IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#1

Post by swombat » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 11:21 AM UTC

IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.
pastebin.com

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#2

Post by _delirium » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:17 PM UTC

Sounds like Amazon is trying to extend to apps the weird pricing racket that's standard in the bookselling industry. A lot of books are cheaper via Amazon than via the publisher's or author's own site precisely because of these kinds of terms, which require you to sell to the bookseller at a steep discount over list price, and simultaneously prohibit you from selling below "list price" yourself, outside the bookseller channels.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#3

Post by neutronicus » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:24 PM UTC

Kind of paints the Apple / Amazon spat in a new light.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#4

Post by jrockway » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:26 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #2

Sounds like Amazon is trying to extend to apps the weird pricing racket that's standard in the bookselling industry. A lot of books are cheaper via Amazon than via the publisher's or author's own site precisely because of these kinds of terms, which require you to sell to the bookseller at a steep discount over list price, and simultaneously prohibit you from selling below "list price" yourself, outside the bookselle…

I don't think an agreement with Amazon is what prevents the publisher from selling at list price. It's the fact that Amazon (and every other bookseller) would simply refuse to buy the books from the publisher if they were being undercut.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#5

Post by joelackner » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:29 PM UTC

does anyone know how the free app-a-day promotion is being handled? does amazon pay the developer 20% of the price for each free download?

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#6

Post by benjamind » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:33 PM UTC

joelackner wrote: post #5

does anyone know how the free app-a-day promotion is being handled? does amazon pay the developer 20% of the price for each free download?

By most accounts I have read they do indeed pay you 20% of the list price for free downloads. Though I have not yet experienced this for myself, as I have been very wary of the Amazon AppStore terms.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#7

Post by cubicle67 » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

joelackner wrote: post #5

does anyone know how the free app-a-day promotion is being handled? does amazon pay the developer 20% of the price for each free download?

point 9:

"Furthermore, Amazon dictates that developers cannot set their list price above the lowest list price "available or previously available on any Similar Service." In other words, if you want to sell your content anywhere else, you cannot prevent Amazon from slashing the price of your game by setting a high list price. And if you ever conduct even a temporary price promotion in another market, you must permanently lower your list price in Amazon's market."

This seems to imply that if you offer your app in a free-app-a-day promotion, you're required to offer it for free permanently to Amazon, although there's no way that can be correct

[Edit: it seems I misunderstood the parent comment. I'm referring here to free-app-a-day promotions like this http://www.freeappaday.com/. I wan't aware Amazon offered something similar

I was saying it looked like if a developer promoted their app on a site like this, point 9 make it look like they'd be forced to offer it for free, forever, on the Amazon store]

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#8

Post by benjamind » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:37 PM UTC

cubicle67 wrote: post #7

joelackner wrote: post #5

does anyone know how the free app-a-day promotion is being handled? does amazon pay the developer 20% of the price for each free download?

point 9: "Furthermore, Amazon dictates that developers cannot set their list price above the lowest list price "available or previously available on any Similar Service." In other words, if you want to sell your content anywhere else, you cannot prevent Amazon from slashing the price of your game by setting a high list price. And if you ever conduct even a temporary price promotion in another market, you must permane…

I do not think this applies to Amazons own listing of your apps. Therefore they can list your app for free, pay you 20% of your list price for downloads of the app and force you to not make 'free' promotions on other markets with point 9 as you described.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#9

Post by Shorel » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

Any Indie developer with experience on Steam sales to light up this issue?

Seems to me that the arguments of IGDA sound very close to the arguments of the RIAA and real numbers will show a very different outcome, specially for the smaller devs.

Re: IGDA about the Amazon Android Appstore: just say no.

#10

Post by yawn » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 12:46 PM UTC

It is curious that there haven't been any prominent developer blog posts about how well an app has done on Amazon's store. Where are the developer comments?