If you hated the word "freemium" to describe the free-to-play with microtransactions model then you'd best get used to hearing it as it is fast becoming a successful and popular way for games developers to monetise their efforts on places like the Appstore. Our news item last week on IronMonkey hitting the #7 position with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the Appstore charts for highest grossing titles (games that make the most profit, not number of sales) only highlighted the successfulness of the freemium model as seven of the top ten grossing titles were available as free downloads and geared towards microtransactions and virtual goods.
The stats that are coming out show that the freemium model is successfully generating sales in a considerable way compared to the traditional paid apps model. From Gamesbrief.com...
Freemium games are 34 of the top 100 grossing iPhone apps, but only 1.34% of all apps...
Dear iPhone developers,
If you are developing an iPhone game that does not have an in-app purchase model, stop now. You are making a big mistake.
A veteran games developer who's moved to independent games development, Noel Llopsis, documents in depth the amount of success he's had when he took the risk of moving his Appstore game, Flower Garden, from a paid app to a free download with microtransactions. His blog features all the stats and charts his success, and is a convincing look at the freemium model and how well consumers respond to getting stuff for free. For those looking into microtransactions, the article by Noel is a very insightful read and it also offers some tips on antipiracy measures as well. Click here for Noel's story.
For many other small independent games developers however, the freemium model may not have been a possibility due to the additional technical requirements of processing secure transactions, delivering new content to the right customer, locking out invalid requests and pirate downloads, keeping server uptime and more. The great news is that OpenFeint is now offering a service to do that all for you. Widely known for their achievement and highscore services for apps, OpenFeint have announced OFX, giving iOS games using their service the ability handle secure microtransactions and updates.
Two local games developers, Halfbrick Studios (Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash) and True Axis (Jet Car Stunts) are included in the OFX press release, and both are commending the service and plan to utilise it in the future. From the press release...
(Shainiel Deo, CEO Halfbrick Studios) We've decided to use OFX because it provided us with the most streamlined way to build freemium titles without infrastructure costs.
We would much rather focus on building great games and leave the server technology to the OpenFeint experts.
(Andy Coates, True Axis) With OFX, OpenFeint offers a service that allows us to forgo building and maintaining a server to deliver downloadable content.
By just adding a few dozen lines of code into the project, we had a mechanism in place for people to use in-app purchases and download data from the OpenFeint servers. We saved months of time by using this service.