Reply Hi there, I have reported the glitch to Apple 3 days ago, I literally JUST received a reply from Apple Staff. They say that they are looking into it. All I did was explain the glitch and how it's done. If you know how it is done, I recommend you report it to Apple as I have done. It has to stop. First report it to Apple, as well as the developers who are taking part in it. The more people that email them the better.
I agree with Glenn. And for what it's worth, my understanding of the top grossing list is that it is driven strictly by money actually spent on the apps - using promo codes will have no effect - and for that matter, gifting has no effect on ranks either. So the developer in question is in effect gambling hundreds of dollars via Apple's 30% fee to buy their way onto the top grossing list. Given that I don't know any users that actually care about the top grossing list, it's more likely than not that this expensive little experiment will be a loss for them. Phil
I am not exactly sure about that. If you look at the apps in the link I provided, whenever the apps receive an update, they shoot up to #1 Top Grossing. The dev also gets 50 promotional codes for an app when updated. Coincidence? I think not.
:O Ya, many did it. I got in contact with one of the developers. I'm sure they would be appreciative if I didn't say who. But I contacted a few developers who were doing the glitch. I haven't seen as many doing it now though.
Yes, promo codes absolutely count towards normal rankings, though not likely towards Top Grossing. I've given away my promo codes before in a big chunk and I always get a nice boost in ranking for at least a couple of days. App gift codes do NOT count towards ranking though.
/facepalm Yes, if you use a promo code on a $449 app, then the App Store thinks that app made $449. This has been tested and proven a million times so you can't deny this mechanic.
Here is an example for anybody curious. I'm pretty sure the company "Federal Bureau of Apps" does this as well as their apps always end up in the top 3 grossing with almost no reviews
The only reason I look at top grossing charts is when I'm looking for a console quality game in the higher price range. The top 100 overall paid apps is litterd with 99 cent apps that are good for a quick game or two. Sometimes you want to find a game you can sit down with for a while and is popular (not always a guarantee of quality, but that's what I have TA for). But I don't do that anymore, or rather I never really did that unless I was unable to get to TA. Honestly, you can't reallly say what's popular in the Appstore isn't as good as what's not. If the price is high, people won't buy it unless it is very high quality. So if it's popular and has a high price, it's most likely a very good game. I'd say the highest grossing is one of the best scales in determining the quality of titles when compared to the other 'top ##" lists. Plus, anyone with a brain would be able to spot the apps that don't belong.
They've done it again. Fake Call by Sufpay #1 Top Grossing. Must have released an update and gotten more promo codes.
If Apple's allowing promo codes to count towards "gross revenue" this is their flaw to fix. I don't see any reason to punish the developers that were clever enough to exploit it.
That is kind of like saying a hacker who hacked into your computer and stole your important information should not be punished because it was a flaw of the computer.
I don't get your analogy. The developers didn't steal any confidential information. Did they even do anything illegal? As far as we can see, all they did was to make price changes and give away promo codes. Developers do these sorts of things all the time in attempts to get more visibility. Top Grossing is supposed to be based on money that has changed hands. If promo counts are being treated the same as purchases for Top Grossing purposes, that's clearly a defect in the AppStore infrastructure. In my opinion, it's little different from the brief window when moving from free to pay left your rank intact. There were plenty of developers that took advantage of that.
I don't know why anyone would take their side. The right thing for them to do would be to report the problem to Apple instead of taking advantage of it.
There was a time when I had to do two fairly quick submissions of my game. One was to add features, and the other was to fix a bug. As it turned out, that left me with about 120 promo codes. I released them into the wild on TA and my game's ranking rose up quite nicely because of it. It certainly didn't stay there for long though, and didn't really make much financial difference. If I had known about this effect at the time, I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have done the same thing. Anyway, as Phil mentioned, it is a long way from being illegal, and not really all that bad in my opinion. There are a lot of developers doing much worse things than this.
Waste Havent you got anything better to do with your short time of living in this 3 dimensional existence that mess up someones attempt to be wealthier? And no its not me who is the person doing that if your wondering.
To a developer this is the bread and butter, to be seen and heard in the noise. To have this destroyed by low quality apps is a big deal. It makes the system that much worse.
This is exactly my point. What the developer is doing would not bother me so much is the app was of higher quality.
That's insane, either it's morally wrong or it's right, if you think it's wrong, how can it be less wrong for a 'higher quality' app?
