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Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

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Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#32
post #29

"People don't consider my games worth what I spent to make them, so I'll sneak in adverts too so I don't have to charge them more and pop their little bubble, so they can continue thinking games are this cheap because the sticker price is still low." No, this is not acceptable, and holding it up as a Good Thing that it's being perpetuated is stupid. Microsoft have seen the writing on the wall (because it's been there…

Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.

Then you charge a reasonable price. You don't put a 'free' sticker on it with an unknowable 'ad revenue' cost in the background.

One might argue that the customer should know the price they pay in advertising data-scraping before logging in, these days, but we still convict people of fraud for taking advantage.

Advertising revenue is fraud.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#34
post #14
post #3

Building a business that relies on a platform you can’t function without is irresponsible. It’s not just bad for you because of how fragile it makes your business but it’s also bad for everyone else because it normalizes it and makes building stable businesses harder.

What's the alternative for native mobile apps today? Roll your own smartphone OS? And yes, I'm deeply frustrated with Apple and Google for so forceably locking everyone into their walled gardens.

> I'm deeply frustrated with Apple and Google for so forceably locking everyone into their walled gardens.

And yet the developers made the app for those platforms anyway, even though an alternative exists - the free and open web.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#35
post #13

I don't feel bad for the game developer. Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads.

>Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads. Is this not precisely what Microsoft is doing? I haven't played game of solitaire since Windows 7 because I'm not going to watch a 15-30 second preroll video advertisement in order to play the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. And I'm certainly not going to pay monthly to avoid ads for games that used to be included with the OS without advertisements…

I felt the same way. I ended up setting firewall rules for Minesweeper because there is absolutely no reason for it to be calling out to the web for ads to serve. The game still works fine!

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#36
post #29

"People don't consider my games worth what I spent to make them, so I'll sneak in adverts too so I don't have to charge them more and pop their little bubble, so they can continue thinking games are this cheap because the sticker price is still low." No, this is not acceptable, and holding it up as a Good Thing that it's being perpetuated is stupid. Microsoft have seen the writing on the wall (because it's been there…

Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.

This is what happens when participating in a race to the bottom. Mobile games are cheap because (due to current global economics) there is always someone prepared to clone your design and sell it cheaper. If you want to pay the bills, you need to find a market you can be profitable in. That might even be mobile gaming, if you can deliver IP or a franchise or a series that gets people to pay a reasonable price for your game rather than a bargain price for something similar to your game. Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#37
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.

Then you charge a reasonable price. You don't put a 'free' sticker on it with an unknowable 'ad revenue' cost in the background. One might argue that the customer should know the price they pay in advertising data-scraping before logging in, these days, but we still convict people of fraud for taking advantage. Advertising revenue is fraud.

That just means you'll go out of business then and the users will end up using a Chinese/Russian/other country (knockoff) instead with the same ads snuck in there. It costs a lot less to develop software in certain other countries.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#38
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as there's an option to remove them, I look at ad-supported games as a demo. I'll always gladly pay to remove the ads if I like the game enough to play it more than a couple times.

The ad-supported version can be a disaster for your privacy though.

Can be, but it's possible to serve ads without any activity/data tracking. Not as profitable, but that's how it used to be done - simply guessing what the users may be interested in and A/B testing ads for various niches until you hone in on the most profitable ones.

Ads are pretty cancerous, but the easiest way to start monetizing free content/software.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.

This is what happens when participating in a race to the bottom. Mobile games are cheap because (due to current global economics) there is always someone prepared to clone your design and sell it cheaper. If you want to pay the bills, you need to find a market you can be profitable in. That might even be mobile gaming, if you can deliver IP or a franchise or a series that gets people to pay a reasonable price for you…

“Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.”

Apparently you haven’t played Angry Birds 2. It’s riddled with upsells.

Re: Microsoft cut off game maker's revenue stream, so he built his own replacement

#40
post #13

I don't feel bad for the game developer. Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads.

>Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads. Is this not precisely what Microsoft is doing? I haven't played game of solitaire since Windows 7 because I'm not going to watch a 15-30 second preroll video advertisement in order to play the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. And I'm certainly not going to pay monthly to avoid ads for games that used to be included with the OS without advertisements…

The old games (and calculator) from xp through windows 8 still run just fine, all you need is the right files.

With NTVDMx64 and/or winevdm, you should even be able to run the even older WEP games (Tetris works nearly perfectly with winevdm)

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