After recently releasing my iPhone game "Quantum Cannon" http://itunes.apple.com/app/quantum-cannon/id427407981?mt=8 (#shameless plug), and watching it struggle while being buried alive by the thousands of other apps bombarding the store in just a matter of days, it really raised the question about how the app store should be regulated. In its current state, it really is just a giant free for all, with almost anyone able to chuck an app on to the store and having the fate of your app be determined almost by pure luck. I've seen developers work tirelessly for months and months to churn out an app that was made on a small budget, by one single person, with amazing art and game mechanics, be drowned in a sea of 50000 second rate "Fruit Ninja" clones. At the same time I've seen a developer get an app out in 2-3 days with minimal work and almost no substance, get hundreds if not thousands of paid downloads because it, for whatever reason, was lucky enough to get featured in the "New and Noteworthy" frontpage section of iTunes.
Now I understand why the appstore is like this, its obvious really. Apple is a business in the business of making money. Not only do they take 30% of all the revenue from every app on their store, they also charge developers $100 per year just for the privilege of selling in that store. The more lenient they are, the more developers there are, the more apps there are, the more money they make. But nevertheless, I would be more than happy to pay twice as much for my yearly subscription if it meant that after releasing my app, it would actually get noticed, instead of being moved to page 62 after 2 days because another 50 apps came out that do nothing else but simulate fart sounds (as awesome as fart simulations are). Wouldn't Apple benefit more from giving a little gem like "Air Supply" ( or dare I say, "Quantum Cannon"?) more exposure, creating more sales for them then they would otherwise receive by having the app buried after a week and having thousands of consumers spend less money because the most recent Angry Birds clones just don't seem worth the $0.99c? And that brings me to my main point. The lack of regulation has left most developers charging their app at the lowest possible price of $0.99c, because if you don't, your app doesn't stand a chance unless it is incredibly lucky or amazingly spectacular. This is exactly why economies need regulation in the first place, because otherwise suppliers will just keep undercutting each other until everything costs a buck. And this situation doesn't help anyone, it doesn't help Apple who only get 30c revenue from each sale, it doesn't help the developer who spent months working on a game that gets him 70c per sale and doesn't help the consumer who now has to sift through a store filled with shovelware and poor quality games because devs just don't have the incentive to put in half a year's work on a game that will sell 5 copies and net him arosund $3.50.
Obviously I'm not trying to just ***** about the app store, I love the app store, its clearly a huge success and its one of the best platforms out there enabling people like me to do something completely awesome-make games (and maybe even make some money of it as well). The app store clearly has many, many positive features, I'm just frustrated by this one, glaring negative aspect.
/Rant.
Now I understand why the appstore is like this, its obvious really. Apple is a business in the business of making money. Not only do they take 30% of all the revenue from every app on their store, they also charge developers $100 per year just for the privilege of selling in that store. The more lenient they are, the more developers there are, the more apps there are, the more money they make. But nevertheless, I would be more than happy to pay twice as much for my yearly subscription if it meant that after releasing my app, it would actually get noticed, instead of being moved to page 62 after 2 days because another 50 apps came out that do nothing else but simulate fart sounds (as awesome as fart simulations are). Wouldn't Apple benefit more from giving a little gem like "Air Supply" ( or dare I say, "Quantum Cannon"?) more exposure, creating more sales for them then they would otherwise receive by having the app buried after a week and having thousands of consumers spend less money because the most recent Angry Birds clones just don't seem worth the $0.99c? And that brings me to my main point. The lack of regulation has left most developers charging their app at the lowest possible price of $0.99c, because if you don't, your app doesn't stand a chance unless it is incredibly lucky or amazingly spectacular. This is exactly why economies need regulation in the first place, because otherwise suppliers will just keep undercutting each other until everything costs a buck. And this situation doesn't help anyone, it doesn't help Apple who only get 30c revenue from each sale, it doesn't help the developer who spent months working on a game that gets him 70c per sale and doesn't help the consumer who now has to sift through a store filled with shovelware and poor quality games because devs just don't have the incentive to put in half a year's work on a game that will sell 5 copies and net him arosund $3.50.
Obviously I'm not trying to just ***** about the app store, I love the app store, its clearly a huge success and its one of the best platforms out there enabling people like me to do something completely awesome-make games (and maybe even make some money of it as well). The app store clearly has many, many positive features, I'm just frustrated by this one, glaring negative aspect.
/Rant.