Amazon App Store Takes Flak From ShiftyJelly

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Amazon has tried to take on Apple’s App Store with their own Android Appstore, though not all developers are happy over the decisions they’ve made. Appstore director Aaron Rubenson recently defended the service s policies in a VentureBeat interview.

We certainly recognize that it s a different model,” said Rubenson. “The reason we made that decision was that it gives us the broadest amount of flexibility in terms of marketing and merchandising and proactive promotional activities we were talking about, which we think is a real value for the customers.”

Some developers have been critical of some of Amazon’s pricing decision and other similar unilateral moves. “We decided that it was the one that made the most sense for us so that we could do the best job of marketing developers products effectively. I think if you look at the site today, what you find is that the vast majority of the products are simply priced at list price,” said Rubenson. “When developers are trying to get their product discovered, the promotion as a free app of the day is a very powerful marketing vehicle. Then once that core base of customers has a product installed, they tell their friends about it. That spurs more downloads. It rises in popularity in our store. That makes it more popular as people are scrolling through the bestseller list and notice it there, he explained. So it starts the virtuous cycle from a marketing perspective. And then increasingly as developers are using various forms of monetization post-purchase, such as advertising or in-app purchasing technology, there are all sorts of downstream monetization opportunities as well once you have that initial base.”

ShiftyJelly, developer of the Pocket Casts app, contends that Amazon re-wrote the description of their app with erroneous information, set their app price without any input from the developer, and has poor real-time information gathering compared to the Android Market.

Amazon s biggest feature by far, has been their Free App Of The Day promotion. Publicly their terms say that they pay developers 20 percent of the asking price of an app, even when they give it away free. To both consumers and naive developers alike, this seems like a big chance to make something rare in the Android world: real money. But here s the dirty secret Amazon don t want you to know, they don t pay developers a single cent, wrote the developer. That s right, Amazon gave away 101,491 copies of our app! At this point, we had a few seconds of excitement as well, had we mis-read the email and really earned $54,800 in one day We would have done if our public agreement was in place, but we can now confirm that thanks to Amazon s secret back-door deals, we made $0 on that day.

Did the exposure count for much in the days afterwards That s also a big no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day. In fact Amazon decided to rub salt in the wounds a little further by discounting our app to 99 cents for a few days after the free promotion.

Nintendo Denies Smartphone Sales Effect 3DS

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Nintendo recently announced a drastic price cut to the 3DS, followed shortly thereafter by a fiscal forecast outlining the losses they’ve suffered so far this fiscal year. However, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata denies that smartphone games have effected the success of the 3DS, pointing instead to the need for quality software.

“We have repeatedly investigated whether social games, as well as smartphones, are actually affecting our business. We got the same results in our latest research that there are no causal correlations,” said Iwata. “On the other hand, it is the fact that a great variety of games are available at very low prices for smartphones. Naturally, consumers will choose more affordable ones if the video games we provide do not have much more value than those available for smartphones.

“However,” he insisted, “no causal correlations have been confirmed because we think there are consumers who acknowledge that the value of what we offer does not equal to that of those available for smartphones and that what we offer holds unique value. The biggest reason of the sluggish sales in this first quarter is that there were no big hit software titles in this period.”

PS Vita Not Out In U.S., Europe Before 2012

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Sony Corp. Executive Vice President Kazuo Hirai has announced that the PlayStation Vita will launch in Japan by the end of the year, with the U.S. and European launches coming in 2012. He said it was key to time the launch with the release of the right amount of quality software.

Hirai also explicitly denied that there would be a price cut after Nintendo announced a drastic cut to the 3DS less than a half year after it launched. “We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable,” Hirai told reporters at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters. “There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price.”

Source: AP

World Of Warcraft: Mists Of Pandaria Next Expansion?

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Reports are that Blizzard has made a trademark filing for something called the Mists of Pandaria. The Pandaren are an enigmatic race in the Warcraft universe, loving nature and strong ales, and it is believed that this name points to the fourth World of Warcraft expansion.

The filing covers, “Computer game software; computer game discs; computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; downloadable electronic games via the internet and wireless devices; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads.”

Documents that came out late in 2010 suggested another World of Warcraft expansion in 2012. The truth will likely be revealed October 21 22 at Blizzcon.

Source: mmo-champion.com

Space Marine Gets Epic Musical Score

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THQ has announced that Cris Velasco (God of War series) and Sascha Dikiciyan (Tron: Evolution) created the score for the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The original soundtrack will be available with every purchase of the game’s Collector’s Edition.

“Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan have composed a world-class, emotionally intense original music score for Space Marine that exceeded all of our expectations, commented Glenn Jamison, Audio Lead at Relic Entertainment. We were blown away by the inspired music they wrote for our game and can’t wait to share their epic score with everyone when Space Marine releases this September.”

“Space Marine has been one of the most creatively satisfying projects of our scoring career, commented Composers Velasco and Dikiciyan. This being the first third-person shooter in the Warhammer franchise, we were honored to write an original score that lives up to the games’ prestigious history and also pushes the series forward with a bold and fresh sound.”

El Shaddai: Good vs. Evil

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El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is one of the more unique looking titles releasing this year, with its own unique plot dealing with one man fighting against angels, so God does not destroy the Earth. Check out the epic trailer below.

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Hunt For Sunken Ships On Facebook

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As part of the Project Shiphunt, sponsored by Sony Vaio laptops, a fully story-based game created in Google Earth has been launched on Facebook {link no longer active}. Oceans of Treasure allows fans to soar Google Earth’s skies and plunge its waters in search of shipwrcks around the globe. Choose your mission from famous wrecks in history like the RMS Dorado (1951), the Atalanta (1650) or the HMS Paradox (1933). Use the keyboard and mouse to fly through Google Earth, check your hull speed and check your power to find sunken ships.

Civilization Creator Sees Games Taking Over World

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Games and game-like elements have found their way into many aspects of our lives, from serious games to even our cars. Sid Meier knows a thing or two about taking over the world, having made Civilization and he thinks that games are well on there way.

“I’ve always claimed that games will someday take over the world and from where things sit today, that seems to be happening. There are so many different gaming platforms and a constant stream of new games for players to enjoy in any way they choose, which is great for gamers, said Meier. “I think now is one of the most exciting times to be a game designer. With the rapid growth of social network games there are new opportunities for smaller indie developers to make and distribute games, so we re seeing a wider variety of games on all kinds of cool devices than ever before. That s great for the whole industry.”

Source: IndustryGamers {link no longer active}