Many of the reviews (and my first impression) were "Oh. It's a flash game", which I'm habitually used to paying nothing for on Newsgrounds or Kongregate or wherever.
Given the number of people who are playing vs. the number buying I wonder if you might generate more revenue from advertising than from straight app sales.
That's a good point; we've thought about it. As a knee-jerk reaction, the idea doesn't sit well with us because it's a less-than-ideal experience. Users don't want to sit through or be saturated with ads, but I guess it does come with the "web-based game" territory.
Have a look into http://flashgamelicense.com if you haven't already. If you have a quality game, you can actually end up with a bit of a bidding war going on between potential licensees, and most deals allow you to sell again to other sites after an exclusivity period. Each of our Pretender games so far (http://launchingpadgames.com/games/the-pretender-trilogy/) has earned in the high four-figures, with zero in-game advertising except for fairly tasteful co-branding from the sponsoring sites.
I guess I don't really see it as an either/or scenario. Why not leave the app on Chrome app store and also put it into circulation on Kongregate or wherever?
Given the number of people who are playing vs. the number buying I wonder if you might generate more revenue from advertising than from straight app sales.