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Why mentioning rivals on your App Store listing is a good idea

Gameloft's new Asphalt iPhone game shows the way

Why mentioning rivals on your App Store listing is a good idea
This weekend, when I was scanning the App Store for new games to cover for Pocket Gamer, I noticed something interesting on Gameloft's product page for Asphalt 4 Elite Racing.

The last paragraph of its listing said "Recommended for fans of racing games such as: GTS World Racing, Cro-Mag Rally, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, Need For Speed."

Strange. Why would you mention all your game's main rivals in its product listing. But then it became clear.

Use the App Store's Power Search feature to type in 'Crash Bandicoot', and it returns that game but also Asphalt 4 Elite Racing. The same happens if you type in 'Cro-Mag Rally'.

What's more, this works if you use the App Store search function on the iPhone itself too (see picture).

It seems the way the App Store's search works means it pays to mention as many of your game's direct rivals as possible in your product listing.

Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)