Proponents of the free-to-play model will take this rhetorical pause to yell 'profit!', and it's getting harder to disagree with them.
Sales figures from the games given away during the App Store's fifth birthday promotion suggest that there's a strong surge in revenue following the initial 'loss' involved with giving a game away.
Yet some supporters of the premium model will contend that such popular games would never attract downloads, even for free, if they didn't have the polish that higher-end development commands.
It's a true chicken-or-the-egg scenario, and it's one that factors heavily in this week's Week That Was.
Tools and platforms
- Slumping sales of the Surface RT leads Microsoft to a $900 million write down.
- Arkadium unveils Arkadium Arena, a cross-platform HTML 5 casual games hub.
- Nokia is justifiably proud as Lumia sales jump 85% year-on-year.
- Rovio announces Angry Birds Star Wars II, a game that will rely on Skylanders-style physical toys.
- Extreme Motion SDK can turn any 2D camera into a Kinect-like controller, and it plans to show what it can do with Top Smash Tennis.
Monetisation
- Editor-at-large Jon Jordan unveils Monetizer, a regular feature where he'll discuss and critique the monetization strategies of new games.
- Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling is concerned that the free-to-play model might be hindering great gameplay.
- Infinity Blade II dev Chair Entertainment gives away $27 million in sales during the App Store's birthday celebration.
- ...but managed to more than double its weekly revenue for Infinity Blade II thanks to in-app purchases.
- Localise wisely - our Chart of the Week examines how localisation tripled Clash of Clans' revenue in Japan.
Industry voices
- Vlambeer's Rami Ismail argues that developers should not live in fear of clones.
- Pre-order an app? 148app's Carter Dotson wonders if we're ready for an App Store revolution.
- Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell reflects on the 'hell of a year' his indie game went through.
- Editor Keith Andrew muses that Microsoft, once again, is relying on Halo to come to the rescue.
- And Lee Bradley takes an in-depth look at Nitrome, the first studio to dive into the Rovio Stars program.
Funding, start ups and acquisitions
- Ouya pledged $1 million to a new Free the Games fund, which will match capital raised through Kickstarter for Ouya-exclusive games.
- Three alumns from EA's SimCity team struck out on their own to start a new mobile studio, Jellygrade.
- After a $38.5 million dollar sale share, Kabam is now valued at $700 million.
- And finally, Gamevil continues to grow. The Korean publisher surpasses the 300 million download mark.
