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Game Developer Group Warns Against Amazon Appstore
The International Game Developers Association has posted a warning to the game development community about the Amazon Appstore's distribution terms, detailing several unfavorable situations possible under the rules and saying, "Amazon has little incentive not to use a developer's content as a weapon with which to capture marketshare from competing app stores."
"Amazon does not need the terms it has established for itself in order to give away a free app every day. Nor does it need the powers it has granted itself to execute a wide variety of price promotions. Other digital games platforms, such as Xbox LIVE Arcade and Steam, manage to run effective promotions very frequently without employing these terms. Amazon may further argue that its success depends on the success of its development partners, and therefore, that it would never abuse the terms of its distribution agreement. Given that Amazon can (and currently does) function perfectly well without these terms in other markets, it is unclear why game developers should take a leap of faith on Amazon’s behalf. Such leaps are rarely rewarded once a retailer achieves dominance."
"Amazon has little incentive not to use a developer's content as a weapon with which to capture market share from competing app stores."
I'm no Donald Trump but isn't that what business is? Battling competitors for market share? Sounds to me like that union is afraid of its impending irrelevance.
At best buy or sam's club you'll find a PC with a distinct model number - the manufacturer produces it just for that chain. Makes price matching more difficult and lets the chains show lower prices etc.
So you make an Amazon version of your game with a different name. Maybe "Game Lite" or something similar enough to the normal name to ensure your people can find you, but different enough that you can legitimately say it's not the same game. Maybe leave out some levels or change backgrounds. Now you can set whatever list price you want - this game has never been offered before.
Bonus - your core audience will buy this one to, so they have every version.
I wonder why developers bother with Amazon at all. Their app store is incredibly limited by their stupid policies. Angry Birds Rio was an exclusive release on the Amazon app store, and given away for free. .... But doesn't work outside the US. End result is that despite the game was being given away, and the previous version was available add supported, Android forums were full of questions relating to piracy of the game.
It's fucking 2011. Angry Birds Rio is not some kind military weapon, it doesn't use encryption that will breach US export laws. Amazon why will you send me practically anything but not offer me a digital download?
On top of that you know my address from my account, why did you let me waste 20min downloading your stupid appstore app, then force me to setup a one click account for something you're giving away for free before giving me an error saying the store is available in the US only?
Amazon I extend my middle finger to you, and to those developers who will use Amazon I look forward to finding your apps on bit-torrent if you don't offer a download or an alternative app store.
This has to be one of the most stupid things I have ever heard from a industry group.
"1) Amazon steeply discounts a large chunk of its Appstore catalog (imagine: “our top 100-rated games are all 75% off!”). Some developers will probably win in this scenario, but some developers — most likely, those near the bottom of the list — will lose, not gaining enough sales to offset the loss in revenue per sale. Amazon benefits the most, because it captures all the customer goodwill generated by such a promotion."
I think they have forgotten that some people will never ever buy a product until it drops in price to a specific level. It doesn't matter what developers would like to happen. This is basic business 101. Businesses want to squeeze as much money as the possibly can out of customers. Customers want to pay as a little as possible for a service/product. So each of them have to decide on a price they can both agree on. The sale will bring you in more sales that you never would have gotten until you lowered the price as shown by the increase in sales. Not everyone who buys at the discounted price would ever have bought at the higher price. This is the same type of thinking that industry groups use to say every pirated copy of software is a lost sale when that is simply not true. I would also think that when an app goes on sale that people snatch up that is good that it increases the sales of your other apps. We see this exact thing happen for example when Baen sci-fi publisher gives away an author's book, the author's other books see significantly increased sales. Not to mention if the app is good the developer also gets just as much good will as Amazon probably more since the app is in front of the buy far more than the Amazon store.
"Amazon steeply discounts (or makes entirely free) a game that has a well-defined, well-connected niche audience. The members of that niche audience snap up the game during the promotional period, robbing the game’s developer of a significant percentage of its total potential revenue from its core audience."
The same thing happens on iTunes. A game gets set to free and people snap it up. All that has to happen is a developer doesn't give away the game and this never happens. I don't see the problem here at all. I should also mention that I have noticed huge numbers of apps that go on sale at a discount when first released then a few weeks later the price goes up. So I'm not sure I even see their point here at all when it seems this is an industry standard.
The other thing is that this seems to smack of telling developers, your too stupid to read the contracts you sign so let me explain it to you in simple terms so your little brain understands the big legal words here. I personally would find it insulting if an industry group ever sent me a letter like this, implying that I don't know the contracts I am signing. If I don't understand a contract I need to get a lawyer, which is always a good idea anyway. If I still sign a contract and get screwed, well then perhaps I deserve it since I am terrible at business, can't read and understand a contract or contact a lawyer, and should have just gone to work for someone else.
Looking right now at the top 25 paid game apps on iTunes the most expensive to develop would likely be: Asphalt 6 (although this is an upgrade), iStunt 2, Call of Duty: Zombies (again an upgrade/mod), Lego Harry Potter (a port and mod), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 (port and upgrade). Every single other game is a time waster with a game time of 1-4 minutes. World of Goo might be an exception, but it has been ported to/from several other platforms. In fact 10 of the 25 top titles are actually ports from web, console or computer games, 4 are variations of existing apps (mods), and at least 15 of them, that I know of, are available on multiple phone platforms.
I would also comment that there are also several other android market places as well. handmark.com, andspot.com, mobileapps.com, slideme.org, andappstore.com,