

A $5 app isn't expensive: Customers need to help fix the App Store economy - gspyrou
http://www.macworld.com/article/2032847/a-5-app-isnt-expensive-customers-need-to-help-fix-the-app-store-economy.html

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Terretta
I sometimes purchase $5 - $10 games _just because they do not have in-app
purchases_ , as support for letting me pay for the game outright instead of
Zyngafying it.

I especially love to give the author money when the game is great and they
offer you a demo version!

For example, check out Thomas Zighem's incredible Genesia, a Populous + Civ
style 4X strategy game, for which he offers a free "Lite" version and a dirt
cheap pay version, with no in app purchases. It's an incredible game on the
iPad, based on his circa '92 Amiga 500 game:

Review:
[http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Numb...](http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=41914)

Indie developer's site: <http://www.genesia-game.com/en/>

App store: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/genesia-for-ipad-
the-7-gems/i...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/genesia-for-ipad-
the-7-gems/id455692368?mt=8)

(I found this game by browsing the Strategy section and systematically looking
at games over $5.)

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nmcfarl
I think this is a correct title but an incorrect subtitle.

The problem with spending five dollars on an app for me isn't that it isn't
expensive, but rather I've paid five dollars for apps that opened once found
to be unusable and never opened again. And I've done it over and over again…

And that's the problem freemium solves in the app store: it's a way of giving
me a free trial to see if this app does what I need it to do, before I have to
pay. It lets me separate out the lemons from the good stuff.

~~~
Terretta
That's not what Freemium does _at all_. Look at the games list, and you'll see
the Top Grossing are also the top Free. That's a problem. Many of them cannot
be enjoyed without paying. Clash of Clans, for example, cannot be played w/o
getting attacked unless you spend actual cash to get gems to get a "Shield" to
keep from being attacked, and you cannot compete with good players unless you
pay cash for gems to speed up building and troops. The top players are
spending $2500 a month.

A more reasonable model is a Lite version and a Full version, or a combined
lite and full with the in-app purchase to unlock the full. However, this model
is a problem if the app is ever pulled, because each time you re-install you
need to re-unlock, and may not be able to. I strongly prefer to delete the
Lite version and install the Full version that I never have to unlock.

------
Blinkky
I absolutely hate this idea. It's supply and demand, make an app that's
amazingly better then anything else on the market and charge more for it. The
fact that developers constantly re-skin games/apps and then cry that the app
store is ruined because of saturation is bs. If customers are not buying an
app that's $5, its not worth $5, no matter how much value you "think" it has.

~~~
Terretta
What idea do you hate? The article conclusion is:

> _Spending money on great apps means not only do you get great apps now, but
> you’re also essentially investing in great apps later. Let’s fix the App
> Store economy, and let’s start by paying for apps without shuddering at $4
> price tags._

He didn't say pay $4 for crap. He said "great apps".

(See my Genesia example elsewhere in this thread, which most customers will
never discover because it's not in the top 20, not promoted by Apple ... and
not free to rank for downloads with in-app purchases to drain your wallet if
you dare trying to play it.)

