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Where have all the iOS games gone?

minotaurproject.co.uk

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Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#31

Post by diziet »

retromario wrote: post #24

Yeah it's a challenging market. Just to add another data point, we're small indie (games) developer, we spent over a year on our first title with very little marketing budget and these are our sales figures from our launch: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/YacineSalmi/20160519/273030/E... In short, decent sales but not enough to recoup our costs. Still, we never expected that we would hit gold on the first try. I think…

It's very very hard to make premium games on the App Store now. A typical top 25 premium game (which worldwide in Q1 were games like Five Nights at Freddy's or Scribblenauts Unlimited or Bloons TD 5 HD) earned about $300,000 in Q1 worldwide.

Top 25 game free to play game (which were games similar to Summoners War or Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes) earned about $15,000,000. There's a huge gap and this is apparent in what games actually gross a lot.

These are both iPhone only numbers.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#32

Post by golergka »

tluyben2 wrote: post #16
golergka wrote: post #7

Apple, goddamn. You had a potential major gaming platform on your hands – but almost 10 years later, we're stuck with $5-10 CPIs and store that doesn't even try to do anything with the long tail. Just open up Steam sometimes if you wonder how it should've been done.

I was looking for a proper English way to say this, but exactly; the long tail in the Appstore is nearly unrecoverable in the Appstore. And even outside it; I ran a review service (one that actually make enough to live on) for apps years ago and most (all on some sites) reviews are bought so they are skewed towards deep pockets. It stinks and I'm sorry I ever even did that.

That's because Apple failed miserably at creating any kind of community - the thing that helps the most with skewed reviews, lowest-denominator titles, and other trash like that.

Once again, I'm too lazy to explain this in detail; just look at Steam again.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#33

Post by coralreef »

buserror wrote: post #17

Weird, I was a die hard mac developer (since 1984), and I immediately stopped when iOS came out with the app store. Like, stopped /dead/. The reason I could be a Mac Developer was the small pond; There wasn't a LOT of work, but there was enough for good people, and it paid well. On balance I /never/ developed anything for windows, because of the 'tree vs forest' problem : Even if you are REALLY fantastically good, th…

I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history. And countless others making a living, or make a few bucks off side projects. Or are employed by app companies.

So yeah, the amount of money attracts a lot of competition, and no, its not easy figuring out marketing and distribution. Most of us fail, but that's really just the nature of entrepreneurship.

If you choose not to participate on a platform that generates billions of dollars annually, I suppose thats on your choice, and you could be correct that it is a waste of time for most people. But what is the cost of being a software developer who ignores this giant wave of mobile device adoption? You can't succeed if you don't give yourself a chance to succeed.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#34

Post by partiallypro »

fnayr wrote: post #14

I hear this myth perpetuated incessantly. (That there's no more middle ground in the app store, only the Clash of Clans and Candy Crushes and the rest with no downloads). People paint the picture that it's the top 0.1% and everyone else with an unsustainable business. The truth is there's plenty of us in the middle still. My two person iOS dev studio has pulled in 6 figures a year for the past 4 years. The problem is…

So would you say there is no middle-ground for new developers? It seems what you're saying is that people with an already locked-in user base continue to thrive while newcomer apps are crowded out, regardless of quality.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#35

Post by eridius »

st3v3r wrote: post #29
fnayr wrote: post #14

I hear this myth perpetuated incessantly. (That there's no more middle ground in the app store, only the Clash of Clans and Candy Crushes and the rest with no downloads). People paint the picture that it's the top 0.1% and everyone else with an unsustainable business. The truth is there's plenty of us in the middle still. My two person iOS dev studio has pulled in 6 figures a year for the past 4 years. The problem is…

"I hear this myth" With it happening to more and more developers, you can't really call it a myth. You can say that maybe their stuff wasn't really that good, or that they're an outlier, but you can't call it a myth.

As the number of developers grows, so does the number of failure stories. That tells you nothing about the proportion of developers that are failing.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#36

Post by monocasa »

Lerc wrote: post #28
fnayr wrote: post #14

I hear this myth perpetuated incessantly. (That there's no more middle ground in the app store, only the Clash of Clans and Candy Crushes and the rest with no downloads). People paint the picture that it's the top 0.1% and everyone else with an unsustainable business. The truth is there's plenty of us in the middle still. My two person iOS dev studio has pulled in 6 figures a year for the past 4 years. The problem is…

I can't help but note that the only game in the top 200 that is not "Free" is Minecraft.

Well, there's free and there's 'free'.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#37

Post by partiallypro »

buserror wrote: post #17

Weird, I was a die hard mac developer (since 1984), and I immediately stopped when iOS came out with the app store. Like, stopped /dead/. The reason I could be a Mac Developer was the small pond; There wasn't a LOT of work, but there was enough for good people, and it paid well. On balance I /never/ developed anything for windows, because of the 'tree vs forest' problem : Even if you are REALLY fantastically good, th…

I think it's possible that the "Technology adoption life cycle" can be applied to app development. With iOS you were in a unique position to be an "early adopter" getting tons of early exposure on the app store. If you were to try today you would not get much at all.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#38

Post by st3v3r »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #9
mucker wrote: post #2

The platform cratered with the dominance of pay to win games and the "freemium" model. This allowed the store to be cluttered with junk. I can't shop there, because I'm not sure what I am buying.

This loss of trust amongst consumers is what caused the original video games crash in the 80's. Nintendo's seal of quality is what restored consumer trust. Apple may need to get more aggressive about the App Store.

Well, they had a category (maybe still do) called "Pay once games" or something like that. Basically highlighting games that you paid for once, up front, like normal games, and that didn't have a bunch of IAP.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#39

Post by mhurron »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #19
mhurron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? From Apples standpoint it means developers are continuing to keep iOS popular. And honestly developers, individual and companies, are peer pressure driven. As long as others make it a popular platform, they'll develop for it.

From Apples standpoint yes it's great, I think developers would prefer to hear facts such as about how many users are active on the store, distribution of downloads, median number of downloads per app and revenue. It's like a boss holding a meeting to discuss how great his/her own bonus is this year.

It's more like the boss showing off the stock price. It gets everyone excited because the company is doing 'well.'

The only thing your metrics would do at WWDC would be to cement that unless you're the top app in your category, you're not making money, and Apple knows this. As long as they're super popular though, developers will keep trying.

Also, why would Apple do anything at their event other than make themselves look great.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#40

Post by Lerc »

monocasa wrote: post #36
Lerc wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but note that the only game in the top 200 that is not "Free" is Minecraft.

Well, there's free and there's 'free'.

Indeed, this is the "Top Grossing 200"

I wonder what percentage could be classified as abusive software.

If that's the path I have to take to make money on iOS, I'll take a path on a different platform.

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