These are not your father’s games: freemium on the iOS App Store
With most media, there comes a time when people kind of stop dead, refusing to consider anything past a certain point ‘proper’. This is particularly common in music, where every generation loves the music it grows up with and then, once adult, considers contemporary music inane, tuneless drivel.
Videogaming’s much younger than music, but similar issues are becoming commonplace. I once thought I’d already hit one such bump, with the move to seemingly enforced 3D during the era of the PSX, although I’d argue that wasn’t just my then-nostalgic inclinations, but also the argument by game developers that everything had to be in 3D—an idea handhelds like the GBA, DS and iOS devices have since consigned to oblivion. However, I’ve now definitely hit one ‘I don’t get it’ bump, and I’m not alone.
Citing a Flurry report that claims a stunning 68 per cent of iOS game revenue is now from ‘consumable’ rather than ‘durable’ purchases, Ben Brooks says:
This is astonishing to me and being that I am not in the group that plays these types of games, I just can’t see the motivation to buy in-app currency to use — especially knowing that I will have to buy it again at some point.
Again, no judgment — I just don’t “get” it.
Same here. I get sequels and unlockable content. I get ‘demo’ freemium games where you play a few levels and then pay for the rest. But I don’t get the appeal of grind-oriented games were you pay for currency to spend on things, run out of virtual cash, and then pay for more currency to spend on things. It’s not about challenge or skill—it’s about how deep your pockets are. It’s the videogaming equivalent of bling, and I don’t understand the appeal at all.
Couldn’t agree more. If at least those in-app purchases were somehow tied to some sort of gaming skill…
Yeah I fall into that category of not getting consumables, too.
However I met a really interesting guy, a friend of mine now: he has an iPhone and told me he would *never* buy a game (not even mine, he said). All the apps on his iPhone are free apps or games.
He’s a big Smurf’s Village player, he *paid* for Smurfberries to unlock Smurfette early. I couldn’t comprehend why he would do this at the time, but I think I understand now.
Games with an up-front price are presenting most people with a barrier they are unlikely to jump. Free games can convince the player to invest their time and create the perception of an arbitrary value on that time – $3 per hour of play time seems to be the right number. The best freemium games don’t sell fun, they sell convenience once the player has invested their time.
For any given app on the app store paid charts the same position on the free charts is getting an order of magnitude more downloads. Removing that price barrier is a really powerful tool for developers.
You want 97% of your player base to play for free: that 3% is now larger than your previous paid player base, and they are repeat spenders because you no longer cap their spending.
Also note that the most successful freemium games: Farmville, Tiny Tower, Smurf’s Village are all terrible games by the technical definition of “game.” A better term is “engagement loop.”
If you are interested in this, look at the way Tiny Tower forces the player to touch the screen, the timing of all their bonuses and tasks. The exact rates at which you earn premium currency and “grind” currency. An amazing amount of thought and consideration went into it all. Deconstructing it has been a real lesson in how to capture the attention of a non-gamer in a game-like context.
Part of me really agrees with this, when i discovered you could block farmville updates, facebook suddenly seemed less sinister and more useful.. I do admit falling into Tiny Tower though, not sure if it’s the 8 bit graphics, or how I can enjoy it with my 4 year old, i love my tower…. (not bought any virtual coins though, that would completely kill it for me)