Hot Five

The PG.biz Hot Five: HTML5 starts to hum, EA's App Store sale is a touch sly, and IAP becomes dominant revenue driver on iOS

Last week's top five stories

The PG.biz Hot Five: HTML5 starts to hum, EA's App Store sale is a touch sly, and IAP becomes dominant revenue driver on iOS
Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.

Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.

Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.



YoYo Games launches GameMaker: HTML5 beta

One of a wealth of stories focused on HTML5 in one way or another, the release of YoYo Game's GameMaker beta – priced at $99 - promises to make it far easier for developers to build JavaScript-based games compatible with the language.

As well as sheer simplicity, GameMaker's USP is its collaboration feature, which allows several developers to work on an area of the game simultaneously.

"GameMaker: HTML5 is a huge step forward for the Game Maker lineage and we're very proud to have launched this new version, which brings game and web content creation within the reach of anyone with the inclination to try our package," said Sandy Duncan, CEO of YoYo Games.

"As the HTML5 wave begins [to] break across the web and it becomes adopted as the de-facto standard, GameMaker: HTML5 will undoubtedly lead the revolution in easily created, easily deployable content that's richer and more complex than ever before."
Click here to read more.



Opinion: EA Mobile pulls the wool over iPad owners' eyes with 'sale' that's more expensive than usual

When is a sale not a sale? When the prices in question are actually higher than those the games have been sale-ing at for large periods during the year, argued PG.biz editor Jon Jordan last week.

Though EA has technically dropped the price on a total of 22 iPad games to between 99c and $2.99, some of the games in question now offered at the higher sale price have previously been on sale for 99c or lower during earlier promo pushes.

"That's not a sale in my book," stated Jon.

"Some examples: Yahtzee HD, currently $2.99, was free on 26 February and 99c during February, May and June, while Mirror's Edge for iPad was priced at 99c in July, $1.99 on 1 September and is now $2.99.

"The fact that inbetween these 'sale' periods it's been $9.99 is irrelevant."
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4% of apps are generating 72% of all iPhone App Store revenue says Distimo

Talking about the third most popular story last week means acknowledging the first, so it's probably simpler to skip on to the end of the articler before scrolling back here afterwards.

In essence, however, numbers from Distimo published during the week suggested that 72 percent of all app revenue on the App Store comes from just 4 percent of titles listed on it.

That's arguably not as startling an assessment as it might first look, given the sheer size of the App Store means the share of titles pulling in big revenues is always going to be small.

More interesting, however, is the fact that this 4 percent is the part of the App Store that consists of apps with IAP. But more on that particular angle later...
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Veteran marketeer Bruce Everiss joins Kwalee as CMO

On the back of almost three decade's worth of experience, technology-based marketing man Bruce Everiss was named as the new CMO of smartphone startup Kwalee.

Everiss, whose first job in the sector was at Imagine Software back in 1982, will form part of the firm's core management team along with CEO David Darling.

"This must be the best job in the world for someone with my skillset, the opportunities afforded by the app market and Kwalee's approach to it are boundless," said Everiss.

"We are seeking to positively differentiate the company and its products so as to bring our customers very special experiences. Over the coming months I look forward to like minded people joining the team, exciting times lie ahead."
Click here to read more.



72% of iPhone app revenue comes from in-app purchases, up from 28% in 2010

The other side of the results taken from a presentation by Distimo at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas was the rate at which IAPs have become the dominant model on iOS.

72 percent of revenue on the App Store comes from apps with in-app purchases equipped – the majority of which are free releases, further strengthening the role of the freemium release on Apple's platform.

Indeed, traditional paid-for releases bereft of IAPs account for just 28 percent of revenue on the platform – a trend the report suggests will soon be mirrored on Android, even though IAPs only rolled out back in March.

Click here to read more.

Until next week, Pocket Gamer pickers...
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With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.