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Backflip's Farrior: Free-plus-paid will make free the new 99c

More yield for developers and less initial commitment for users

Backflip's Farrior: Free-plus-paid will make free the new 99c
As you might expect from a developer that's served up over 11 million downloads - with free games and in-app advertising driving paid sales - the flexibility unlocked by Apple's decision to enable free apps to use micro-transactions has been welcomed by Backflip Studio's CEO Julian Farrior.

Indeed, as Farrior explains below, the company will be employing the new model in its forthcoming games, as well as retro-fitting it into its massively popular free game Paper Toss.

Pocket Gamer: How significant do you think the ability to charge for micro-transactions within free games is?

Julian Farrior: I'm not sure I can overstate just how important this change may prove to be. I think it will fundamentally change the economics of the App Store ecosystem in the following ways:

1) It will accelerate the move to free. Free will be the new 99c. There is already a tremendous amount of downward pricing pressure in the App Store. Developers, especially those without a significant brand, will have to rely more and more on in-app transactions and mobile advertising. I think there will still be room for those with a brand to sell in the $1.99-$9.99 range, but those without had better position themselves quickly to prepare for the imminent changes.

2) The Zyngas, Playfishes and Playdoms of the world will now be able to gain market and mind share on the iPhone. This is a model they have used very well on the social networks and are equipped to do the same in the iPhone world.

3) Games will be segmented into digestible chunks that will create more yield for developers and less initial commitment for users. I like what ngmoco has done with Rolando 2 in terms of releasing a free game and then selling individual chapters within the app. It will be interesting to see how this works.

How significant do you think the ability to submit one binary which contains a combined free and paid app is?

This will be interesting. I need to read the fine print to see what developers can and can't do. If you can ship a game with an obvious lead into other levels/features/functionality, it could be very compelling. However, I'm not totally convinced it will do away with Lite versions altogether.

How significant do you think this change is in terms of stopping iPhone app piracy?

I think the piracy issue is somewhat overblown. This is not a new problem. I certainly hope it helps deter pirates, but I think time spent developing games is more important than time spent trying to guard against pirates.

How do you think this will change the Free, Paid and Top Grossing charts?

It will now be much more competitive to reach the top rankings of the Free list due to the influx of quality applications that would have previously be priced.

I hope Apple takes the aggregate amount of sales, including in-app sales, for the Top Grossing charts. It will be very interesting to watch. These are exciting times in the App Store.

Do you plan to release free micro-transaction supported games now?

Absolutely. We would be foolish not to take advantage of this sea change. We were planning to launch two free games in early 2010 anyway, but they will now support in-app transactions.

In addition, Paper Toss - which has an installed user base of 9.5 million - will have some very interesting in-app upgrades within the next month. Overall, these transactions will become an ever important part of our revenue strategy.

What do you think are the implications in terms of ad-supported free games?

I'm not sure what the implications will be, but I am seldom afraid to guess. If you look at Facebook, games seem to be able to extract revenue from both advertising and/or virtual goods concurrently - or at least one or the other. I imagine the same will be true for the iPhone. I look forward to seeing how the yield plays out and reacting accordingly.

What do you think are the implications for the average price paid for games on the App Store?

I think the initial price of games will be driven much lower (large brands excluded), but that the overall yield of quality games will increase... hopefully, substantially.

As an aggressive developer which is confident in its ability to make compelling and addictive games, we love the change.

Thanks to Julian for his time.

You can keep up to date with what Backflip gets up to via its website or Twitter.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.