Why do you think so? Not that I oppose you... I am just curious and to be frank- a little scared I am curious- what else do you expect from Apple?
that's because your featured your one of the lucky ones. a lot of developers are selling very low sales volumes; like 1-2 sales per day; and i guess they are upset when they see someone complain when they have 400+ per day. its only human nature; we all want a level playing field. if your featured or have a spot in the top lists; you'll sell very well. when you start slipping; you'll feel it. i personally do iPhone / iPod Touch development as a hobby - i put a few hours a week into it (when i'm not busy with my real job) - as i've been doing for over 11 years on almost every mobile platform. i've seen the patterns platforms go through; so far Apple has been very forgiving and provided a rich environment for application distribution. it wont be long before they get greedy and turn on the very people who make them successful in the beginning..
Well I agree with cramzy that nobody should just "be satisfied" with some level of sales. Everyone has the right and should have the desire to make as much as they can as quickly as they can. So I can certainly see why he'd be upset if an Apple policy change adversely impacted his sales. On the flip side, for every updated app that doesn't show up in the new releases, there's a new app to fill its spot. So I don't think the net benefit, across the spectrum of developers, would go down. I think it would go up.
a few items: - increased commission i've seen this happen on every platform before; it starts low; then they slowly increase it over time - opening both standard and premium accounts. in another thread; it was mentioned its hard to children to get credit cards - so, maybe apple will partner with carriers and do other payment methods (reverse billing SMS).. the carriers will want a cut; and that's typically 50%. - separation between big developers and indie developers the "hot spots" will be exclusively used by big developers (EA, gameloft) - either they'll charge for banner space and price it so high that indie developers wont stand a chance to even consider paying for it as an option. - special treatment as an extension to the above item; big players will get shorter review times; and the indie dev will have to constantly nag for status updates.. i am sure this is already happening. ... the list could go on - if you want to see what can happen; simply look at the other platforms - specifically palm os and windows mobile.
Hey let me share about our "success"...though I was tempted to put the word "temporary" before the word success...Anyways... In Feb this year, we started working on Ananga Ranga. We put money out of our pockets to pay a 3D artist and a developer. Apple rejected it. After that, 4 people worked on Chippy... it makes 3-4 sales a day. But we never quit trying...we made 18,000 COOL JOKES and it just hit it...it was not success from the first time, but we put about 1100$ into advertising and I put huge effort into making it popular. With a few updates it started selling well. And so on we continued doing small apps... but this is not the point. The point is that we were never featured...we had 2 apps in the beginning that did not pay off, but kept trying... so it's just work work work work and hard work + some luck. And not only that we were never featured by Apple, but one of the popular reviews site proposed us a deal- pay for adds or get a bad review...and we got a bad review. So all I wanted to say is that making these sales is no easy...keeping them is even harder. You can imagine working 9 hours a day on your day job (as I am still there! I quit but it's effective from 1-Dec), traveling 2.5 hours, and when you get back home, you start working on iPhone stuff for the bigger part of the night...and this has been going on for months. So, it's not easy! Trust me!
This sounds like Tarantino movie. I honestly hope you are wrong about the commission...and for the rest- it's already happening.
it's just like why: - fart apps - mirror apps - ... other useless apps are a success. you could have the best application and no-one knows about it. the novalty stuff really gets the short term sales and boost - its sad, but true. how many useless apps exist? how many of them took only hours to program? its not fair, but its the way it is. to succeed in the app store you need to do something original - and get noticed. if your doing apps that everyone else is doing; no one is going to write reviews or give you any form of press coverage. thats part of the challenge. branded content always does well - especially if you have the license rights. its been that way for many years.
at least your in bulgaria its cheaper to live there.. earning $300-400 a day is an excellent living.. especially when you can get paid while sleeping. i know a lot of small developers / outfits who had to pay artists, developers just to get something on the app store - and they are thousands of dollars in debt..i know someone who has sold 12 copies of their game in 3 months.. how sad is that? Mobile 1UP has been in the app store for just over a year; we've had our trouble with Nintendo and we've seen something huge turn into something crap. now of course; we are still profitable, since we have no costs - and we are working on new original content (some licensed) to try and make it big too. maybe one day where i can also quit my day job
I totally agree with you. And I understand why people take the wrong conclusion about our apps, as they are content based. But I assure you that we buy the databases 100% legit, and we pay well for this. And for most apps- it doesn't pay back...but you never know. Just one point I wanted to make about the jokes app: it really is a very advanced app. We wanted to create the perfect jokes app, and I am very confident we succeeded. P.S. It's 2 AM midnight here, and I have not slept more than 3 hours a night for almost a week now, so I will be hitting off to bed... will reply to you guys tomorrow.
WHAT? We have maybe 6 reviews out there. 4 of them came from this site: Zaz (French Translation) Sic enuhski TouchArcade Podcast #3 The remaining 2 came from other sources: Keri Honea, examiner.com Jason Surguine, jaybot7.com These are the news and reviews that we have at this time. I won't agree to paying ANYONE for a review. TouchArcade has never provided us with news or a written review. We do not have a user review within this site either. PocketGamer.co.uk has never provided us with news nor a review either. If ads are the only way to get a review, then sorry, I am not playing that game. I'll pay for an ad voluntarily if the site (like this one) provides me with a service like this great forum. pocketgamer.co.uk doesn't provide anything to me. Furthermore, I am very careful where I send my Promo Codes. I know exactly who has what code, and I do not send them blindly unless the site responds and tells me they are interested. Keri Honea was such a gal to repond promptly.
Ok so I still don't understand what is happening with the new release list, I have a card game app so I watch that category pretty closely. Check this app out, it says it was released today, it's showing up in the new releases, it is version 1.0, but it already has a good amount of reviews and they date back to 2008, so what the heck is going on? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reel-deal-blackjack/id284072128?mt=8
When I first discovered updates to an app pushed it into the 'new releases' list, I thought it was strange practice and possibly even an error on Apple's part. I also thought it was unfair to those genuinely brand new applications that are being buried under old apps that have already had their limelight. This change will mean that when you release a new app, it will have more exposure in the 'new releases' list, plus it will last in that list much longer now. For all the apps in the 'new releases' list, I would guesstimate 90% of them were just updates to existing apps. As for moving to Android store, I'd be surprised if they don't already have it this way themselves - if they don't, they will eventually. It's just a lot more normal this way.
Hmm, interesting and scary news if all is true. I was planning initially to release my game with multiplayer support on same device only (it's a turned based game) and later on add wi-fi and bluetooth support if there is enough interest (maybe even client/server). My game is a turned based racing simulator and I've no idea how many people will like it (need to use brains to play . So idea was to make it polished as much as I can, but add bigger features like true multiplayer with updates. But with this move from Apple I'm not so sure anymore what to do. If I will add multiplayer support later, how would new buyers know about it? I understand you can advertise on forums, facebook and whats not, but nothing compares to Apple own just released list. That's how I find new app myself everyday and believe most of users do the same.
That's what I'm saying, why is it showing with a release date of today and appearing in the new releases, it makes no sense.
The problem is, it's not a new release, it's an update for an old release (or at least a previously released game); it's really not fair to actual new games to clog the new releases list with updated games. Ideally Apple should have a list of updated games, separate from new games. And maybe I'm the exception, but I almost never look at the lists in the app shop, I rely on sites like this one and word of mouth for what's new and worthwhile. I think dev's place too much importance on where they're at in the app store, and forget about other ways of getting their product out.
Numbers speak louder than words. That is why devs care. They know that getting a bump on the store makes them cash. I should know. I'm a developer. But I actually agree with this new change. Ethan
Personally, I don't like the move because it removes one of the big incentives for updating your app.. some devs release and app and forget about it, and little problems and annoyances hang around forever. And think about it... if you turned away from buying an app at one point because it had low ratings due to a bug, you would never really rediscover it, even if the dev worked his ass off to fix what people didn't like. They need to have a very good return for doing the work they do that keeps touch arcade around.
Good morning everyone. You know how people say things look better in the morning? Yeah...they don't! I am still pissed at Apple. So, my personal opinion is that Apple doesn't give a sh*t about us, and all they want is to support the big devs who don't really need all that support.
I agree. Unfortunately the appstore is flooded with crap. Get your game right the first time. The update system has been abused by many devs and THAT is why Apple was forced to make this move. You can thank yourselves for this.
