App Release Date Question....

peachpellen

Ok, as I mentioned in my Halloween app thread I'm still unclear on something.

If I upload my Halloween app, for example, September 30th with a release date of October 30th and it is approved on October 15th, will it still show up as being a newly released game on October 30th when it first appears in the app store?

If anyone could let me know it would be good - I don't want to miss out on being in the newly released area, so if it seems I would I need to know so that I can aim to submit it at a date that will see it approved close to Halloween.

Thanks ^-^;
Peach.

hrsmedia

I tried this out with my last app. After apple approved it I set it to release a few days later.
It did sort of work for me. By sort of, I mean in some countries the release date was a day earlier and other countries it was the correct date I set. Hope this helps.

peachpellen

It does, thank you.

I don't suppose you can remember if it was the right day or a day earlier for the US, can you? That's what matters most to me as Halloween is a bigger deal there than most places.

hrsmedia

Yes I remember the US was the correct day.

peachpellen

That's good, thank you

Photics

From my experience, it seems that your plan will lead to failure... two issues...

1) If your app is approved today, but the release date is next week, your app is technically published already... only sitting in limbo. So, when your app is finally available, it won't appear on the top of the "New Releases" list.

2) Why release a game for Halloween on the day before Halloween? I'm seeing halloween decorations already. If you release it just before Halloween, that's only 1-2 days people will be interested in the game.

Apple may manually select some Halloween apps to highlight. Perhaps that's why you might want to generate some interest in it right now... to get people excited about your app... so Apple realizes it's an app to feature. You might even want to write in your note section to Apple - that your app is a Halloween app.

If it was me making a Halloween app, I'd release it around October 15. (I'd send it to Apple on October 6-7.) I'd tell Apple that it's a Halloween app... and then I'd promote it like crazy until it was featured... which should happen in the 20's. From there, enjoy the success of the App until Halloween passes.

I don't like Halloween though, so I'm not making a Halloween app.

expired_012

Yup, photics is right. If its accepted one day and you set the release date to a week later, when its released it will show the date that apple accepted it as its release date. Not only that, but it will be on the bottom of the new releases page.

So right when apple accepts it, try to set the release date to that date. Submit it around 10 days before Halloween because thats the general time of a review process...

peachpellen

Photics said:
From my experience, it seems that your plan will lead to failure... two issues...

1) If your app is approved today, but the release date is next week, your app is technically published already... only sitting in limbo. So, when your app is finally available, it won't appear on the top of the "New Releases" list.

2) Why release a game for Halloween on the day before Halloween? I'm seeing halloween decorations already. If you release it just before Halloween, that's only 1-2 days people will be interested in the game.

Apple may manually select some Halloween apps to highlight. Perhaps that's why you might want to generate some interest in it right now... to get people excited about your app... so Apple realizes it's an app to feature. You might even want to write in your note section to Apple - that your app is a Halloween app.

If it was me making a Halloween app, I'd release it around October 15. (I'd send it to Apple on October 6-7.) I'd tell Apple that it's a Halloween app... and then I'd promote it like crazy until it was featured... which should happen in the 20's. From there, enjoy the success of the App until Halloween passes.

I don't like Halloween though, so I'm not making a Halloween app.

Thanks - After reading my Halloween thread I did reconsider the release date, I'm now thinking mid October as you suggested

hrsmedia

artonskyblue said:
Yup, photics is right. If its accepted one day and you set the release date to a week later, when its released it will show the date that apple accepted it as its release date. Not only that, but it will be on the bottom of the new releases page.

So right when apple accepts it, try to set the release date to that date. Submit it around 10 days before Halloween because thats the general time of a review process...

As I said above, I set my last app to release a few days after apple approved it and it did appear in the new releases for the date I set.

Maybe it doesn't work if you set the date before apple approves it?

victorkin11

Hi! I have another Release Date Question.

what if apple approved date is later then my release date?
when my app available, will it appear on the "New Releases" list?

expired_012

@victor, yes it will appear in the new release date page. It used to be that if your release date was before apple accepted it, they still kept your release date as te day you chose for release, even though it was never actually on the app store. They changed that now, so it's even better to have a release date before it's accepted, so you know that it will immediately go live when they accept it. You don't have to worry about not being home on time to change the release date to that current date.

8BitMichael

victorkin11 said:
Hi! I have another Release Date Question.

what if apple approved date is later then my release date?
when my app available, will it appear on the "New Releases" list?

Yes. The release date will be the day it was approved.

Edit: Darn it arton, you beat me to it.

victorkin11

@artonskyblue
@MDearworth

Thanks!
I'm just worried about I set my release date too early!