8 ms·

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

125 points by aluket 7y ago

speedgoose 7y ago
I don't feel bad for the game developer. Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads.
- scarface74 7y ago
  Exactly. I hope Apple Arcade takes a big bite out of ad supported games on iOS. However, if there is an option to pay for the games to get rid of ads, I have no problem with him publishing games and making money on either ads or people paying.
  - elbrian 7y ago
    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.
    - speedgoose 7y ago
      The ad-supported version can be a disaster for your privacy though.
      - nikkwong 7y ago
        Plus, a lot of apps don't remove their ad SDK even if you do pay to not "see" the ads, so you are still being tracked either way.
      - jotm 7y ago
        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.
- refulgentis 7y ago
  s/that/"I don't feel bad for the game developer, they don't gatekeep with their pricing model"
  - catalogia 7y ago
    Framing adware as a socially progressive business model is nauseating.
- iotku 7y ago
  >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.
  - albertshin 7y ago
    Have you considered that perhaps it's not the ad itself but that it just takes a 15-30 seconds of a delay to maybe realize that you're about to waste your time / ease your boredom that maybe keeps you from playing?
    - Fjolsvith 7y ago
      Every ad on YouTube makes me reconsider how badly I want to watch the video. Lots of times I just close YouTube and pull up Bitchute.
      - thisiswater 7y ago
        Tangent: Is there anything on bitchute that isn't right-wing or conspiracy theory? I've just pulled it up for the first time and by the front-page videos it's an alt-right cesspool. I'll use the alternative if it's viable, but this content isn't.
  - jefftime 7y ago
    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!
  - efreak 7y ago
    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)
- dwild 7y ago
  > Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads. Can you explains what's wrong with this? You are aware that some people enjoy playing simple classic games? You are aware that some people don't like or can't even use credit card online right? What's the solution do you bring that allow theses peoples to have entertainment? Are you going to bring them their simple classic games that they want for free? Why aren't you already doing it? No one force you to play theses games, but in a weird way you enjoy seeing people losing a great source of entertainment. That's kind of worrying.
swiley 7y ago
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.
- cwyers 7y ago
  ...but he can function without it. He built a replacement.
  - ec109685 7y ago
    And there are others if his falls short: https://vungle.com/ https://vungle.com/
    - optimiz3 7y ago
      Vungle is interstitials only; it doesn't have anywhere near the fill rates or yields as MSA.
- frozenport 7y ago
  Worst case is he paid his dozen developers for a decade. Sounds responsible.
- scarface74 7y ago
  You mean like every console game maker?
- wtracy 7y ago
  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.
  - BlueTemplar 7y ago
    And what are you going to do about it? I'm researching Google-free LineageOS and checking out Librem's smartphone...
GlitchMr 7y ago
I sorta wonder what will happen to ads in Microsoft's own games (in particular Solitaire). I kinda hope they will be removed, but I doubt that would actually happen.
desc 7y ago
"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 for, I dunno, at least a decade?) and are saying 'you have to have an actual workable fucking business model now, k?'
- throway1n 7y ago
  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.
  - desc 7y ago
    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.
    - Mirioron 7y ago
      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.
      - makapuf 7y ago
        You can justify any business with that kind of argument.
        BoorishBears 7y ago
jayd16 7y ago
Microsoft is shutting down their ad service but there are plenty others. Why is this dev or his ad sdk interesting?
- chii 7y ago
  It's not.
- optimiz3 7y ago
  What other ad services are there for Windows apps?

125 points by aluket 7y ago

speedgoose 7y ago

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

scarface74 7y ago
Exactly. I hope Apple Arcade takes a big bite out of ad supported games on iOS. However, if there is an option to pay for the games to get rid of ads, I have no problem with him publishing games and making money on either ads or people paying.
- elbrian 7y ago
  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.
  - speedgoose 7y ago
    The ad-supported version can be a disaster for your privacy though.
    - nikkwong 7y ago
      Plus, a lot of apps don't remove their ad SDK even if you do pay to not "see" the ads, so you are still being tracked either way.
    - jotm 7y ago
      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.
refulgentis 7y ago
s/that/"I don't feel bad for the game developer, they don't gatekeep with their pricing model"
- catalogia 7y ago
  Framing adware as a socially progressive business model is nauseating.
iotku 7y ago
>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.
- albertshin 7y ago
  Have you considered that perhaps it's not the ad itself but that it just takes a 15-30 seconds of a delay to maybe realize that you're about to waste your time / ease your boredom that maybe keeps you from playing?
  - Fjolsvith 7y ago
    Every ad on YouTube makes me reconsider how badly I want to watch the video. Lots of times I just close YouTube and pull up Bitchute.
    - thisiswater 7y ago
      Tangent: Is there anything on bitchute that isn't right-wing or conspiracy theory? I've just pulled it up for the first time and by the front-page videos it's an alt-right cesspool. I'll use the alternative if it's viable, but this content isn't.
- jefftime 7y ago
  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!
- efreak 7y ago
  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)
dwild 7y ago
> Its business model is to publish simple classic games, but with ads. Can you explains what's wrong with this? You are aware that some people enjoy playing simple classic games? You are aware that some people don't like or can't even use credit card online right? What's the solution do you bring that allow theses peoples to have entertainment? Are you going to bring them their simple classic games that they want for free? Why aren't you already doing it? No one force you to play theses games, but in a weird way you enjoy seeing people losing a great source of entertainment. That's kind of worrying.

swiley 7y ago

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.

cwyers 7y ago
...but he can function without it. He built a replacement.
- ec109685 7y ago
  And there are others if his falls short: https://vungle.com/ https://vungle.com/
  - optimiz3 7y ago
    Vungle is interstitials only; it doesn't have anywhere near the fill rates or yields as MSA.
frozenport 7y ago
Worst case is he paid his dozen developers for a decade. Sounds responsible.
scarface74 7y ago
You mean like every console game maker?
wtracy 7y ago
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.
- BlueTemplar 7y ago
  And what are you going to do about it? I'm researching Google-free LineageOS and checking out Librem's smartphone...

GlitchMr 7y ago

I sorta wonder what will happen to ads in Microsoft's own games (in particular Solitaire). I kinda hope they will be removed, but I doubt that would actually happen.

desc 7y ago

"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 for, I dunno, at least a decade?) and are saying 'you have to have an actual workable fucking business model now, k?'

throway1n 7y ago
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.
- desc 7y ago
  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.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    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.
    - makapuf 7y ago
      You can justify any business with that kind of argument.
      - BoorishBears 7y ago

jayd16 7y ago

Microsoft is shutting down their ad service but there are plenty others. Why is this dev or his ad sdk interesting?

chii 7y ago
It's not.
optimiz3 7y ago
What other ad services are there for Windows apps?