10 ms·

"People don't consider my games worth what I spent to make them, so I'll sneak in adverts too so I don't have to charge them more and pop their little bubble, s

by desc 7y ago

"People don't consider my games worth what I spent to make them, so I'll sneak in adverts too so I don't have to charge them more and pop their little bubble, so they can continue thinking games are this cheap because the sticker price is still low." No, this is not acceptable, and holding it up as a Good Thing that it's being perpetuated is stupid. Microsoft have seen the writing on the wall (because it's been there for, I dunno, at least a decade?) and are saying 'you have to have an actual workable fucking business model now, k?'

throway1n 7y ago
Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.
- desc 7y ago
  Then you charge a reasonable price. You don't put a 'free' sticker on it with an unknowable 'ad revenue' cost in the background. One might argue that the customer should know the price they pay in advertising data-scraping before logging in, these days, but we still convict people of fraud for taking advantage. Advertising revenue is fraud.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    That just means you'll go out of business then and the users will end up using a Chinese/Russian/other country (knockoff) instead with the same ads snuck in there. It costs a lot less to develop software in certain other countries.
    - makapuf 7y ago
      You can justify any business with that kind of argument.
      - BoorishBears 7y ago
        Justification doesn't exist in a vacuum, what you're justifying matters just as much, and showing ads from Microsoft is pretty low on the scale of evil things apps do for monetization.
  - DarknessFalls 7y ago
    Television has been paying for programming through ads for decades now. Do you think that's not a 'real' business model? A good business model is one that makes someone 7 figures a year for cloning solitaire. It might not be the most enjoyable gaming experience, but if purity of solitaire is what you want, then there are plenty of paid alternatives.
    - crooked-v 7y ago
      A massive difference here is that TV ads don't come with ubiquitous invasions of privacy every time you see them, nor do they have a small but constant risk of malware infecting your TV.
      - ta999999171 7y ago
        Not familiar with Smart TVs then, eh?
      - DanBC 7y ago
        But as tv moves away from broadcast signals to VOD services that's going to change. See for an early example 4OD in the UK: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/28/behind-all-4s-new-personalised-vod-ads-call-out-the-names-viewers https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/28/behind-all-4s-new-pe... > Channel 4 earlier this week unveiled a new video on demand advertising package allowing brands to directly address viewers - in practise this meant first adopters 20th Century Fox, Foster' and Ronseal, could grab the attention of by literally calling out their names in their creative.
      - dwild 7y ago
        > nor do they have a small but constant risk of malware infecting your TV. The same goes for anything that you install / access on your devices, yet we aren't talking about removing theses capacities and I sure hope so that you won't argue that.
  - jussij 7y ago
    Google makes it's billions through advertising. Google serves up adds along with it's search results and this guy serves up adds inside his games. These seem like identical business models. Something for free with an advert attached.
- stubish 7y ago
  This is what happens when participating in a race to the bottom. Mobile games are cheap because (due to current global economics) there is always someone prepared to clone your design and sell it cheaper. If you want to pay the bills, you need to find a market you can be profitable in. That might even be mobile gaming, if you can deliver IP or a franchise or a series that gets people to pay a reasonable price for your game rather than a bargain price for something similar to your game. Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.
  - uptown 7y ago
    “Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.” Apparently you haven’t played Angry Birds 2. It’s riddled with upsells.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
tjoff 7y ago
While I agree it is infuriatingly ironic that Microsoft does this themselves with Windows 10.
friendlybus 7y ago
What people don't consider his games worth money? He offers them for free with ads and a lot of people happily accept. Were the marketplace rules changed to exclude all free games he may charge for his and people may buy them. I don't see a value judgement for the worth of his games here. The f2p market will continue to slow [1] and this guy bought himself some time in his market. Good for him. A dead end story for the rest of us. [1] https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/four-reasons-why-the-hypercasual-gold-rush-is-coming-to-an-end https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/four-reasons-why-the...

by desc 7y ago

throway1n 7y ago

Sounds reasonable to me - how else is he going to pay bills if not through some ad revenue? You know glorified 9 to 5 jobs are cool, but some of is indies prefer freedom - and that costs money.

desc 7y ago
Then you charge a reasonable price. You don't put a 'free' sticker on it with an unknowable 'ad revenue' cost in the background. One might argue that the customer should know the price they pay in advertising data-scraping before logging in, these days, but we still convict people of fraud for taking advantage. Advertising revenue is fraud.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  That just means you'll go out of business then and the users will end up using a Chinese/Russian/other country (knockoff) instead with the same ads snuck in there. It costs a lot less to develop software in certain other countries.
  - makapuf 7y ago
    You can justify any business with that kind of argument.
    - BoorishBears 7y ago
      Justification doesn't exist in a vacuum, what you're justifying matters just as much, and showing ads from Microsoft is pretty low on the scale of evil things apps do for monetization.
- DarknessFalls 7y ago
  Television has been paying for programming through ads for decades now. Do you think that's not a 'real' business model? A good business model is one that makes someone 7 figures a year for cloning solitaire. It might not be the most enjoyable gaming experience, but if purity of solitaire is what you want, then there are plenty of paid alternatives.
  - crooked-v 7y ago
    A massive difference here is that TV ads don't come with ubiquitous invasions of privacy every time you see them, nor do they have a small but constant risk of malware infecting your TV.
    - ta999999171 7y ago
      Not familiar with Smart TVs then, eh?
    - DanBC 7y ago
      But as tv moves away from broadcast signals to VOD services that's going to change. See for an early example 4OD in the UK: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/28/behind-all-4s-new-personalised-vod-ads-call-out-the-names-viewers https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/28/behind-all-4s-new-pe... > Channel 4 earlier this week unveiled a new video on demand advertising package allowing brands to directly address viewers - in practise this meant first adopters 20th Century Fox, Foster' and Ronseal, could grab the attention of by literally calling out their names in their creative.
    - dwild 7y ago
      > nor do they have a small but constant risk of malware infecting your TV. The same goes for anything that you install / access on your devices, yet we aren't talking about removing theses capacities and I sure hope so that you won't argue that.
- jussij 7y ago
  Google makes it's billions through advertising. Google serves up adds along with it's search results and this guy serves up adds inside his games. These seem like identical business models. Something for free with an advert attached.
stubish 7y ago
This is what happens when participating in a race to the bottom. Mobile games are cheap because (due to current global economics) there is always someone prepared to clone your design and sell it cheaper. If you want to pay the bills, you need to find a market you can be profitable in. That might even be mobile gaming, if you can deliver IP or a franchise or a series that gets people to pay a reasonable price for your game rather than a bargain price for something similar to your game. Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.
- uptown 7y ago
  “Heck, if you get the IP right like Angry Birds you even get to undercut your competitors with a free price tag and no ads, driving your T-Shirt sales.” Apparently you haven’t played Angry Birds 2. It’s riddled with upsells.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

tjoff 7y ago

While I agree it is infuriatingly ironic that Microsoft does this themselves with Windows 10.

friendlybus 7y ago

What people don't consider his games worth money? He offers them for free with ads and a lot of people happily accept. Were the marketplace rules changed to exclude all free games he may charge for his and people may buy them. I don't see a value judgement for the worth of his games here. The f2p market will continue to slow [1] and this guy bought himself some time in his market. Good for him. A dead end story for the rest of us. [1] https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/four-reasons-why-the-hypercasual-gold-rush-is-coming-to-an-end https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/four-reasons-why-the...