Much Ado About In-App Purchases and Arcades

Drew Crawford, over at Sealed Abstract:

See, in the in-app purchase model actually predates phones. It predates video game consoles. It goes all the way back to the arcade, where millions of consumers were happy to pay a whole quarter ($0.89 in 2013 dollars) to pay for just a few minutes. The entire video games industry comes from this model. Kids these days.

Crawford's post was in response to an article by Thomas Baekdal about in-app purchases destroying the gaming industry with the latest example being Electronic Arts' (EA) butchering of the classic videogame Dungeon Keeper. (Both Crawford's post and the original post are worth reading, and I think it is especially valuable to view a few minutes of the two videos in the original post.)

I've written about freemium as a damaging force in modern game design, so my opinion on the original Baekdal post should come as no surprise. I do appreciate Crawford's post for its content on modern app economics and Crawford's musings on potential developer strategies for navigating the various issues with app-based businesses.

However, where Crawford's post goes off the rails is the segment (highlighted by the quote above) attempting to relate today's in-app purchasing model with the arcade model of yesteryear.

The two models could not be more different.

The only similarity to be found, if you squint really hard, is in the vague notion of paying for an amount of gameplay time. The critical difference--and this is at the heart of the problem with modern freemium design--is that the in-app purchasing model has nothing to do with player skill.

Think about those old arcade games. Pac-Man. Galaga. Street Fighter 2. All of those games could be played and conquered with a single quarter if the player was skilled enough. The amount of money that a player had to pay was directly tied to his or her own skill level. By comparison, no amount of skill is going to help you acquire those Smurfberries any faster. Only cold, hard (digital!) cash will suffice.

Even the worst 'quarter munchers' like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Simpsons arcade games had an element of skill involved. Nothing was quite as sweet as seeing how far you could get on a single quarter.

Admittedly, racing games generally fell into the 'pay more play more' model, but that was often mitigated by the game having a 'winner gets to race again without paying' feature.

Folks, claiming that yesterday's arcade business model is essentially the same as today's in-app purchase business model is akin to saying that receiving a high five is essentially the same as getting a slap to the face. I don't think I have to tell you which one is fun and which one hurts.

Quoth the Flappy Bird, 'Nevermore'

Flappy Bird, the latest iOS casual game breakout hit, has been pulled from the App Store by creator Dong Nguyen. Flappy Bird, for the few people who somehow avoided the hype, was a simple game where players tap the screen to make a bird fly over pipes that block their path. The game was renowned for its simplicity and frustrating difficulty. Players were apparently engaged enough to keep playing the game and also interested enough to tell their friends to play (ultimately resulting in the app hitting #1 in the App Store). It was reported that Dong Nguyen was pulling in $50,000 per day in advertising revenue for the game before the app was removed from the store.

Why would an indie developer pull such a successful game from the App Store?

Watching this story unfold online was a sad commentary on Internet culture and the human capacity for envy. For example:

Perhaps the worst part of this whole story is the hatred that Nguyen received from other indie developers. Time and time again, presumably jealous developers were attacking Nguyen from every angle:

• 'This game is crap that could be created in a weekend!'
• 'I spent 2.5 years on my game, and it hasn't had this level of success. Unfair!'
• 'Must be a scam. This game has been in the store for months and suddenly hits #1? Must be paying for downloads!'

Of course, now that Flappy Bird has been successful there are now a bazillion clones cluttering up the App Store. Funny how the industry works like that.

Folks, this isn't the first (or last) time that we will see stories like this.

Attack on Nintendo

This is a nifty fan-made animation of characters from Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. videogame series, set to one of the opening songs for this past season's smash hit (no pun intended) anime, Attack on Titan.

This animation is very well thought out. The scenes do a very good job of evoking the 'feel' of Attack on Titan with the established Nintendo characters. I would love to see this artist do another rendition using the other opening song (which is one of my all-time favorites).

Folks, it's worth your time to watch this one. Also, if you haven't checked out Attack on Titan, you can do so for free on Crunchyroll.

It's Time to Destroy Seattle

...in a game, of course.

The folks at Mature Gamer Podcast recently posted a trailer for the upcoming edition of the Infamous series titled Infamous: Second Son, which takes place in Seattle, Washington.

This PS4 game is being made by Sucker Punch Productions (owned by Sony), which is based near Seattle in Bellevue, Washington.

Folks, I have to admit that I relish the thought of being able to play a game where I can cause mayhem in familiar streets and around landmarks like the Space Needle and the Elephant Car Wash.

Patch Laid Off a Bunch of People Over the Phone

Matt Burns, at TechCrunch:

The ax came down at Patch today. TechCrunch has confirmed that a number of Patch employees were let go this morning with another round of layoffs happening later today. We’re hearing hundreds were laid off, focused mainly around editorial staffing. Employees are being told to pack their virtual desks and clear the premises today.

If you haven't listened to Jim Romenesko's audio recording of the teleconference, take the time to do so. It must have been difficult for those people to hear their jobs being eliminated in a short 1m 30s.

I've said it before, folks: treat employees with respect, especially when firing them.

Indiegogo Overlooked an Obvious Way to Raise Funding

I mean, think about it.

Traditional Video Game Consoles Aren't Dead Yet, Folks

Wow, what a difference a year makes. Last year, there were some pundits who were convinced, absolutely convinced, that the traditional video game console was doomed. Doomed, I tell you! I took the time to write about why I thought that such talk was a bunch of malarkey.

Turns out, I was right.

What has happened in the past year? Well, the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One were released to the public, that's what happened. Guess what? Both of those consoles were record-smashing successes. Sony sold 4.2 million units. Microsoft sold 3 million units. Folks, even poor ol' Nintendo managed to have success with software sales for its 3DS handheld console (though the less said about the much-maligned Wii U, the better).

This was my statement on the reality of the console market in a post-PC, mobile device-driven market:

What then, of the rise of mobile gaming? To those who say the console is in trouble, the success of devices like the iPhone and iPad as well as the success of titles such as Angry Birds point to a future where consoles aren't relevant. This is a narrow view of the world that doesn't take into account what is happening in the industry. Mobile gaming isn't taking gamers away from traditional consoles...it is expanding the term 'gamer' beyond its traditional form. Just as the Nintendo Wii helped to bring games into the mainstream by making games more accessible to non-traditional gamers (e.g. the elderly), mobile games have further expanded the gaming market. And that's what it is, an expansion of the overall gaming market, not a reduction of the market for consoles.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony combined for sales of roughly 260+ million units over an eight year cycle for the previous console generation. Yes, mobile device sales easily eclipse that figure in a shorter span of time. However, as I mentioned earlier those devices are causing the overall gaming market to grow, which is to say that they aren't necessarily causing the traditional console market to shrink.

Console gaming isn't dead, folks.

Treat Employees with Respect, Especially When Firing Them

Josh Constine, in a post at TechCrunch:

That’s why the Denver-based Beatport was considering firing the employees over a conference call, but decided to send human resources representatives to SF. The company worried employees would destroy the office if not supervised. Meanwhile, multiple sources report that the startup has let go of around 20 employees in Denver, including the majority of the engineering team there. Two other music industry sources say Beatport was still operating at a loss after Q3 saw it lose $1 million on $12.1 million of revenue.

It's ridiculous that a company would ever consider firing employees via a conference call. It's incredibly insulting to the employees that this was even a possibility.

Being a manager is difficult. Having to break difficult news to employees comes with the territory. When it comes to people's livelihood, the proper way to let them know that they will no longer be employed is to do so privately and in-person if at all possible. Ideally, there should be a transition period where the employee can transfer his or her responsibilities and knowledge to others that remain at the company.

Think about it for a minute. Would you feel betrayed or angry if an employee suddenly left the company with little to no notice? Of course you would. Professional courtesies apply to both the employer and employee. The manner in which you treat employees at the beginning and the end of the employment relationship says a lot about your company's core values and about your abilities as a manager.

Folks, treat others as you would like others to treat you.

Nintendo Missed a Huge Opportunity with Super Mario 3D World

Sam Byford, writing for The Verge:

One thing that Super Mario 3D World is not is a showcase for the Wii U's signature feature, the tablet-style GamePad controller. While there is the occasional stage that requires you to manipulate objects with the touchscreen, these are few and far between, and for the most part Super Mario 3D World is entirely playable with a regular controller. I actually found it far more comfortable to play with the underutilized but excellent Wii U Pro Controller most of the time. You can also play directly on the GamePad without the need for a TV, though I wouldn't recommend it; the camera angles tend to be too zoomed-out to be comfortable. And relegating Super Mario 3D World to the low-resolution GamePad screen would be a shame, because it's a stunningly beautiful game.

Nintendo has been on an advertising binge lately. Odds are very good that you've seen this commercial, or one of its siblings, on TV or the web:

The commercials are somewhat childish, but they do a decent job of explaining the Wii U in the context of Nintendo's newest AAA title, Super Mario 3D World. It's somewhat sad that Nintendo has to remind people that the Wii U is a new console and not a peripheral for the Wii (a problem that Sony and Microsoft don't have), but the good part of this commercial is that it shows the fun that can be had playing the game with friends and family.

Unfortunately, what the commercial also shows us is that the tablet-like controller for the Wii U is almost a pointless afterthought. The commercial doesn't emphasize using the tablet as a controller (despite its prominence in the still photographs), and Byford's post confirms that the tablet isn't really necessary for the game.

The fact that Nintendo's premier Mario title, delivered one year after the console's launch, doesn't show off the capabilities of the single defining feature of the Wii U is ridiculous. By contrast, Nintendo didn't waste any time showing off the uniqueness of the Wii's remote controllers. Wii Sports may not have been the best game on the system, but it immediately set the Wii apart as a console that--despite graphical shortcomings--offered unique gameplay.

The Wii U is already hampered by the fact that it offers inferior graphical performance compared to its competitors. Nintendo has compounded this business/engineering error by failing to produce a game that convinces people that the Wii U offers a unique experience.

Folks, Nintendo blew this one. 

iOS Easily Won the Black Friday Wars

Jay Yarow, over at Business Insider, regarding IBM's analysis of Black Friday sales:

It broke out an analysis of iOS and Android: On average, iOS users spent $127.92 per order on Black Friday compared to $105.20 per order for Android users. iOS traffic reached 28.2 percent of all online traffic, compared to 11.4 percent for Android. iOS sales reached 18.1 percent of all online sales, compared to 3.5 percent for Android.

On a market share basis and an installed user base basis, Android is the number one operating system in the world. However, if the user base doesn't make use of their devices in ways that make it worth developers' and retailers' time, then Android will continue to be an afterthought. iOS users spend more time on their devices and spend a disproportionate amount of money when compared to Android users. I would wager that Windows Phone users would be treated better than they currently are if they spent money and time disproportionate to their installed user base too.

Folks, if you want to be treated as first-class netizens, then you must spend like first-class netizens. Developers and retailers aren't running charities.