In-game purchase?

plamen

Hey guys,
I wanna ask for some opinions and advice about In-game purchasing. What do you think about it? Is it good or bad. I red a lot of pros and cons, how it maximize the profits but frustrates the customers stuff like that. So any thoughts about it?

ar2rsawseen

Well the conversion rate for IAPs are probably much better. When you have freemium model, you must kind of force to download premium version inside your lite version, because you'll have lot's of lite downloads and less premium. And I think this forcing can frustrate even more.

But if using IAP your game is already free it'll have lots of downloads from start, and if IAP are greatly integrated not just buy new levels, but integrated in experience, etc. It'll be more seamless and with greater conversion rate.

And it is also easier with reviews, right now we are struggling cause we only have 50 codes per version, which means you can't really contact more than 50 review websites (in general number is even less, some sides require 2 or more promo codes), but here you'll have free version with IAP for some additions, which is not required for reviewing if you have thought it through.

We will still try fremium models on simple games, because it's easier. But would better concentrate on IAP for a long term projects

Mells

I think IAP are a good monetization strategy and some users really *want* IAP.
By integrating IAP (whether your app is paid or free) you can address to many different kind of players. There are those who want to finish the game without additional help, and those that really want to reach the end of the game by buying additional items (health, weapons).
Actually it's possible that you will frustrate the player if you don't give him the option to reach the end of your game.
Also, I have always been surprised by the number of people who really enjoy spending money to customize their character.

If you think about DVD's, I bought a lot of them a little bit more expensive than the basic price in order to have access to additional content, bonuses, etc...
If you can provide more value in your IAP, I'm all for it.

I remember when I was younger I couldn't finish Resident Evil because I have a "problem" : I don't like spending items that are not infinite. Give me a rocket launcher with a limited number of rockets and I'll never use it, only the gun (and *game over*).
If Resident Evil was available on the ipad, and a $1 or $2 IAP would upgrade my gun to a more powerful one (still infinite bullets), maybe I would buy it if I'm really stuck.

I would say : go for IAP.

Note : Maybe you were talking about providing a limited version of your game and ask the player to get the Full version through IAP, but I couldn't tell from your question?

plamen

@Mells Well i am interesting about general opinion on the subject. In my case i was thinking about using IAP for those players not patient enough to grind in-game money thru the levels and want to get most powerful weapons right away.

Mells

@plamen
In that case, I am 100% positive :
- those who want to have fun *now* will buy it
- those who will finish the game without any help will be even prouder. You can even display a message at the end telling them that they have achieved their mission without help, "congratulations".
Anything that can make people feel better about their experience with your game.

Mells

Hey @plamen
here is an article that might interest you : When a huge audience isn’t enough: how Punch Quest tweaked a free-to-play economy into profitability

Here’s a quick aside on morality. It turns out that no one truly cares about how nice you are with how your in-app purchases work. There are people that don’t mind IAP, and people that hate the very concept. In the second group, it doesn’t matter how nice you try to be, they’ll still hate it by loose association with games that use it in a predatory way. You’ll get no points for trying. We get occasional complaints - “IAP is evil” - about our games where you can pay 99 cents, one time, to get a functionally-useless hat. You really just may as well do whatever you personally believe is right.

unlying

Ads brings me more money then IAP. But when somebody buys something in my application i feel... i don't know, may be gratification... It shows that players like my application and he think that is ok to support me with iap. I'm using ads and iap together now.

thanhquan1512

It shows that players like my application and he think that is ok to support me with iap.

The best moment of all developers. +1 this

SinisterSoft

With the amount and ease of piracy on Android makes IAP very attractive on that platform. I'm going to try it next as paid doesn't seem to work on it based on sales of Bacteria, it might be the game though as it's a bit of an old-school style arcade game.

Hopefully a cross between Elite and StarRaiders will work with IAP (for ad removal and extra money/ship energy)...