It's his choice, his decision to make and then live with whatever positive and/or negative consequences stem from it. It's definitely not my place to judge tha

It's his choice, his decision to make and then live with whatever positive and/or negative consequences stem from it. It's definitely not my place to judge that. I don't know how much money he could expect to make? But obviously he values his principles and convictions higher than whatever amount he estimates he could make - thus he choose the option that provides the most value to him personally. I see no problem with that - it's totally within his rights to do whatever he wants with his game. There are many possible reasons to not monetize something. Like for example, if you do something and enjoy doing it - and then start monetizing it, you will be exposed to certain pressures and responsibilities. For example, once you enter a seller/buyer relation-ship, you have to treat your fans as customers, which comes with a set of expectations that you can dodge as long as the app remains free. These new pressures and responsibilities turn a hobby into a profession - and can totally suck the fun out of it. If you want to keep your hobby a hobby that you do just for fun, without big commitments, then it's probably better to not monetize it. At least not in a way that creates any responsibilities. Maybe there's a way to accept donations as pure gifts, without any strings attached. But many people would still feel like they had to give something in return, when receiving donation money. Like that little nagging thought, that they should put out an update, since many people donated for it... that sort of thing. I feel that when people say "He's stupid for not taking the free money he could get!" - there might be a bit of jealousy behind that kind of statement. To someone who's trying hard to come up with a startup-idea that could generate money, it must of course feel maddening to see someone sitting on such an idea and not generating money from it. Makes you feel: "I wish I had a viral sensation app like that...", doesn't it? ;)