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F2P fiesta: Android users simply "don't want to pay to play", say indies

Free-to-play or bust

F2P fiesta: Android users simply "don't want to pay to play", say indies

Android and iOS gamers might seem similar at first glance, but, according to the 'Indie Awesomeness' panel at this year's Gamelab conference in Barcelona, Android advocates are different in one very crucial way: they don't want to pay for games.

“We want to port [Nihilumbra] to Android as well," revealed BeautiFun Games' Kevin Cerda.

"We don't know if it's going to sell or not though, because Android gamers don't want to pay to play. I've got an Android phone, and I don't want to pay to play.”

A premium wasteland

Adding his voice to the debate was Frogmind's Johannes Vuorinen, one of the brains behind iOS big-hitter Badland, who suggested that premium titles really struggle to find a foothold on Android.

Vuorinen explained  that while iOS gamers responded well to Badland's premium nature, the Frogmind team didn't want to risk releasing a paid title on Google Play. They felt forced to change tact.

Badland wen't F2P on Android

“Android is really hard for premium titles. We saw some examples before we launched, so that's why we changed the approach a bit," said Vuorinen.

“On Google Play Badland is free to download, but we have video ads in levels if players don't want to upgrade.

“In that sense it's F2P, and we have about 8-9 million downloads on the platform so far.

"Even though  the conversion rate is not that good, we still draw 30 percent of our revenue from the Google Play release."

What do you call someone who has an unhealthy obsession with video games and Sean Bean? That'd be a 'Chris Kerr'. Chris is one of those deluded souls who actually believes that one day Sean Bean will survive a movie. Poor guy.