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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?

#71

Post by chc »

projectramo wrote: post #44

Wait a second: " the first non-iOS game I did after spending two years on iOS, released on a Sony handheld that many describe as being “obscure”, generated literally thousands of times more income for us than two years and ten games on iOS with its potential billions of users." What was the platform? I wonder if there is a strategy to be carved out making games for Windows 10, Linux mobile, etc.

How do you see this experience relating to Windows 10? Windows is the opposite of an obscure platform.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#72

Post by kbenson »

Lerc wrote: post #40
monocasa wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree. All my interest in the platform (mobile in general) dried up when I realized people really wanted free, and the way to monetize that path was rife with dark patterns. I don't like playing games like that, why would I want to make one?

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#73

Post by fnayr »

partiallypro wrote: post #34
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.

Hmm, interesting question. I would say it's just rarer to make a sustainable business from it with no experience and existing users today, because you have no room for error or experimentation.

For example it took us 5 failures before we figured out what worked. Unless you're rich or have very understanding investors, you just won't get 5 opportunities to fail today.

Despite that, I still think anyone can make it to a sustainable small studio if they understand the app store market and their demo and have the resources to execute their plan.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#74

Post by pmontra »

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…

Out of curiosity, what did you do instead of developing for Apple platforms?

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#75

Post by kbenson »

chc wrote: post #66
djrogers wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So unless they start allowing third party stores, nothing will change. What would a 3rd party store do to make profitability? Best case thy take zero revenue and you get 30% more money - from TFA it doesn't sound like 30% or even 300% would have made a difference....

A third-party store could do a lot of things differently other than just lower the revenue split — you could have a recommendation engine like Amazon, or you could add curation, or you could change the way search works, or any number of other (possibly crazier) things. Heck, you could literally just copy Steam in every respect and you'd end up with something significantly different from the current App Store.

Different stores would allow competition on store policies and inventory. Would a store that differentiates by disallowing certain in-app purchasing strategies by useful? It would to me, because I don't want to support companies that use certain sales strategies.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#76

Post by fnayr »

ikeboy wrote: post #52
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…

>not only the top .1% >look at the Top 200 There are more than 200,000 apps out there.

True, but this tell you nothing about percentage of profitable companies versus the number of companies who make games full time. Most games are not made by fulltime mobile dev companies doing so as their sole income.

And my point with the top 200 was that that's way beyond profitability for a small studio. None of our apps are currently in the Top 1000 grossing (I don't think).

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#77

Post by kbenson »

coralreef wrote: post #33
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 nat…

> I'm not sure I understand your position. The iOS platform has probably made more indie dev millionaires than any other platform in history.

I think the assertion is something along the lines of that being possible because more indie devs are on that platform than ever existed before. Sure, there's a lot that made it big, but so many are in the pool that it's still a relatively minuscule chance.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#79

Post by spikengineer »

jpeg_hero wrote: post #78

Apple needs to move the "standard price" from 0.99 one time download -> 0.99 per year Delete app to unsubscribe Remove 0.99 one time pricing $5.00 minimum one time download price

That is unaffordable to most consumers in the world. You will end up limiting urself to a market of few rich communities in rich countries.

Re: Where have all the iOS games gone?

#80

Post by SystemOut »

ccvannorman wrote: post #56

One iOS game I enjoyed and recently rediscovered is GeoDefense. I highly recommend it (at $3.99 I think) and it is definitely a middle-ground app. I estimate they made between 500K - 5M lifetime sales over 4 years with both games.

The geoDefense games (regular and swarm) were huge favorites of mine at the time. I wish they were still making games but haven't seen anything new from those developers since that game came out.
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