The article below plus some search finally give me a light what is really happening. Don’t matter if a lot of people hate all this crap, there is a few one that like and they are guiding the industry. Because money is what pay the bills on the end. In some years, good games will become underground developed by some crazy guys moved by passion, like Toady One (Dwarf Fortress).
http://www.hardcoredroid.com/introduction-to-the-death-of-video-games-part-ii/
“…what they tell us without a doubt is that pay to win mobile developers are gearing their games towards that 1.5 % , a group of folks who have money to burn and who fully embrace IAP-heavy games.”
“…99% of gamers rejected IAPs on mobile and it didn’t matter, which is why IAPS are so dangerous”
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“…there are a lot of people who have become accustomed to paying nothing at all for their mobile games.”
All this IAP’s destroy games is ridiculous. Without this the 99% of players who do not all will not pay for a game, will not have any game to play, or will be peppered with ads. You get what you pay for in the end, no matter what model is used.
Yes this and the 100 or so other articles that slate any model that deviates from the standard buy your game upfront, everything is included. I don’t see how this can be called the “Death of Video Games”. Newer models of payment allows for more people to actually play the game, and then the wealthy pay the toll. I don’t see a problem with that.
That’s a nice bit of generalisation right there. Tell you what, if you make a good game, and have it cost €10 I’ll buy it. And I bet thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people like me will too.
Ten pounds or euros is nothing. But mobile devs don’t. I don’t know why. Instead they use IAP that’s going to pilfer our contacts and searches and metadata to sell granny’s or the love interest’s phone number, even if they might have a secret phone number, to the highest bidder. So, I don’t buy mobile games. It’s mostly for this reason. But it’s also partly because most mobile phone games I’ve seen are IAP crap that I don’t want on my phone.
Make less crap, put a price tag on it, and I’ll buy. I’m sure many like me will too.
be the change you want to see in the world. make good games. sell them at an up-front price. encourage others to do so as well. otherwise it’s just a complaint.
GTA V sold for 1 billion dollars in its first day.
Figure out a way to get a piece of that. Don’t be the person that rifle through handbags and pockets for change just because you can. It is not gamers problems if you adopt models of revenue that are harmful, and it’s not gamers problems if they deselect those models outright.
GTA is an established brand, with successful prequels, specific niche, and millions to spend per second on advertising. Not even remotely comparable to 99% of developers.
That wasn’t your argument. You said that nobody paid for games, except for 1.5 per cent. That is clearly wrong, as Rockstar has shown with GTA V. There’s LOTS of money in games.
The phone game devs problems isn’t that there’s not money in games. Their problem is that they’ve chosen business models that a vast majority of gamers, both core ones and casual ones, want no part of. That is your problem. That problem is not solved by going further and further into a model which is exceptionally exploitative and dangerous.
Edit:
Also, please consider this. The latest ECJ ruling about Google doesn’t just apply to Google. It applies to anyone who processes personal data. The ECJ has, indirectly, made all phone devs responsible for what personal data is processed by your games.
The fines if a game dev is found to be in breach of those is eye-watering.
You are correct it is a generalisation, but as a most developers are hoping to appeal to a “general market” of casual gamers, especially on mobile, it is a relevant statement. Saxi Is correct in his statement, not many people would pay for a game from an indie developer without big marketing budgets. Of course there are a few special cases where someone strikes lucky, but people win the lottery too.
Its also ironic that you statement about IAP’s pilfering contacts and meta searches, is itself a generalisation. Only I can give you market data to backup my comments.
GTA is a console/pc game from a major manufacturer. Of course it sells. They also have an advertising budge that is 1000x the annual income of 99% of Unity developers.
Games sell, I am really only referring to mobile, which is what the discussion was about. Same thing applies here, big names will sell games on any platform, regardless of the market.
It is well accepted most phone users will buy 1,000 phones, but won't buy .99 apps. There is a small percentage (roughly 3%) that will. Paid apps without brand/marketing won’t even get downloaded. 98% of apps/games are now free on the App Store for a reason. Users feel entitled to apps for free and very few appreciate developers work and will pay. IAP is really the only way to make money on the app store these days unless you have brand, niche, marketing or incredibly lucky.
We try. Our premium game is now without IAP. There is some nice iniciatives from sites like harcore android and honestandroidgames.com, some youtube casters like total biscuit talk about it a lot.
We are old generation. Everyone could be a good player, but what wins now, is the money
I won’t ever release a pay to win type of game. I’d rather charge a small amount upfront and then have a donation system, where people can donate to support development costs if they like the game enough and want to see future updates. That way, I’m motivated to make the game as great as I possibly can so that people really enjoy and appreciate it and want to support it.
Not all IAP is pay to win.
And not all pay to win is bad.
You want to develop for three types of gamers
Those that are good
Those that have time
Those that have money
IAP isn’t bad, some developers abuse it, but just because there is IAP doesn’t mean you have to buy it. If the game is not fun without it, don’t play it.
So what if <2% are funding the rest. If the 98% did not like it they would not play it or, assuming its on the Play or IOS store it would get a majority of its reviews as a 1*. But they do not.