So, if you were thinking about publishing...

Photics

You might want to forget about that. It seems the big companies are having another 99¢ blitz. I'm thinking they want a piece of that Verizon action.

I just picked up Street Fighter IV for 99¢. I remember when a game like this would be 50¢ just to play once. HA!

TouchTiltGames

I've been observing the App Store for gamers for a few years now and have noticed it certainly is in favor of the big guys. Two things I wish would happen:

1) Some kind of segregation for 'Hollywood' games and 'Indie' games

2) The Store remodelled so it doesn't encourage saturation; the way it's setup now, your game/app is in the limelight for a week to generate most of your revenue, then it's buried like Grandma. It needs a better browse functionality. Apple has created a system that forces us as Devs to constantly pump out new games in order to make any money off it which in turn has also morphed this ".99 cent" situation. Now.......they expect it to be free!!!

xyloFUN

@TouchTiltGames

you are bang on!

I was amazed of how messy the apple app store is.

Switching to another country is a crazy thing to do. Who wants to look at an alphabetically sorted list?

All in all, they could do a LOT better!

TouchTiltGames

It's always been messed and poorly planned. Seems like their attitude for it was 'trial by fire'.

Another example is when they brought games back to the top of the list when Dev's simply updated their app lol.

Photics

TouchTiltGames said:
Another example is when they brought games back to the top of the list when Dev's simply updated their app lol.

The Android Market handles this well. (At least, it did when I last check. I haven't published any Android Apps recently.) If you update your app right away, it doesn't bounce to the top. But if it's been a few weeks, and then you update, then it bounces to the top again. That prevents spamming while giving developers an incentive to update their apps.

Without any incentive to update iOS apps, it's like you should only release sequels.

Although, what Capcom pulled off was pretty slick. Their price drop to 99¢ was enough to trigger a resurgence. The app climbed to the #2 spot, just below Angry Birds. A lot of players are annoyed that they paid $10 and now others got the app for 99¢. Capcom currently lists the app at $4.99 — just in time for all those weekend Verizon shoppers.

With the touch-screen controls, and low-res graphics, it's probably one of the worst versions of Street Fighter that I've seen, but at 99¢ it's an OK game.

joshmiller602

TouchTiltGames said:
Another example is when they brought games back to the top of the list when Dev's simply updated their app lol.

I think they are worried about spamming. But while they are reviewing, they can determine whether or not there are enough changes to merit a relisting (at the top), etc.

What would probably work best is if they had a "Recently Updated" list.

-Josh

quantumsheep

TouchTiltGames said:
I've been observing the App Store for gamers for a few years now and have noticed it certainly is in favor of the big guys. Two things I wish would happen:

1) Some kind of segregation for 'Hollywood' games and 'Indie' games

2) The Store remodelled so it doesn't encourage saturation; the way it's setup now, your game/app is in the limelight for a week to generate most of your revenue, then it's buried like Grandma. It needs a better browse functionality. Apple has created a system that forces us as Devs to constantly pump out new games in order to make any money off it which in turn has also morphed this ".99 cent" situation. Now.......they expect it to be free!!!

I don't agree with your first point. I never look in the indie section on Xbox Live, for example - indeed, I don't even know where it is, and I'm predisposed to look there!

I agree that there needs to be a better way to browse the app store though!

QS

scitunes

Yeah, if we got stuck in an indie section it would be the nail in the coffin. I love the idea of having a certain time period after which you can update to bump your app to the top. It would be nice if apple could have a way to scan the app's code and look for differences between the current version and the update binary. If the difference is greater than some value bump it to the top if not keep it where it is in the new release dating system.