[smartician]

So their first game sold for $2.99 up front and earned them $20k-$40k for two years. I would call that successful. Then, for their second game, instead of sticking to what works, they made the decision to switch to a freemium model, and made the mistake of making the "free" mode too good, and neglected to advertise in-game that there even is a premium version to unlock. Many lessons to be learned here, but rather stunning that they weren't able to fix this much earlier, before becoming homeless.

[slantyyz]

>> So their first game sold for $2.99 up front and earned them $20k-$40k for two years. I would call that successful.

Depends on the context, especially considering the opportunity costs of having a higher paid job.

The problem is that everyone thinks that you have to price games low to sell them. I regularly pay more than $5 for iPhone/iPad games if I know they're good. Hell, after years of paying through the nose for handheld console cartridges, even $15 is cheap to me.

[smartician]

I fully agree with you there. It just makes the decision to sell their new game as free with IAP even more questionable. They should have just sold the new game for $4.99 up front. Even if only a fraction of the people who installed the free game would have bought it, they'd still have most likely made tens of thousands of dollars in a week. If it hadn't sold at all, THEN I would have started thinking about a freemium model.

[slantyyz]

>> They should have just sold the new game for $4.99 up front.

Yes. I think the tough part when you have a higher priced game is getting the word out there and getting written up in some major blogs.

Personally I consider $1 or $2 games to be disposable. It's not much of a loss if they suck. Once you go into higher price points, I base my purchase decision on name recognition/reputation or word-of-mouth.