'Freemium' iPhone Apps Growing as Successful Business Model

[spazzcat]

Have had some of the freemium issues with my four year old daughter but it's pretty easily solved. She doesn't have my password to do upgrades on the fly and if I determine it's something she really likes, I'll upgrade, if not, I won't. I think overall it's a good thing but it can certainly be abused. Hopefully, Apple is keeping a very close eye on the amount of times someone can be pimped within an app. The whole Farmville thing spending tons of $$ is ridiculous. Anyone that spends $49.99 for a batch of 'gems' so they can buy some more nebulous crap is a little bit crazy. But I guess if you have blow money like that, it's a free country--right? At least currently.....personally I like it because you can check the app out and upgrade without having so many steps........

How is it different from spend money on any other game, or going to the store and buying a game? Some people waste money buying things for online games, some people drink, some people smoke, etc....

I think you guys are missing the point--

It's not the ok, this is lite and I've liked it so in the app, I upgrade..

It's like oh, this app is cool but to get any further I have to buy more "coins" for 99 cents. Oh, ok now I've ran out of that or I need more potions so I have to buy more "coins" in order to progress...another .99.

Etc, etc.

This happens with games that I mentioned...GodFinger, Farm Story, City Story, etc.

Those games are the one that piss me off personally.

I don't mind the other trial to paid in app purchases--those make sense...but it's only a one time thing. The others, in order to keep going--you've got to keep paying.

If people find entertainment in it, it's ok. If they didn't they wouldn't buy anything. It would only be wrong if they tricked you into buy stuff. And I don't see Apple allowing that....

 

[Žalgiris]

No one puts a gun to your head and makes you buy in-game content.

When i first bought it it was nice little game and now it just irritates me with all that crap.

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

If people find entertainment in it, it's ok. If they didn't they wouldn't buy anything. It would only be wrong if they tricked you into buy stuff. And I don't see Apple allowing that....

Right, I understand--

Personally, if I read the description and it sounds like one of "those games", I don't get it.

Or, if I start playing it and find out later that it is "freemium", then I delete it.

I just don't want to pay endlessly to pay a game.

 

[Žalgiris]

How is it different from spend money on any other game, or going to the store and buying a game? Some people waste money buying things for online games, some people drink, some people smoke, etc....

Not the case and not the same thing. I'm happy to pay for extra maps for iBomber 2, but paying for guns, ammo or seed to grow plants is ...

 

[shartypants]

Makes sense, its always good to kick the tires before you buy.

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

Yeah, I'd rather buy a Honda at a one time price that will serve me well

Instead of buying a Jalopy that will continually need new parts and cost me more in the long run

 

[goobot]

This is the biggest bull to come to the app store. Even payed apps have this bull in it.

 

[Žalgiris]

This is the biggest bull to come to the app store. Even payed apps have this bull in it.

I think many around here have no idea how serious this issue is.

 

[notjustjay]

It's like oh, this app is cool but to get any further I have to buy more "coins" for 99 cents. Oh, ok now I've ran out of that or I need more potions so I have to buy more "coins" in order to progress...another .99.

I don't like it either. But that's hardly new either. How many quarters and tokens have you fed to arcade machines in your lifetime?

I've also seen kids literally throw $20 bill after $20 bill away at carnivals, trying to win that elusive giant stuffed teddy bear by tossing the hoop onto the bottle, or whatever.

And then there's casinos...

Personally I won't play apps like that, but each person is free to make their own choices. You might well call it capitalizing on greed and you might even be right, but as long as people are willing to pay and they consider it entertaining...

I do agree that there should be a means to ensure that people don't accidentally buy in-game content (or allow their kids to). The current iTunes password requirement is probably good enough for that.

 

[BergerFan]

To nickel and dime consumers, Ngmoco-style, is a greedy abuse of the freemium system.
The Capcom Arcade app, is doing it right, in my opinion, because:
The app is free.
You get 3 free credits/plays/continues each day.
If you like a particular game in the arcade, you make a one-off payment, and that game is yours, with no more payments to be made.

Freemium also eliminates piracy, because the pirated app, is free anyway.

 

[Žalgiris]

To nickel and dime consumers, Ngmoco-style, is a greedy abuse of the freemium system.
The Capcom Arcade app, is doing it right, in my opinion, because:
The app is free.
You get 3 free credits/plays/continues each day.
If you like a particular game in the arcade, you make a one-off payment, and that game is yours, with no more payments to be made.

Freemium also eliminates piracy, because the pirated app, is free anyway.

What i'm talking about. Everything else is abuse and just hunt for morons.

 

[benpatient]

are these in-game fees subject to Apple's 30% cut off the top?

If not, then I think we will see more and more devs do things like this where they can.

Think about it. A free game where you can "buy" the "good" weapons/characters/levels/tires/whatever might see 100,000 downloads, while the 4.99 version of the same game might see 5,000. If those items are cheap enough, and important enough, and the game is fun enough, then that gives the developer three things:

1. A bigger "fan base" a la Farmville, even if most users never buy anything
2. Competition-based encouragement to spend money, not just when you start playing the game, but for the entire life of the game
3. 100% of the profits, instead of 70%.

Again, I'm not sure if Apple takes a cut from these in-game purchases, or even if they have the ability to do so, but if not, this seems like a no-brainer.

For an example of a successful implementation of this strategy in a different environment, see Rock Band DLC songs. People spend 40-60 bucks for the game, and then every time a song is released as DLC that they want to play, they buy that for 1-2 dollars. I bought some DLC songs for RB2 a full year after I got the actual game. I think I ended up spending about $50 on DLC for that game, and I know of people who spent far, far more. There are guys out there will 1000+ DLC tracks. Think about that for a minute.

 

[charlituna]

No way in hell i'm paying for this scam.

Not all of them are scams. The same model can be used for providing a 'lite' experience v a paid one without requiring downloading a totally new app. And remember all those folks ditched for app spamming the store, particularly the photo of the week apps. THey could have been (and in Apple's eyes should have been) consolidated in one app and you could buy within the app the girls you wanted.

 

[dejo]

are these in-game fees subject to Apple's 30% cut off the top?

They are.

 

[Žalgiris]

Not all of them are scams. The same model can be used for providing a 'lite' experience v a paid one without requiring downloading a totally new app. And remember all those folks ditched for app spamming the store, particularly the photo of the week apps. THey could have been (and in Apple's eyes should have been) consolidated in one app and you could buy within the app the girls you wanted.

Yes not all i know.

 

[smorris]

Right, I understand--

Personally, if I read the description and it sounds like one of "those games", I don't get it.

Or, if I start playing it and find out later that it is "freemium", then I delete it.

I just don't want to pay endlessly to pay a game.

But you don't *have* to to continue playing in many of them. I am at or near the highest levels of We Rule, We Farm, and We City, and haven't spent one dime on the games. It is still fun, and there are plenty of free items to populate your world.

 

[stormsweeper]

It would only be wrong if they tricked you into buy stuff. And I don't see Apple allowing that....

The issue with the kids app above is that the phone caches your authorization temporarily. So if you downloaded an app for yourself and had to auth, then inside some time frame (15 minutes?) hand the phone off to someone else, that person can buy other stuff off your account. Classic physical security problem, but people don't think about it in regards to kids.

 

[nagromme]

People disagree about freemium apps because they don’t agree on what “freemium” means.

* If “freemium” means you download a lite, reduced or “demo“/“trial” app for free, then decide if you want to buy the full app, then that’s great! It’s the same as having two apps (lite and full) except more convenient: one app to find and download instead of two. Fine by me.

* If “freemium” means ongoing payments forever—either subscription, or in-game resources of some kind—then I’m probably not interested. BUT subscriptions for legitimate ongoing services are fair and reasonable, and some games that sell resources in-app are still also fun for those who don’t pay.

So I’m happy to pay once. Not as happy to pay repeatedly, but I will if the value is good. It all comes down to the details. (And good apps, like any good content, require time and money to make. They can’t always just be free.)

It’s not black and white, and it’s not a scam, and “freemium” means completely different things to different people.

(Re kids and in-app purchases: has Apple allowed that to be turned off in parental controls? I thought they had recently. They should! Maybe 4.2? That password-remember-time does call for a tweak for parents, but that’s not an issue you can blame developers for.)

 

[tigress666]

As for the topic, for some reason, i'd rather pay for a game outright and know that I have full functionality (with the OPTION to purchase additional things), than get a free game and HAVE to make a purchase for full functionality.

I fully agree here. I find it annoying if I have to pay extra to get more in game money or more in game items that have extra functionality. I think it is much more fun to have to earn those items in game, not just pay for it. Cheapens the game if you ask me. And I'm not talking about games that give you a taste for free and then if you want to play the full game you have to pay for it. I'm talking about the ones where they are free, you can play the "full" game without paying, but to get that extra shiney item or more points to buy that extra shiney item, you gotta spend money.

Most games that do this though are kinda cheesy crap I'd never pay for so I've never been sucked into it (the stuff you find on Facebook like Farmville and Mafia Wars). I'd play them for free as time wasters but they aren't worth spending money on (and honestly, I got bored with those type of games after the newness of Facebook wore off).

I just hope it doesn't become the model for all games. I know I read an article somewhere that complained how the model actually tends to make games less fun (because part of motivation on a lot of games is doing things to earn that new shiney weapon for example rather than just paying for it. And it makes it in multi player games that to be the uber warrior you just have to have money. It takes away the challenge that should be part of the game).

(let me say, I'm only putting my complaint for that style game. I have no objection with subscription style ones where you have to pay to play though I don't play those cause I don't have the kind of moeny to get addicted to that kind of game . I have a problem with you have to pay to get that shiney item or the game money to get that shiney item. I really do think that cheapens the game. You should have to play for the shiney item, that should be an in game motivator, not a give us money motivator).

 

[MacBookProAR]

People disagree about freemium apps because they don’t agree on what “freemium” means.

* If “freemium” means you download a lite, reduced or “demo“/“trial” app for free, then decide if you want to buy the full app, then that’s great! It’s the same as having two apps (lite and full) except more convenient: one app to find and download instead of two. Fine by me.

* If “freemium” means ongoing payments forever—either subscription, or in-game resources of some kind—then I’m probably not interested. BUT subscriptions for legitimate ongoing services are fair and reasonable, and some games that sell resources in-app are still also fun for those who don’t pay.

So I’m happy to pay once. Not as happy to pay repeatedly, but I will if the value is good. It all comes down to the details. (And good apps, like any good content, require time and money to make. They can’t always just be free.)

It’s not black and white, and it’s not a scam, and “freemium” means completely different things to different people.

(Re kids and in-app purchases: has Apple allowed that to be turned off in parental controls? I thought they had recently. They should! Maybe 4.2? That password-remember-time does call for a tweak for parents, but that’s not an issue you can blame developers for.)

I agree with you that less clutter is good with the lite-full in app purchase. The issue I have run into with that is that I play some games on my iPhone and some on my iPod touch. I don't want to have to pay that upgrade twice. I have been hit by this once already and tried every which way syncing to try and make it work, but I couldn't get the app on both of my devices in its "full" form.

 

[GenesisST]

The issue with the kids app above is that the phone caches your authorization temporarily. So if you downloaded an app for yourself and had to auth, then inside some time frame (15 minutes?) hand the phone off to someone else, that person can buy other stuff off your account. Classic physical security problem, but people don't think about it in regards to kids.

Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenting

 

[Brawnydt]

Freemium games or Free-To-Play games can be hugely awesome, the difficulty is balancing fun in game purchases with solid gameplay. In game purchases shouldn't be necessary to play or enjoy a game, but should offer fun additional features and enjoyment. It's a HUGELY successful (and ridiculously profitable) model in Asia, and it is slowly coming over here as we see more and more giant MMO games going F2P.

It works best with Micro Transactions like costume upgrades, additional game content (like level packs). Many developers are abusing this, either with ridiculous prices or improper in app purchases, and in turn ruining their games.

This is taking some time for the developers to figure out, and it's a delicate balance to strike.

There was a cool discussion on this over in the TouchArcade forums: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=71109

 

[ksgant]

I think some people here are missing the point---

It's not the ok, this is lite and I've liked it so in the app, I upgrade..

It's like oh, this app is cool but to get any further I have to buy more "coins" for 99 cents. Oh, ok now I've ran out of that or I need more potions so I have to buy more "coins" in order to progress...another .99.

Etc, etc.

This happens with games that I mentioned...GodFinger, Farm Story, City Story, etc.

Those games are the one that piss me off personally.

I don't mind the other trial to paid in app purchases--those make sense...but it's only a one time thing. The others, in order to keep going--you've got to keep paying.

So...um....don't keep paying? Sorry, not sure if you thought of that option or not. Yeah, it's probably so obvious you just totally missed that. Yes?

Look at it this way, when you get to the part of a game...any game...that wants you to pay something to keep going to the next level, pretend that you got to the end of the game. It's done. It's finished. You solved it. You can now safely delete the game from your iDevice and move on to something else.

Yes?

 

[fxtech]

How on earth is that bad parenting?

Is the parent supposed to watch over the kid's every move as they're playing a game on the iPod/iPhone? That's ridiculous.

Maybe not "bad" parenting but rather dumb parenting.

I don't know about most people's kids but if I gave my iPhone to one of my kids to play a game on within 5 minutes all of my mail would be deleted and they'd be talking with 911.

Frankly it's just dumb to give your personal electronic device to your kids, especially if it's a phone.

 

[scootaru]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Yeah, I'd rather buy a Honda at a one time price that will serve me well

Instead of buying a Jalopy that will continually need new parts and cost me more in the long run

I'm sure that Honda will serve you well...until you run out of gas that is.