First of all, great name. Not sure what a Choober is, but I want one. Secondly, if people are so tired of it, it begs the question if it is being done right.
Not really, any developer that's serious about free to play is already meeting those guidelines. That's what the EULA-like popup before EA games load is all about.
Will we lose all free to play game? No. We might lose the aggressive ones like candy crush and the ones marketed to kids like smurf village . Edit : not even that, I'm expecting just the £70 Iaps.
I thought we all agreed NOT to discuss that evil which shall not be named hence we unwillingly summon it's presence here.
Yup, it will be a freemium market soon, but I think it is just a trend, all games can't be freemiums.
After all this discussion about freemium practices, it's nice to see games like FTL, Monument Valley, Wayward Souls doing so well. Perhaps there's hope for the App Store and premium games after all
So I had to let Trials Frontier go. IMO it's the poster child for great gameplay marred by its IAP structure. The physics, the controls, the visuals, all top notch and well crafted But the worst part is how the game's structure kind of lures the player into a false sense of security. I initially praised the game for being balanced and fair. Gems were earned regularly so timers could be easily skipped. I always seemed to level up just as my fuel ran out. Then that balance went downhill. And then it dropped off a cliff Regular progression became nothing but incessant grinding as missions required more and more parts. Fuel costs doubled, tripled. Progress become reliant on the luck of spinning the wheel, designed to eat up gems. The timers increased in length, mere seconds to many minutes I'm really disappointed. At its core, it truly is a great game. It's true Trials finally on IOS. I would have easily paid $10 for this if Ubisoft had gone the premium route. But unfortunately they didn't so Trials had to go.
A fantastic (and kind of depressing) article by The Room devs on premium success and the current state of mobile gaming: http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/9/5699058/free-to-play-mobile-candy-crush-the-room
I really liked Asphalt 8, it was one of the few freemium games I really liked. Nowadays though, try to stick with great premium Indies. Why bother with freemiums and flappy bird clones?
Here's another great article: How clones, fear, sanitisation and free-to-play soured Apple's iOS gaming revolution And with a quote from Kepa! Thanks for making Wayward Souls premium then!
I liked Wayward Souls, and other recent games like Unpossible, Botanicula, Leo's Fortune, Suited Up, Plax, Dextris, Last Inua, Biosis, Kiwanuka, Blek, Monument Valley, Darkin, Third Eye Blind, and many more. Cause of inapps? Heck no, cause they were awesome.
This is an older article, but I just discovered it today. It's from Richard Perrin, the developer of Kairo, about why he was releasing his game on IOS paid without IAP http://www.lockeddoorpuzzle.com/site/devblog/f2pthoughts The articles goes into more detail but here are his key points: These are the same issues and worries discussed on Edge last year, Fireproof this year, and these issues seem to just be getting pronounced.
