freemium

Nintendo legend says company should shun free-to-play games

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Apple
Miyamoto tries out a freehand sketch on the iPad Pro.
Photo: Apple

Were you worried that Nintendo was going to go down the free-to-play route with its games? Don’t worry: Shigeru Miyamoto has your back.

The legendary game designer behind many of Nintendo’s most iconic titles is urging his colleagues to shun the freemium business model for games.

New App Store section showcases non-freemium games

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Apple is now promoting
Apple is now promoting "Pay Once & Play" games on the iOS App Store. Photo: MacStories

Let’s face it: Freemium games and games with an inordinate number of in-app purchases are out of control on the App Store. To a certain extent, that’s understandable: Developers are hard-pressed to get anyone to download their games if they charge money for them, which means it’s all a race to the bottom. The only way to get any visibility is for developers to release their games free, then hope they can make money later.

In a refreshing move, though, Apple is trying to do something about its freemium problem, by highlighting “Pay Once & Play” games that charge players once upfront, then never bug them for more money again.

It’s A Race To The Bottom: Only 1 App In 10,000 Will Be A Financial Success By 2018

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apps

Photo: Apple

It’s possible to make a lot of money by writing an iOS app. In fact, the top iOS app makers each gross as much as $90,000 a day from their offerings. Yet despite these success stories, the vast majority of app developers are finding it difficult to make money on the App Store, and the bad news is, it’s only going to get worse, with a new forecast predicting that less than one app in 10,000 will make money by 2018. Woof.

FIFA 14 Now Available On iOS For Free

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FIFA-14-iPad

EA Sports has brought the controversial free-to-play game model to the world’s biggest soccer franchise in FIFA 14 for iOS, which is now available to download from the App Store — three days before the big console release.

The title boasts a whole heap of improvements, including a new and intuitive control system, online multiplayer, a game of the week feature, and the hugely popular FIFA Ultimate Team mode.

Pirate Legends TD Keeps The Cannonballs Firing With Waves Of Whimsy [Review]

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Let’s be clear: I love tower defense games. I’ve been a fan since the first time I played Desktop Tower Defense on Kongregate, I fell hard for Gem Keeper and Fieldrunners, and I carry a torch for Kingdom Rush.

Pirate Legends TD by Super Hippo Studios Limited
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: Free

These are tough waters to compete in, especially with a free-to-play business model that needs to encourage players to spend real money to help fund the game itself. There’s a delicate balance in tower defense games, between too easy and too difficult.

Does Super Hippo Studios Limited’s Pirate Legends TD bring enough to the table, then, to stand next to these others?

It’s About Time: ‘Plants vs. Zombies 2’ Now Available In U.S. App Store

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Plants Vs. Zombies 2 was one of several iOS exclusives upon its launch.
Plants Vs. Zombies 2 was one of several iOS exclusives upon its launch.

You’ve been waiting for months and months, and it’s finally time. Plants vs. Zombies 2 is finally available in the U.S. App Store after a soft launch last month in Australia and New Zealand.

The download is free, but there are in-app purchases for certain upgrades and power-ups. But it’s not the annoying kind of freemium like Real Racing; you can play through the whole game just fine without having to buy anything. We’ll have a full review up soon.

So what are you waiting for? The sequel to one of the best iOS games in history just came out. Get downloading!

Source: App Store

‘Infinity Blade II’ Gained Almost 6 Million Players During App Store Giveaway

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Infinity-Blade-II

When the App Store celebrated its fifth birthday last week, Apple made a number of top iOS apps and games free. One of those was Infinity Blade II, and it was the first time the title had been given away since its release in November 2011.

So it’s hardly surprising it was a massive success. In just seven days, the sword-fighting action game had attracted 5.7 million new players, with 1.7 million of those getting the game on the first day the promotion went live.

Android Piracy Outnumbers iOS Piracy By 14:1, Driving Devs To Freemium-Only Model

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We’ve heard before that piracy is just killing Android developers. It’s such a wide scale problem that some devs are finding little incentive, between piracy and fragmentation, to actually release their games on Android.

Sadly, the problem doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Another developer has just released details on the massive problem they are having on Android with app piracy. How bad is it? Piracy on Android outnumbers iOS piracy by fourteen to one. Woof!

Apple Now Labeling Freemium Apps With In-App Purchases In The App Store

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Apple has quietly added a new labeling system to the App Store that shows which apps have in-app purchases. You can only see whether an app or game has in-app purchases on the desktop version of iTunes, but the feature will presumably be rolled out to the App Store on iOS devices soon.

Coincidentally, Apple recently settled a lawsuit with some parents over in-app purchases. Kids were spending thousands of dollars making in-app purchases in freemium games.

Real Racing 3 Finally Lands In The U.S. App Store With Mind-Blowing Graphics

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After saying that the highly anticipated racing game would launch in 2012, EA and Firemonkeys have finally released Real Racing 3 in the U.S. App Store. The Real Racing franchise has been a staple part of the App Store since 2009, and the third installment was demoed onstage at Apple’s iPhone 5 event last September.

Real Racing 3 is perhaps the most visually stunning iOS game ever, and it’s free to download. However, there is one catch…

Fan-Requested In-App Purchases Coming To Fieldrunners 2 In New Update

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Fieldrunners 2 IAP

Fieldrunners 2 is one of my favorite iOS games, hands down. Developer Subatomic Studios has taken the tower defense genere to a new level with this sequel to their popular and multi-platform game, Fieldrunners. This second game was released in July of this year, almost 4 years after the first iteration came out on iOS, then Mac.

Today, the studio announced that they’ve added in-app purchasing to the game, something many games come with from the start. Those games, however, typically come at no up-front cost. Fieldrunners 2 was released as a premium, paid game, at $2.99 for the iPhone and $7.99 for the iPad version. Why did they add this freemium-style in-app purchasing system to a game that’s already doing well as a paid app?

The fans of the game wanted it.

Samba Launches Ad-Funded Free Mobile Broadband In U.K.

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Samba offers free 3G mobile broad band to U.K. iPad owners willing to watch commercials.
Samba offers free 3G mobile broadband to U.K. iPad owners willing to watch commercials.

Earlier this year, we reported on the plans by NetZero and FreedomPop to offer free 4G mobile broadband in the U.S. over ClearWire’s WiMax network. Both companies planned to operate on a freemium basis where users get a limited amount of data each month and can buy more if they choose.

This week, a company in the U.K. called Samba joined the free broadband bandwagon with a model that’s ad-based and freemium in nature, making it somewhat similar to NetZero’s original business model from the good old days of dial-up service. 

Infinity Blade Has Earned Over $30 Million To Become Epic’s Most Profitable Game Ever

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Infinity Blade has been more successful than Gears of War.
Infinity Blade has been more successful than Gears of War.

Despite the success of Gears of War on consoles, it is in fact Infinity Blade for iPad which holds the title for Epic Games’s most profitable game of all time. The popular sword fighter, which has been showcased at a number of Apple keynotes over the years, has earned a whopping $30 million since its debut just 18 months ago.

Dark Meadow Goes Freemium, Android Release Expected Soon

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2012 Mobile Game of the Year, The Dark Meadow, received a pretty major update on iOS today. Aside from all of the new features, the game has also gone freemium. The freemium version, entitled Dark Meadow: The Pact is a separate download on the App Store and as far as I can tell is exactly the same as the original paid version. The decision to go freemium may benefit the developers over the long term and is the reasoning for the jump. Although it is only available on iOS at the moment, it is scheduled to hit Android next month.

In-App Ads Drain Up To 75% Of Your Phone’s Battery

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iPhone
Free apps aren't so free after all
Photo: Apple

Free apps that display in-app advertising are sucking the life out of your cellphone’s battery. A team led by Abhinav Pathak, a computer boffin at Purdue University, Indiana, found that around “65%-75% of energy in free apps is spent in third-party advertising modules.”

Translation: Free apps like Angry Birds and Facebook may actually cost you more than paid apps in the end.

In Terms of iOS Gaming, the Freemium Model Makes the Most Cash [Report]

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we rule on iphone
hpnvsn on flickr • http://bit.ly/qKDzd1

The Games category is by far the most popular corner of the iOS App Store, and a new report has surfaced that says most people spend their money on virtual, in-app goods and upgrades in their favorite games.

In terms of Android and iOS users, the ‘freemium’ model seems to be the reigning king of mobile gaming. Users are starting to prefer free games that offer in-app upgrades and purchases to unlock new content.

Space Miner Goes Freemium With Space Miner Blast

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To this day, Space Miner: Space Ore Bust is one of my favorite games for the iOS, and while I’ve been anxiously waiting for a sequel, I think I can make do with this: Venan Arcade has just announced the free-to-play spin-off title, Space Miner Blast, which strips out the former game’s story and RPG elements to deliver a frenetic arcade shooter.

It’s a freemium title, so to unlock all four ships (as well as Retina Display support), you’ll need to drop $1.99 on the Blast Pack in-app purchase, but if you’ve ever been curious about Space Miner, this is an excellent intro… and to tempt you even further into the franchise, Venan has also dropped the price of the original game to just $1.99.