. The really negative reaction to IAPs are probably driven by experiences with unscrupulously designed games using IAPs to milk customers. Hopefully, over time, people can come to see that IAPs can be reasonable. It will be interesting to see if the opinions do truly change. More and more is expected for free. And the majority of developers are using IAPs that are a badly disguised trick to fleece you for money. |
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Post by tenbsmith on Jun 8, 2016 15:17:50 GMT -5
Good point, maybe attitudes towards IAPs are getting worse, and I'm an outlier.
Of course the 'free' games aren't really free, they're paid for through some combo of ads and data.
I think ads can be o.k. if they're done in a way that does not interfere with the game. i respect and enjoy TBs 'no ads' policy. Would TBs ever consider having a free ads version of one of their games? Then players can pay for the no ads version? There are several aps where I've started with the ads version and then bought the no ads version.
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Post by Cory Trese on Jun 8, 2016 15:48:19 GMT -5
We prefer to entice buyers with features, not by offering to hide something annoying like ads.
Also, we don't have very much experience making money with ads. It is a skill, and you need partners and an optimized strategy.
We could easily spend our money on an ad-basead game, miss revenue targets and go out of business. That would be bad!
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Post by Someone on Jun 9, 2016 2:38:39 GMT -5
With recent/upcoming changes to the app stores (Google+Apple) a subscription of some sort may make sense since upwards of 85cents vs 70cents on the dollar may be possible developer side... Say: extented demo is free but main content and additions over-time is 2$-10 a year depending on game size. If possible fully unlocking the game forever after 2 years or something. I dunno, not in the biz...  |
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Post by ntsheep on Jun 9, 2016 9:35:34 GMT -5
tenbsmith the "Story Module" idea reminds me of the good old days of expansion packs. A lot of times besides some new levels, you got to play the game from a different characters perspective. They were fun but not needed if you didn't want to buy them. Most of the IAP's that the TB's have done have been like mini expansions. You don't need the Captain\Ship designer, but if you like that sort of thing, it's there for a cheap one time price. The mobile world is changing so quickly it hard for anyone to keep up, including developers. It's been about 7 years since the first droid smartphones came out. The leaps and bounds made since then are mind boggling. With the TB's, I've had a fun ride. Here's to a great future 
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Post by tenbsmith on Jun 9, 2016 10:38:30 GMT -5
Exactly ntsheep , it's been a lot of fun being along for the ride with the TBs. The questions about ads were about getting to understand the thinking in that area. Now that Cory mentioned it, it seems obvious that it would take skill to make money off in-app ads. I appreciate Cory and Fallen's responses in this thread. All good strategic plans include things a company will NOT do. No company can be all things to all people. Not doing ads fits with the TB overall strategy. One principle in change management is that people generally react to new things by falling into one of the following groups in the following proportions: 5% early adopters, 90% fence sitters, and 5% resistors. The resistors are often the loudest group, but you shouldn't pay too much attention to them. Focus instead on the early adopters and fence sitters. The point is to avoid being overly influenced by a few loud naysayers, and to focus instead on the majority of people that will be part of your change moving forward. The TBs will know much better than I the degree to which this might apply to IAP/DLC content. |
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Post by fallen on Jun 9, 2016 11:22:21 GMT -5
The TBs will know much better than I the degree to which this might apply to IAP/DLC content. Agreed on that. If we had listened, we would have no IAPs and we'd be out of business  |
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Post by resistor on Jun 9, 2016 11:26:41 GMT -5
One principle in change management is that people generally react to new things by falling into one of the following groups in the following proportions: 5% early adopters, 90% fence sitters, and 5% resistors. The resistors are often the loudest group, but you shouldn't pay too much attention to them. Didn't know I was an entire 5% of the market, tenbsmith . |
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Post by ntsheep on Jun 9, 2016 12:22:48 GMT -5
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Post by tenbsmith on Jun 9, 2016 16:01:50 GMT -5
I guess 100% of the members of this board are 5%-ers.
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