Comments on: Free In-App Purchases Will Change…. Little?

By: Hipolito M. Wiseman

Hipolito M. Wiseman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:30:12 +0000

Websites RSS feed not work in my browser (google chrome) how can I repair it?

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:55:17 +0000

Update your blog broseph! We are dying for some more interesting articles from the master! Thanks.

By: Duncan Lowrie

Duncan Lowrie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:42:24 +0000

Just happened upon this post while trying to look into whether or not to utilise IAP for our first game. This post, and Brian’s (Riptide Games) blog, has nudged us towards the decision to release a paid-for app initially with full functionality, and a “lite” app later on, with individual level packs being made available as IAPs, as well as links to the more economical “paid-for” version… Some more thinking required, but this seems to be the way to go…

Hopefully be getting this out within the next few weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Thanks for this post Arn… Much appreciated.

By: Matthew Frederick

Matthew Frederick — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:02:08 +0000

I don’t get how Apple’s going to handle reviews now. This would seem to imply that people who downloaded the freemium version and didn’t buy the upgrade would still be able to give the app a lousy rating, quite possibly because they didn’t want to pay for the upgrade. Apple can’t reasonably restrict reviews only to people who do upgrade because there are plenty of models (like the comic book example, or similar subscriptions) where a review without in-app purchase would make plenty of sense (10 free comics included, certain magazines or books are free, etc.).

Why would a dev — especially of a game app — risk all of those thoughtless crap reviews from non-invested users?

By: Amr

Amr — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:34:56 +0000

Another point: I paid what, $6.99 for Modern Combat? And I couldn’t pass the 6th level. If I were to be be paying for this game like Rolando 2 is being sold (per level), the developers wouldn’t have made as much as they made from me.

By: Weekly Update #18 « Retro Dreamer Blog

Weekly Update #18 « Retro Dreamer Blog — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:47:15 +0000

[...] You should check out Arnold Kim of Touch Arcade’s blog post about this, it’s bang on: Free In-App purchases will change…. Little? [...]

By: David Frampton

David Frampton — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:59:35 +0000

I just want to respond to the ‘What about piracy’ comments. For me the anti-piracy effect of introducing IAP is so insignificant as to have absolutely no effect on my decision to go with IAP or not.

If you are fighting piracy by implementing IAP, you are fighting the wrong battle in the wrong place.

By: Benjohn

Benjohn — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:17:50 +0000

Good thoughts – promos hadn’t occurred to me.

I think it’s unlikely apple will stay still with things as they are. Speculation:they may introduce
* a new chart that assists a free App with IAP.
* a promo system for IAP.

Also – perhaps the “requirement” that a Lite App not be a demo will be lifted. In this case, a demo can then be time limited, or can very directly reference full version features, which could be quite powerful.

Think you’re right though that not being able to pull a lite that’s killing sales is a big issue.

By: Lazrhog

Lazrhog — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:57:20 +0000

Well at Lazrhog Games, the games themselves don’t really lend to in-app purchases. I don’t think developers should really jump on the bandwagon and invent ways to have in-app purchases where none were really needed.

I think Ngmoco have acted responsibly in their first release, as it doesn’t feel like anyone is being ‘ripped off’. That would always be my concern, in that if a game didn’t merit an in-app purchase, then you risk alienating your user base.

The point on piracy is a good one, although I would like to see Apple introduce a 1 hour try before you commit-to-buy policy to be honest. This would get rid of this whole ‘Lite’ infestation of the Appstore, and remove the so-called-ethical reasons for piracy that they spout.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:38:23 +0000

80% of people pirating your app and not paying for it.
If you could reduce this (decrease the unpaid overheads from piracy – server costs, bandwidth etc) then wouldn’t here be some interest?

Seems te antipirqcy angle wasn’t really even mentioned in This article.