Apple Looks the Other Way for iMafia’s Revenue Model
9:15 am, February 27th, 2009, Lonnie Lazar

Apple apparently looked the other way when the iMafia app for iPhone came through the AppStore gates. The game from PlayMesh allows users to buy additional premium content and packages games from outside developers together with the premium content, making iMafia the first app with an approved in-game microtransaction system, according to a report at Gizmodo.
The system allows developers to monetize free apps without advertising, and companies profit by selling in-game bonus material. Apple retains its usual cut from any apps sold within iMafia, but then PlayMesh will take an additional (still undisclosed) cut from those developers working with them. Is it possible everyone wins in this scenario?
If Apple continues to approve apps with such a revenue and promotion model, it could turn out to be one cure for the “race to the bottom” that some developers have complained about.
According to Play Mesh founder Charles Ju, in the two days this system has been live, iMafia has pushed two other games into the top 100 of overall paid iPhone games. iMafia, which is free, currently ranks seventh among the iPhone’s most popular games.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in News | Comment on this article
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iMafia wasn’t the first app to do this. iMob has been doing this for a while now. The two games are very, very similar in almost every aspect.
Having played both, I can guarantee that iMob did this revenue model prior to iMafia.
Beau, on March 3rd, 2009 at 5:55 am