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App Store Anniversary Promotion Earns 'Infinity Blade II' 5.7 Million Downloads

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Apr 12, 2001
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Last week, a number of popular apps went free in celebration of the App Store's fifth anniversary, with Infinity Blade II among them. According to publicist Laura Mustard, who spoke to AllThingsD, Chair's hit action RPG scored 5.7 million new players during the seven day promotion.

That amounts to three times the normal number of downloads that the game earns in a week, which could earn Chair quite a bit of revenue in the form of in-app purchases. Infinity Blade II offers players bags of gold to speed up item acquisition and gameplay.
Like many other games (most of them free-to-play), the normally $6.99 Infinity Blade 2?s revenue is bolstered by in-app purchases of virtual gold currency. With a couple million players who got in the door for free, it doesn't take an economist to wonder if they might be in a gold-buying mood.

However, Mustard downplayed the importance of in-app purchases for the game. "While we normally notice an increase at times when we've done free promotions, we don't think it's significant, because the game is balanced in a way that does not require any IAP," she wrote in an email.
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Chair's original Infinity Blade game, priced at $2.99 during the App Store sale, also saw 2.5 times as many downloads as the week before and a related e-book, Infinity Blade: Awakening had a 70% increase in sales.

Despite the success of the Infinity Blade series, Chair co-founder Donald Muster revealed last week that Infinity Blade Dungeons, a dungeon crawler that made its debut at an Apple event in March 2012, had been permanently shelved. He noted, however, that the Infinity Blade series was very much alive, with "more games, more books, and maybe even other products" still in the works.

Article Link: App Store Anniversary Promotion Earns 'Infinity Blade II' 5.7 Million Downloads
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/16/app-store-anniversary-promotion-earns-infinity-blade-ii-5-7-million-downloads/
T

tann

macrumors 68000
Apr 15, 2010
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813
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3x more downloads?! So the game still gets bought well over a million times a week. Not bad.
 
Moonjumper

Moonjumper

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2009
2,740
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$6.99 around 2 million times a week! That is impressive.

I'm surprised that it only got downloaded 3x as much while free. I would have expected many times that.
 
S

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
This just shows the power of the freemium model, i guess it is the future.

:(
 
mainstreetmark

mainstreetmark

macrumors 68020
May 7, 2003
2,228
293
Saint Augustine, FL
but not from me. Mine's just sitting there on one of my screens with it's "loading" progress bar 100% empty. I click it, and nothing happens. A few minutes later, some error appears telling me to go check iTunes, but iTunes doesn't have anything to say on the topic.
 
G

Georgij

macrumors regular
Mar 11, 2013
128
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I think Apple has payed developers to make those apps for free because those are some of the best iOS exclusive apps out there.
 
Winter Charm

Winter Charm

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2008
804
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tann said:
3x more downloads?! So the game still gets bought well over a million times a week. Not bad.
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This is exactly what happens when you release a polished and well designed app.

The beauty of the App Store is that it levels the playing field. If you write a really nice app that works as advertised, and doesn't have bugs, and you stand behind that app, supporting your users with regular updates and bug fixes, you will make bank.

Pixelmator for the Mac App Store is another example. While it doesn't do everything photoshop does, it's an extremely refined app that does most of what everyone who bought it needs. And they've made quite a lot of money.

Essentially, the app store curates a large ecosystem of quality apps for a platform.
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
northernbaldy said:
I downloaded it, played it, deleted it
rubbish, I'm pleased I didn't pay for it
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I don't know, I thought it was pretty g

SCRATCH ATTACKS

ATTACKING THE POSTER BEFORE HE IS BROKEN RESULTS IN SCRATCH ATTACKS WHICH ARE MUCH LESS EFFECTIVE.
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Well, I guess it doesn't quite feel like it's on the right platf

SCRATCH ATTACKS

ATTACKING THE POSTER BEFORE HE IS BROKEN RESULTS IN SCRATCH ATTACKS WHICH ARE MUCH LESS EFFECTIVE.
Click to expand...

Platform....but the wiping screen feels kind of stupid and unin

SCRATCH ATTACKS

ATTACKING THE POSTER BEFORE HE IS BROKEN RESULTS IN SCRATCH ATTACKS WHICH ARE MUCH LESS EFFECTIVE.
Click to expand...

STOP THAT
 
J

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
Skika said:
This just shows the power of the freemium model, i guess it is the future.

:(
Click to expand...
This is in no way a freemium game.

----------
mainstreetmark said:
but not from me. Mine's just sitting there on one of my screens with it's "loading" progress bar 100% empty. I click it, and nothing happens. A few minutes later, some error appears telling me to go check iTunes, but iTunes doesn't have anything to say on the topic.
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Check your Internet connection. This is a 1.2GB game, it requires wifi and a lot of time to install. And check your remaining space.
 
Stella

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
northernbaldy said:
I downloaded it, played it, deleted it
rubbish, I'm pleased I didn't pay for it
Click to expand...

Great graphics for sure. Unfortunately they forgot about the game play.

This 'game' is little more than a technical graphic demo at best.

I'm looking forward when iOS games have these graphics and game play.

That aside, it is fantastic what graphics the iPhone can push out.
 
haruhiko

haruhiko

macrumors 604
Sep 29, 2009
6,529
5,875
Stella said:
Great graphics for sure. Unfortunately they forgot about the game play.

This 'game' is little more than a technical graphic demo at best.

I'm looking forward when iOS games have these graphics and game play.

That aside, it is fantastic what graphics the iPhone can push out.
Click to expand...

If they further developed Epic Citadel to be an RPG game, it would've been fantastic. I always dreamed of wandering around in that beautiful city.
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,662
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
JAT said:
This is in no way a freemium game.
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No kidding. Sure, you can pay if you're lazy, but the game is just as playable--and, importantly, enjoyable--if you don't pay a penny past the purchase price, nor does it ever encourage you to do so.

In fact, even throwing huge wads of money at the screen isn't likely to get you that spectrum gem all that much more effectively than doing it the hard way.

Stella said:
Great graphics for sure. Unfortunately they forgot about the game play.

This 'game' is little more than a technical graphic demo at best.
Click to expand...
Really? Are you sure you just don't like fighting games?

No, it's not as nuanced as some, but I've been playing fighting games since the original Street Fighter II (no Turbo, no anything) back on the SNES, and Infinity Blade and II are two of the few that actually engaged me enough to get into. It has a simple control scheme (like the best of them--no ridiculously complex combo chains to memorize), but a fair amount of nuance and a nice little dose of plot overlaid on it.

II does a particularly good job of scaling the difficulty as you improve your own skill and equipment, and adding additional things for people who get really into it--the whole gem crafting thing, which doesn't really kick in until a few dozen rebirths, and I'm impressed how the enemies keep adding new moves to mess with what you've learned even in the level 400+ range. Its only weakness is occasional screwups detecting which direction you swiped, although II seems to be more forgiving (or accurate) than I.

Again, it's a fighting game, so of course it's repetitive--that's the nature of the beast. But I'd call it a good one, and not just because it's gorgeous.


haruhiko said:
If they further developed Epic Citadel to be an RPG game, it would've been fantastic. I always dreamed of wandering around in that beautiful city.
Click to expand...
I would play that game, too.
 
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