9 Downloads on release day, 7 on second day, 5 on third day.

Is it getting ridiculous or do my games really suck!
Games used to get thousands of downloads on the release day, wether it's an awesome game or a trashy one, a day type of game!
Things gotten tighter and more developers got into the game of developing. So it went to few hundreds.

Now after few years of developing for IOS, it gotten too crowded in the App Store.
A new release does not even stand a change to be seen for few minutes, so it get picked up and downloaded by, well a number my two years old can count and he is not a genius.

Is Apple going to do anything about this?
Are we going to do anything about this?

Or, is it time to quit?

 

No. They can't make every game sell well.

Advertise and make quality games.

 

Did you market at all? Did you post anything other than on release day? How long did you spend on making the game? Just releasing a game and thinking it's going to make a bunch of money is a bigger long shot than winning the lottery. Your number one reason why you got low downloads is 100% based on no marketing though. Trust me, we released our first game with about a week of marketing and got around 200 downloads, the second game we spent a month marketing and got around 3000 downloads. Just go and start talking about on anything and everything.

 

It's not about making money. I have been making games since the start of iPhones and i know this. I am specifically talking about downloads.
So not talking about the game selling, nor am i talking about the game being good or bad.

Because downloads decide if the game will make money or not, but if your game is top notch, it still will not make money if there is no downloads.
Apple is taking that 30% to do the job for you. They have the clients, and you have the product.
All of a sudden, the table has turned. Now you have the product, you do all the work to get clients to notice you and pay bunch of money that might not come back and Apple sets and collects 30% at the end.

This was not the deal at all.
30% for all work and you provide the product. If people like it, you make money, if not, then you don't. But i want my downloads.

If i have to spend money to market my game, then what is the use of Apple and why do they take 30% of profit.
If i have to advertise with iAds or other advertising agents out there, then what is the use of Apple taking that 30%.

I think, Apple should allow us to sell out games else where. Or they should do something about it.

 

Apple takes 30% for the ability to sell on their app store. It has nothing to do with marketing (though that is a plus), it is about making it easier for the customers to buy/install your app. Same deal with Steam and just about everything else.

Apple doesn't stop you from selling your games on other stores at the same time.

 

The App Store is really about controlling the software market on their devices and collecting a 30% processing as a result. Its certainly not better for me as a developer to sell something through the app store, and in many cases, its worse (due to poor rankings, expensive marketing, and bad search functionality). The only 'easy' part for customers is that they have a single company to deal with when it comes to paying for an apps (which makes it easier for Apple to get them on the impulse buy). With a few exceptions, the App Store nowadays mostly caters to a very small number of heavy advertisers (see http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspe...minated-by-a-handful-of-games-and-developers/)

Don't want to start a flame war, but I disagree with this. Can you explain what you mean? To my knowledge, you can ONLY sell IOS apps on the app store (unless you're referring to Cydia - which only applies to that percentage of the IOS customer base who are willing to jailbreak their phones - a group that also tends to 'try before they buy' anything on the App Store).

 

Then don't sell your games on iOS. If developers don't make anything for the app store, Apple will have to change something.

Yes, this is what I said. You are giving away some of your revenue for their ease of use.

I was referencing Android, Windows Phone, Steam, etc

 

No you can't sell your IOS app anywhere else. You could make an android version of it and sell it, but that's not selling an IOS game, that's selling an android game.
If Apple can't make their part of the deal that we signed up for years ago. Then they should allow the selling of IOS apps else where, other than the App Store.

 

Let's direct our talk as developers and not as users. So we are talking about Apple's role toward developers.
We used to make games, then people see it for a week to two weeks on the App store. If your game is good, then it get's ranked higher and higher and makes money. If your game is not, then it goes to what's called the App Grave Yard.

But, with Apple getting more and more greedy and with the increasing number of developers that get into IOS App making. Now your app still appears in the new games category, which is normal. However what's not normal, is that it goes directly to the App Grave Yard. Thus it does not get a chance to be seen not even for one hour now a days.

Is this fair to us?

That's the question.

I understand that buying a lottery ticket get's you a slim chance to win the lottery, but lottery ticket is cheap, and very easy to get. However making a game and spending so much resources for months. Then comparing this to buying a lottery ticket. I think people that think this way are under estimating themselves thus giving the chance to Apple to do what they please.

I think there should be some steps that Apple should take to limit this effect.

1- Since the start of IOS developing. Apple was begging for developers. After a while they got a good number of them. I think they should have stopped there and thus after only accepting well known studios. But instead they still accepting developers with huge numbers everyday.

2- Developers with below certain line of quality Apps. Should get their membership revoked. (yes including me).

3- App Store should be cleaned of those Spam Apps, Junk Apps and such.

This is what i could think of right now.

Now how could we get this to Apple and actually get them to do anything about it.
Well, through out the history of mankind. We know that power could only be fought with power. So if we can't get together and form some kind of entity. We will not be able to do anything. And i mean a legal entity, that we can sign up to it from all around the world and be formed in California and be managed by someone that reside there.

 

I never said anything about selling your iOS apps elsewhere, I said sell your games elsewhere.

Again, you should not be depending on Apple to market your product for you.

Yes, I believe so. It may have been a bit better before, but that doesn't mean that it isn't good now. I, as a developer, appreciate iOS as it makes it incredibly easy for people to download games after they learn about them.

Don't make it a lottery. Market your product.

Apple won't want to remove low quality apps, as they inflate their app numbers to improve their marketing.

You don't need to form any sort of legal identity. All you need to do is get a bunch of high profile studios to pull out of iOS. Once Apple notices their store losing out on high quality games they'll make changes but good luck with that because iOS is where most mobile developers make their money.


If you think that visibility on iOS is a problem, you must hate Android.

 

They are changing both the App Store and Google Play in about a month or so, then I hope there will be some gains.

 

Do you not realize and many developers don't these days - how many under the table deals are done with big companies and apple. The more money you have no matter if your game is excellent or crap, u can trick peoples minds to downloading and buying, great example is candy crush, they keep feeding u this game by mass adverts/tv adverts, fake ratings - im surprised no one has puked up yet?? - there hundreds of better games out there, just because they big corporation they get away with it.

Apple do not care, simples - as long as money is being made, why heck do they need care about your needs

 

While I agree that candy crush isn't great, the fact is a lot of people play it and continue to buy in app purchases. I know several people who play it everyday and have for awhile. They have spent a bunch of money in advertising and more than likely had several accounts for fake ratings, but to say they are paying off apple is just incorrect. While they may be giving money to apple, the facts are we don't know. The app store can almost regulate itself. You cannot trick people into downloading an app unless you say, "download this app and get free money" then I would argue they did. The fact is for every one person who wants an actual game experience on iOS there are twenty people who want free to play, timers and other walls to get you to pay "gamers".

How to make money in the app store:
1. Come up with a good idea
2. Remove all the good features from your good idea, and make each feature something you have to pay for
3. Put a timer in your game for no reason other than to get people to stop playing your game for hours until there lives regain
4. Always remind the player to rate your game
5. Always remind the player to refill their lives now
6. NEVER put feature in your game that would unlock all the content for one simple price
7. Sell your soul

 

Well they are paying off Apple but by proxy as Apple gets a chunk of IAPs.

 

It's not about who is right and who is wrong. That's not my point.
We are just talking about facts and a situation at hand.

You seem to miss the point in many aspects.

The thing is i am not trying to deal with something wrong by adjusting my way and what i should and should not do, rather i should fix the wrong to be correct. Do you get it???

Seems that you try to go around the wrong situation by making extra efforts that you not suppose to do!

 

i do agree with your point.
But should we just set and watch?

I am in on this and i want to see how many can we get. I will even go more step and make a new domain to gather more people. Because what you mentioned is just another big concern.

Big companies have the money to pore into advertising, they do get the money back because their games are favoured everywhere on the App Store, thus they are downloaded by the millions and of course most in app purchases are going toward their games.

And when i say they pore money, i don't mean by the thousands, i mean by tens of thousands. Because i myself tried to put few thousands into advertising and it was a complete waste! nothing, none, Zero!
If you don't pore the money into advertising and i mean tens of thousands to compete with big companies, you will be just blowing into thin air!

 

By the way, the votes on this forum do not reflect the real case, just so you know.
Many big studio employees come to this forum, plus God knows who else that it's not in his best benefit for this thread to see the light!

 

The fact is that we need to market our games no matter the platform.

It sounds to me like you want Apple to take care of the marketing for you, which is not what their store is about.

First of all, I don't believe the situation is "wrong", it's just a little different than it used to be (more apps = more work for exposure). At some point, the scale will tip and the marketing costs will outweigh the revenue and something will need to change to keep developers involved.

Second, I don't understand how marketing is something we are not supposed to do!


If you can get Apple to do something that will improve revenue on their App Store, I'm all for it. Personally though, I don't think there is a problem quite yet.