5 ms·

Is that the only conclusion? There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. They will happily pay for substantial extensions

by dgb23 4y ago

Is that the only conclusion? There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. They will happily pay for substantial extensions and content upgrades. They will remember your name and see anything you release as worth considering. It's a smaller market of course but a sustainable one. In terms of video games. I'm personally not a mobile gamer though. Maybe it's quite a bit different from desktop and console.

itsoktocry 4y ago
>There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. They will happily pay for substantial extensions and content upgrades. Can you point to someone having this sort of success based on this model in the mobile space?
- nucleogenesis 4y ago
  I have no idea how financially successful they are but the game Dawncaster is great and seems to be faring well. $5 up front, $5 for each expansion (currently 2) which add a substantial amount of content each. The devs are active, patching regularly, and planning another content update this year. They just released a free new mode to the game as well. No ads, no microtransactions just a fun and complete game with lots of replay value - I hope they can sustain it over time
phillryu 4y ago
For mobile gaming there might be some creators here or there scratching out a living like that but probably about 0.1% as many as you imagine, or as there seemingly should be considering how much money is in the ecosystem. The vast majority of that money is sucked up by big IP and older established apps and pseudo publishers/install networks that rip off the latest trends and blast them to their audience full of ads etc. Apple Arcade was trying to create a healthier walled garden within App Store but years later feels kind of like a big brand bargain bin the way it's been run. It's just very extreme winner takes all dynamics.
qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
I actually think there is a function of whales, not yet explored. Dont try to milk them with items. Make them gatekeepers. They get to decide who plays the game, who gets to enter, and who gets to stay. Sounds strange, but if they keep the thing afloat, they might aswell have a total say on that.
- fho 4y ago
  Wow ... That sounds like a massive power trip.
  - sitzkrieg 4y ago
    obnoxious pay to win items in garbage pvp games definitely cater to this
- circuit10 4y ago
  What advantage would that have to anyone? That sounds bad for both the developers and the players
mdip 4y ago
> There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. You're right on, here, and it points to a few problems and opportunities. I'm that subset of users yet I have an incredibly hard time finding apps meeting my criteria in the app stores. They are there. I often find them right after purchasing something that isn't as good or using one of a hundred free-but-varying-degrees-of-awful apps because I don't trust that spending even $3.00 isn't going to get me a paid-but-varying-degrees-of-awful app[0]. The amount of awful going on in the space of "mobile development" long passed unacceptable to me. The idea that McDonald's is $10.00 or $4.50 if I use their app that crashes, needs my location, sends me random empty notifications and every other minor and major brand's app that wants to slurp up any little bit of data they can and make my notification tray useless. I'm not happy with the "check this box and we'll track everything you do but 'trust us'" cloud-enabling Windows and every app being non-functional without an internet connection and the "functionality provided" often being "license validation" and/or "share this! social network features and data mining"... takes a breath yeah, that got away from me ... but it's just nuts. [0] The reviews which mix in the mess of one-stars from "a bad release" among the five-star "some of which were clearly paid for" just leave one wanting to take up drinking.

by dgb23 4y ago

itsoktocry 4y ago

>There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. They will happily pay for substantial extensions and content upgrades. Can you point to someone having this sort of success based on this model in the mobile space?

nucleogenesis 4y ago
I have no idea how financially successful they are but the game Dawncaster is great and seems to be faring well. $5 up front, $5 for each expansion (currently 2) which add a substantial amount of content each. The devs are active, patching regularly, and planning another content update this year. They just released a free new mode to the game as well. No ads, no microtransactions just a fun and complete game with lots of replay value - I hope they can sustain it over time

phillryu 4y ago

For mobile gaming there might be some creators here or there scratching out a living like that but probably about 0.1% as many as you imagine, or as there seemingly should be considering how much money is in the ecosystem. The vast majority of that money is sucked up by big IP and older established apps and pseudo publishers/install networks that rip off the latest trends and blast them to their audience full of ads etc. Apple Arcade was trying to create a healthier walled garden within App Store but years later feels kind of like a big brand bargain bin the way it's been run. It's just very extreme winner takes all dynamics.

qikInNdOutReply 4y ago

I actually think there is a function of whales, not yet explored. Dont try to milk them with items. Make them gatekeepers. They get to decide who plays the game, who gets to enter, and who gets to stay. Sounds strange, but if they keep the thing afloat, they might aswell have a total say on that.

fho 4y ago
Wow ... That sounds like a massive power trip.
- sitzkrieg 4y ago
  obnoxious pay to win items in garbage pvp games definitely cater to this
circuit10 4y ago
What advantage would that have to anyone? That sounds bad for both the developers and the players

mdip 4y ago

> There's a subset of users who are hungry for high quality applications and games. You're right on, here, and it points to a few problems and opportunities. I'm that subset of users yet I have an incredibly hard time finding apps meeting my criteria in the app stores. They are there. I often find them right after purchasing something that isn't as good or using one of a hundred free-but-varying-degrees-of-awful apps because I don't trust that spending even $3.00 isn't going to get me a paid-but-varying-degrees-of-awful app[0]. The amount of awful going on in the space of "mobile development" long passed unacceptable to me. The idea that McDonald's is $10.00 or $4.50 if I use their app that crashes, needs my location, sends me random empty notifications and every other minor and major brand's app that wants to slurp up any little bit of data they can and make my notification tray useless. I'm not happy with the "check this box and we'll track everything you do but 'trust us'" cloud-enabling Windows and every app being non-functional without an internet connection and the "functionality provided" often being "license validation" and/or "share this! social network features and data mining"... takes a breath yeah, that got away from me ... but it's just nuts. [0] The reviews which mix in the mess of one-stars from "a bad release" among the five-star "some of which were clearly paid for" just leave one wanting to take up drinking.