Red Bit Escape...

TouchiMedia

So refreshed my App Store top 10 Free list this morning..

What do you know, a Red Bit game called Red Bit Escape magically makes it to ranking #2.

It was released March 10th --- and I checked morning of March 11th, and it had got 950 ratings (almost all 5 stars) and 210,000 downloads. It wasn't featured, checked all my major iOS review sites, no coverage.. no advertising.

Anyone else find this a little shady? I can understand over time (months or weeks) .. but this literally happened within 24 hours of release.

What are they doing that's so different from the thousands of Apps.. is it ASO's (lol...?) - the game itself, really isn't special. I played many gamesalad games that were as good or better.

Another App store miracle.. or something else...

Heck when you play, your finger hides half the screen, any non bot would not rate this poor design

tatiang

I think this sort of thing is old news by now and I'm tempted to close this thread but won't since I don't really have a good reason to. We as a community have been down this road before and either there's righteous anger at the injustice or gossip and rumors. Either way, it doesn't tend to accomplish much.

TouchiMedia

Well I didn't know sorry, you can close it.

Just curious how's it possible and why apple lets these things go.

But apparently no one knows or cares tho it affects every apple indie developer...so close the thread

And FYI - the more attention it gets, maybe apple will be more willing to do something or share more info on how it's being done.

After all, we deserve a fair chance but if a lot of companies find illegitimate ways to rocket to the top, makes it more and more difficult for indie developers to gain any ground.

But whatever.

DigiChain

Actually, Red Bit have had two very successful free games recently - Splashy Fish and Jumpy Jack, so they've already got a very big following. They sent out push notifications to announce this one.

Also, they've got over 365,000 likes on their Facebook page - so seems legit to me.

Armelline

http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/04/how-96000-can-buy-you-a-top-10-ranking-in-the-u-s-app-store/

jigglybean

Given the power of social media, it just takes a tweet or video from someone who has a mass following to generate huge interest - just look at Flappy Bird and pewpewdue on youtube.

It makes no sense for someone to buy their own app to try and generate organic installs.

TouchiMedia

I thinks that's over estimating.. 950 ratings in less then 12 hours.

Whatever I'm done thinking about it , just doesn't make any sense. Even with a massive following, which if you check their website isn't true and I can't find a Facebook anywhere for them.

DigiChain

Facebook (365,000 likes) - https://www.facebook.com/redBitgames?fref=ts

TouchiMedia

Oh I see ok then, I couldn't find when I searched

Pleas lock I didn't know of their Facebook and apparent huge following.

Guess the key is large following and ' push notifications ' to advertise releases.

Well that answers my questions, thanks

Armelline

Looks they make the iOS version of Cookie Clicker, so that explains a lot.

quantumsheep

@DigiChain said:
Facebook (365,000 likes) - https://www.facebook.com/redBitgames?fref=ts

I never read too much into stuff like facebook/twitter numbers as followers can be 'bought'

There's at least 1 GS member that has over 12k followers having tweeted a total of 12 times and followed 30 people for example.

QS

Thunder_Child

Personally Im glad thread wasnt closed. Its bew to me and I liked reading what they have to say.

ShadowMoon

this game sucks. i have played similar games, but those games never reach to top 10 free game. Appstore is weird these days.

tatiang

If you want to read the last "omg how is this possible?!" thread, it's here: http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/63808/anyone-else-seen-the-giant-red-ball-app-on-apple/p1