I wonder...
Take every single Windows program currently available for sale or download and make it available through Microsoft's app store. Would whatever advantages come from the store being one click away be negated by the crowded nature of such a beast? Would a newly released game get better exposure on a crowded app store than it would through traditional channels? Would search results on such an app store be that much more relevant than the results of a Google search?
I think most are missing my point tbh, yourself included:
It's not the existence of an app store. It's the knock on effect of an app store - they come with a forum centered around it where a large majority of your target audience will read, or at least see, your announcement post. This is not the case for PC as it stands.
Yes, but how well does that scale? Isn't an app store a lot like a monolithic portal?
Well, it scaled to 2.5M installs for us.
There's plenty of loser stories to be seen on mobile. A large proportion of them are from guys who made a shite app tbh. There are doubtless some good stuff that didn't get noticed, but I maintain that that is still easier to fix than trying to drive disparate traffic to an unknown website.
iOS comes with TouchArcade. Android comes with a few (phandroid, droid central). Blackberry? Crackberry.com. What do owners of PC that want to think about games have? Portals or nothing.
EDIT: By way of example, I just looked at TouchArcade. Probably the slowest time of day on the slowest day of the week. 1012 other people were on there with me. The record concurrent users was 10,537 and they have 2 million members. Does it feel cold out in PC land?
EDIT2: Yes of course it's a monolithic portal. Key difference between this and the PC ones, which is where this thread started, is that every single mobile phown owner knows where that portal is and can reach it with a single button press from the phones home page.
The same could be said for steam. Or at some point the casual portals. Huge numbers. Hell you could throw facebook numbers around too. But the bottom line is how accessible are those people and what are the benefits/problems with getting your game in front of them. If its a random gatekeeper issue like valve with steam, that can be as bad as if its a closed portal, or a casual portal trying to screw you.
But your point is right, there are advantages to places with lots of eyeballs. Especially ones self-selected to want games. But as Adrian is I think saying, there are issues with MS moving to a closed system, in that PC development has always been better for the game ecosystem because of its open nature. Not great for sales maybe, but great for developers.
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When I ask about how well it scales, what I want to know is how well the single-source distribution system scales as the number of developers and releases goes up. At which point do new releases become noise to most users?
I have no doubt good games can still do very well on iOS, but it's not as if good PC games can't sell huge numbers without a Windows app store. Just take a look at Minecraft's sales figures, which few iOS games can meet or surpass.
Comparing sales between iOS and PC is like comparing sales between Wii and X-Box. Different audiences, different tastes. To attribute the success of your game to the distribution channel is to ignore how different is each platform's audience.
I'm sure the Windows app store will mean huge sales for a lot of developers, but removing other distribution channels is not necessarily an improvement.
Wait, are you arguing that PC doesn't have crowded communities? Are we on the same Internet?Originally Posted by Applewood
Quite possibly. I'm one the ones that doesn't follow PC gaming that well, therefore I don't know if there are any really big forums for indie games customers. However even my mom knows where the app store is and feels safe using it.
It's already ridiculously massive and hard to keep a presence on. Apologies if I'm coming across like this is easy - it's really not. However it's gotta be easier struggling in front of a busy audience than struggling to find an audience in the first place.
I think it's bogus to quote Minecraft and exceptions. I could easily throw Angry Birds back at you and that's earned ridiculously way more than Minecraft. They're openeing a theme park ffs.
Remember that while everyone knows (thanks to ranking) how well an app does, nobody really knows how well people selling mostly directly do, unless they post about it. Could you believe that a mostly text-based MMO makes ton of money?
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there are many hidden niches on PC market. I'm not sure the same can be said about iOS. In the end, you can make good money both on PC and mobile but you need to find the right strategy. You found the right one on iOS, so obviously you think that PC = shit. I know many people who had the exact opposite experience. The best thing is keep trying because every people's path is different (selling direct, selling through portals, one-time fee, micro-transaction, subscription, etc etc).
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In reality the "knock on effect" doesn't work, or, more precisely, it only works for the few lucky indies who get noticed and "featured" by the store and the big companies who throw lots of marketing money and who can use their connections
Most indie devs I know, who don't have journalistic acquaintances sell very few games on IOS and android store (much worse on android) and not with crap games, there are many polished and fun games that just don't sell They're lost in a sea of similar apps
As for Windows 8, I don't think Microsoft will restrict it to its own appstore, they've been sued so many times for anti-competitive behaviours, they'll probably leave he door open.
Last edited by electronicStar; 05-29-2012 at 04:07 AM.
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Angry Birds has a much bigger audience but the actual numbers aren't that different I'd say - of course this may change over the next few years because of whatever they make using the popularity of the birds.I think it's bogus to quote Minecraft and exceptions. I could easily throw Angry Birds back at you and that's earned ridiculously way more than Minecraft. They're openeing a theme park ffs.
After a quick search Rovio's revenues were about $10 million in 2010 and about $106 million in 2011.
Mincraft has sold about 6 million units on PC, I don't have exact numbers but roughly 4 million at 15€ and 2 million and 20€ - that's 100 million in € - pretty much on par with Angry birds but just on PC - it's not counting Xbox, Android, iOS, it's not counting that these revenues don't include any free giveaway adbased revenues, not plush toys and other merchandise stuff (which seems to be responsible for 30% of Rovios revenue).
So - even though it's true that Angry Birds is likely to be the much bigger brand in the long term I absolutely don't see it on the winning side right at this moment.
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