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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple and Rovio have paired up to give away Angry Birds Rio for the iPhone and iPad for free this week, as part of Apple's 'Free App of the Week' promotion.

The game is normally $0.99 for the iPhone and $2.99 on the iPad.

carnival.jpg
Angry Birds Rio brought more of the same bird-flinging action that we all are quite familiar with by now, but also threw a couple of new very welcome twists into the formula. First and foremost are the boss fights, which were a first for the Angry Birds series and have you squaring off against the main antagonists from the Rio movie. The game also utilized more advanced graphics and recently was updated with tons of new power-ups and support for the widescreen of the iPhone 5.
Angry Birds Rio is free for a limited time on the iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct link: iPhone/iPad]

Article Link: Rovio and Apple Offering 'Angry Birds Rio' as Free App of the Week
 

Lukkee24

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2011
669
355
London
Yay, may as well download it. I don't buy Angry Birds games because they're annoying and make you pay twice if you want it on your iPhone and iPad :(.
 

Moonjumper

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2009
2,740
2,908
Lincoln, UK
I wish the Free App of the Week would feature some hidden gems rather than promote games that are already successful.

In a market where discoverability is a big issue, concentrating on the apps we already know is a wasted opportunity.
 
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mabhatter

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2009
1,022
388
Developers get paid from small ads in the game.

FREE

I'd rather pay a small amount than spend time watching ads. If I recall, in the ad version you have to click on the ad screen between every few retries.

Of course this is Angry Birds. The games are just a loss leader for all the merchandizing going on... $.99 is nothing compared to the cut they get from all the swag in stores.

----------

Angry Birds Rio is kind of a dead end anyway. Unless they make another movie, all the levels are finished up and Rovio is done adding to it. But hey! Free Angry Birds for the "Pig Popper Pad"!
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,541
6,027
Developers get paid from small ads in the game.

FREE

Yes, I bet you've made lots of free apps and made lots of money from ads.

No, ad revenue is a lie. Top ranking apps can make money from ads. No one else can. I have hundreds of thousands of regular users for my free app with ads and an IAP to remove ads. I made $10 in 2012, $3 from ads and $7 from users removing the ads.

In contrast, I made $200 and $8000 from my $1 and $2 apps, respectively. Certainly, quality plays a roll, but I spent twice as many months polishing my free app as I did my $1 app.

I'm never making the mistake of releasing an app users don't have to pay for again... you can get a taste for free, maybe, but getting more than 25% is certainly going to cost money.
 

rmwebs

macrumors 68040
Apr 6, 2007
3,140
0
Yes, I bet you've made lots of free apps and made lots of money from ads.

No, ad revenue is a lie. Top ranking apps can make money from ads. No one else can. I have hundreds of thousands of regular users for my free app with ads and an IAP to remove ads. I made $10 in 2012, $3 from ads and $7 from users removing the ads.

In contrast, I made $200 and $8000 from my $1 and $2 apps, respectively. Certainly, quality plays a roll, but I spent twice as many months polishing my free app as I did my $1 app.

I'm never making the mistake of releasing an app users don't have to pay for again... you can get a taste for free, maybe, but getting more than 25% is certainly going to cost money.



Sorry but that's really not correct. Even with a couple of free apps on my personal developer account I make at least $250 a month in iAds revenue, and there isn't even that many people using the app (only around 5k downloads a month).

On our groups main android dev account we make significantly more from ads than sales on the apps we offer in free and paid versions.

To suggest that nobody makes revenue from ads except the big boys is pure rubbish.

For every 100k purchases we've had, we've made over double that in ad revenue within the first 3 months.
 
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Dekard

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2011
394
2
Dallas, Texas
Yay, may as well download it. I don't buy Angry Birds games because they're annoying and make you pay twice if you want it on your iPhone and iPad :(.

WAAAAAHHHHHH The race to the bottom has sure made a lot of people whiney about what an app is worth. If you don't get 99 cents of fun out of it don't buy it. If you don't get 4.99 of fun out of it don't buy it. It takes more resources and recoding to make it for iPad and in HD. Not alot but enough.
 

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
I agree. I love how games just manage to develop themselves, without any need for silly things like 'paying the programmers'.

It should always have been free! £0.69 is a disgrace! :rolleyes:

I love how people who know nothing about the subject they're talking about shoot off their mouths instantly and make themselves look silly. You DO know that ALL Angry Birds games include freaking advertising (whether you pay for the app or not, they're STILL THERE). Maybe, just maybe that's why it's "FREE" on Android. Ya think? The CRIME here is that I've read before that they don't remove the ads when you actually pay for the game. And that is precisely why I wouldn't pay a freaking dime for it. I'm not sure I'd want it for "free" if I have to put up with annoying ads, really. I'd rather pay $5 for it and have it add free, really (assuming I actually liked the game). Compare that to Bejeweled which was worthy every penny and doesn't send a single ad my way (not even the the Blitz game).
 

mrgraff

macrumors 65816
Apr 18, 2010
1,087
837
Albuquerque
I love how people who know nothing about the subject they're talking about shoot off their mouths instantly and make themselves look silly. You DO know that ALL Angry Birds games include freaking advertising (whether you pay for the app or not, they're STILL THERE). Maybe, just maybe that's why it's "FREE" on Android. Ya think? The CRIME here is that I've read before that they don't remove the ads when you actually pay for the game.
Rovio thinks they're so clever about it too; they call it "news." Sorry but, news about something I can purchase is still an ad. Heck, one of the summer "seasons" levels from 2011 was actually a Samsung Galaxy ad right there in the knock-down structure!

Cue the Angry Birds defenders that will remind us that the ads are only for other Rovio games...
 

Caliber26

macrumors 68020
Sep 25, 2009
2,325
3,637
Orlando, FL
As per my standard policy, I've downloaded this for iPhone and iPad while it's free, even though I have zero interest in it currently. I never turn down something free that won't be free forever.

I don't know why, but I imagined hearing you make that statement in a very thick British accent.

Weird, I know! :eek:
 

KieranDotW

macrumors 6502a
Apr 12, 2012
623
68
Canada
Shod have always been free.

It is on Android

The sad thing is, I know Fandroids who will try to push Android on people by saying "there are no paid apps" just because Angry Birds is free. Sorry, I'm not buying a shoddy phone so I can save 99 cents on an annoying video game.
 

thehustleman

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2013
1,123
1
The sad thing is, I know Fandroids who will try to push Android on people by saying "there are no paid apps" just because Angry Birds is free. Sorry, I'm not buying a shoddy phone so I can save 99 cents on an annoying video game.

There are paid apps.

Some just use ad revenue to support the whole others just charge.

And you don't have to buy a shoddy phone for free apps, gs3, note 2, One x, nexus 4, all incredible phones
 

cfs112

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2012
87
0
free is still free, c'mon, enough complaining . . . cough up the 99 cents otherwise.
 
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