Apple Making Changes to the App Store
RondoRocket
Member Posts: 411
Only apps selected by Apple will now be seen on the App Store. No more new releases except for featured apps of the week. I believe this is specific to just the Games category to cut down on junk/clones.
Twitter:rondorocket
Web: rondorocket.com
Comments
BEST NEWS OF THE DAY!
www.appdore.com || appdore twitter || appdore facebook
@iamcartez I'm not sure how that is good news in any way. It's one (or more) less ways your app will ever appear on a list in iTunes.
I see this as more jack-booted thuggery on Apple's part. There quests to have ABSOLUTE POWER over what you - a consumer - can see and do with the device you pay for.
Those previous lists are gone and replaced with APPLE CURATED lists. So... YOU are to stupid to pick from a list. Now YOU may have a choice of what THEY show you.
How is this good?
Listed in the article. - "More importantly, the editorial sections mean those developers who build great games will be rewarded for doing so, instead of having to compete against an inscrutable algorithm."
As a browser of the app store I find this very annoying. As a developer, I'm undecided still.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
I agree @Armelline , I liked browsing through the new releases, seeing all the weird and wonderful stuff that gets produced.
As a developer we are really only losing out on the short window of hapchance discoverability after release. Keywords, marketing efforts and review sites stay as important as ever.
I don't see it as too serious, although it hurts only the serious indies with a limited marketing budget who relied on this extra bit of generic discoverability.
The big studio releases won't feel the effect, and the crappy titles, that this is supposed to hide, will get thrown on the market irrespective.
MESSAGING, X-PLATFORM LEADERBOARDS, OFFLINE-TIMER, ANALYTICS and BACK-END CONTROL for your GameSalad projects
www.APPFORMATIVE.com
Ah... but WHO does the editorial section. It's a bit short sighted and naive of the author to believe that great games will be rewarded.
The truth is, it means FAR, FAR, FAR fewer games will get noticed because the editorial people have to first FIND a new indie game... and that means buzz... or paying them off... or just something that happens to catch their eye out of the 1.2 million apps in the iTunes store.
It's predicated on the old fallacy that if you build it... they will come.
99.999999999999999999999% of the time, they will not come. You must literally lead them by the nose and even then they will not come.
What this really does is eliminate any boost you get from the what's new and other sections and replaces it with a 1 in 1.2 million lottery.
Sounds like another small but good move in the right direction.
Apple.
Why do you say that ? What mechanism do you foresee that would negate this idea ?
I don't think Indie games would (or should) get preferential treatment, rather that good games - regardless of whether indie or not - should be recognised regardless - free from the App market distortions of algorithmic manipulation.
That about sums it up for me.
I'm going to miss being able to go into specific sub categories and browse new releases. Once in a while you come across little gems. The good news is if they only make these changes to the US store than it's easy enough to switch to another country and browse away.
Twitter:rondorocket
Web: rondorocket.com
thanks for sharing
My Apps
https://itunes.apple.com/de/artist/david-zobrist/id733552276
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=David+Zobrist&hl=de
OMG THAT IS AMAZING!!! I was hoping for such a long time that they would make changes like these to the store.thanks for sharing
A step towards more quality games.
The reason why it's amazing? It will drive developers to create better games. I'm sure apple will select your game if it's really good. If not, you can still market your app like you used to do it. If a blogger writes about your game, people will still see it.
Before this, developers where able to create a clone, or a !@#$% game, pump $2000+ in an ad service and you might appear in the top, which is not fair. So if they had a great budget, they never lost. If apple can filter out those developers, the once that are not artistic, nor they actually love the creation games, but basically being smart, make something crappy and steel the money that's actually meant for the developers who do care about their games. That would be amazing.
Developers should also start asking for money instead of making everything freemium. because believe it or not, the freemium games killed the marked of great mobile games. Once in a while you see brilliant games like Monument Valley or Alto's Adventure, but in my opinion we should see these types of great games way more often. I think most of the good developers, moved on to console or PC (steam) where people are actually willing to pay for games.
Exactly. Once again, we are being force feed what THEY think we should see, not necessarily what we want to see. I hate the philosophy that someone else thinks they know what's best for me.
I say this because it is true. It's like me saying there is gravity. Fact. Maybe because I've been around longer than most people on this forum. You have to read between the lines and see what this is all about. It's about APPLE CONTROLLING WHAT YOU SEE. Basically we've traded many manipulators for one manipulator.
I'm not saying they WILL get preferential treatment. Quite the opposite. Take a look at the book review section of any major newspaper or major website. What are the books getting reviewed? Are they the indie books? No. They're best sellers. You RARELY, RARELY see any new, upcoming authors reviewed. They stick with the people that have buzz around their names because in order for an editor to write about something or add it to a curated list, they have to KNOW about it... to know about it, they have to find it. How do we find new games? Mostly through advertising and then word of mouth.
So, that means more of the mainstream games and less of the indie games. Whereas before, we had an equal chance to be noticed with everyone else in the what's new... now, as I stated... it's a lottery.
So if you like LESS... less ways to get noticed, less chance of getting noticed...then this is a positive move for you. If you like MORE... more work for you to get noticed, more money you have to spend to get noticed... then this is a positive move for you.
@ookami007 I feel the people who complain are the ones who make clones or poor quality games. Apple has simple re-structured how THIER consumers see THIER products. Instead of showing all these indie clones of flappy bird or any new trending game, they can show what THEY believe has quality or offers something unique or might be interested in. Its just another way to filter out the junk even more and I fully support it. And if this means having more control than so it goes.
@Bad wolf Guy I agree, I remember back in the day when pretty much all mobile games were awesome. I think this was because developers actually cared about what they were creating. Nowadays pretty much everyone can create games, which is a good thing! But I don't blame apple for finally taking the next step to cut the crap.
What exactly do you mean by more money? If you mean advertising, it will not be more profitable if I understood the article correctly. Because it will not give you organic downloads after the campaign. This is exactly why apple is doing this, by giving quality games more priority;)
Quality of games will have sod all to do with things. If you are a big name publisher or have had a very successful game in the past, you'll get featured, even if your game is crap. Why? Because people will download it and Apple will make money.
Games with iAds and IAP will get more exposure than ones with other ad services.
Apple will, as always, push their own agenda for their own benefit.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
So would cheezy looking games like Doodle Jump, Flappy Bird, Three Points make it with these new rules? Does someone play them and say "oh I like this...let's bump this one up"?
I guess slots games, platformers, Jump games...games that play just like games already on the App Store will just...go away?
I bet there's one game type that won't go away...these "game of Thrones", "Game of War"
Type games that milk you for money...the ones that make Apple the most money will go straight to the top...because it makes Apple money.
Free apps with only ads and no IAP will have no need to even publish anymore.
I'm not sure it will really make a difference to me...every thing I have made disappears 3 days after release anyways...I'm just not a good enough developer...regardless of funding.
Complete Guide to iOS Publishing {} Complete Guide to Mac Publishing
What I really wish is Apple would enforce some standards on the categories games say they're in. Top 10 free Board games (here at least):
6/10 games in the top ten are clearly NOT board games. It's true of every category. Apple let this rubbish slide far too much.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
Sorry, but that is incorrect. Spending money on advertising will now be the only way to get results. Organic results include things like... people finding your game based on keywords, genre, etc. and search results... AND.... top lists/new lists... you just took away the top lists/new lists... so that means less ORGANIC results.
Advertising is not organic. It's ... advertising. You pay to put your stuff in someone's face and if the advertisement (not the game) looks appealing, then they MAY click.
Exactly my point
If you can't get organic downloads after the advertisement campaign, its kind of pointless don't you think?
To be honest, most games I see in the advertisements are really really bad, or they are clash of clan's types of games. If you really think you have a great game, or something you're incredibly proud of, go to PAX, get in touch with bloggers and vloggers, make a trailer, post it everywhere! because if it's good, people will find it. If you read about indie success stories, most of them got their success for free, not by paying for advertisements.
However, I do understand why some developers will not like apple's move.
That's been my point the entire time. Basically, it's like Google just said that they will show you the curated results for any of your searches, rather than actual search results... and people think that's a good thing.
It's their store and they can do what they wish.
I'm sure companies complain how their products are placed at Walmart.
Apple like Walmart will do what ever they like to maximize profits.
That's about it.
I do agree on that statement. Apple is all in for the money, which can be a downside with this new change. But I'm sure there might be some more changes in the near future to keep most people happy. Maybe even a new store when iOS 9 comes out;)
this is a great move to be honest! people will strive to make better games, also I expect most of my downloads to be from youtube links and twitter social stuff so im not worried! games only really get featured after they've hit a big download stream anyways unless a tester really likes your game. social media and word of mouth is all we can hope for in this day and age, get creative with your advertising guys and lets stop making flappy bird 2!
Well argued.
Lol
I blame the NWO
Sucks to be a consumer though. I'd say 60% of the games I play are small ones that would never be featured, wouldn't be considered "great" games but just appeal to me. They're fun to play even if they're not flashy enough to get featured. I want to see everything, not just what Apple deem worthy. It's already extremely difficult to find interesting new things on the App Store, and this is only going to make it harder.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support