Apple recently changed their App Review Guidelines to restrict apps from promoting games from different developers. This could have a cooling effect on cross-promotion between games if it does not target app promotion services, though this didn’t concern several developers when asked.
“Apple has done business this way since the 1970s. Their business model is to lock people into tightly controlled, proprietary ecosystems. They use openness only to the point that it benefits them, then increasingly clamp down with further controls,” explained Dirk Knemeyer, Founder & Chairman, Involution Studios. “We shouldn’t be surprised by it. This frankly Draconian approach is also why they provide products and ecosystems that are generally superior to their competition. They take control; sometimes it is to our benefit and sometimes it isn’t. This is just the latest example of shifting toward a greater degree of control now that their business model is established and predominant.”
“I don’t think it’s cause for great concern,” added Ernest Woo, CEO, Woo Games. “We’re still planning to ship ErnCon with Flurry, Tapjoy, and Chartboost integrated for cross-promotion opportunities. If Apple clamps down on use of such SDKs for cross-promotion then us app developers will just have to get creative!”
William Volk, CCO of PlayScreen, is more worried about changes to the App Stores that might make visibility harder for certain games. “The bigger issue is that categories are now buried in the new App Store, so that even if you did ‘buy’ placement into a sub category of games, it’s not going to matter as much as it used to. It takes far more clicks to even get to a category — and when you get there, you’ll see ONE app instead of 25,” Volk lamented. “Ad options are likely to be limited to more conventional advertising, such as iAds, interstitials and video.”
“Apple is mainly concerned with the integrity of their app rankings. They want the top spots to go to the apps that are most deserving, the ones that users actually enjoy. If it looks like the rank lists are getting stagnant and it would be a better service to users to shake things up, they want the ability, through features and ranking algorithms, to make it so users find more value in the listings,” wrote Dave Castelnuovo, co-founder of Bolt Creative. “App promotion services can interfere with these efforts. Not always, most of the time they make such a minimal impact that it really doesn’t matter, but every now and then a service comes along that has the power to radically shape the rank lists outside of Apple’s control. Tapjoy was the first example of this and I agree that services like Tapjoy, which allow developers to buy their way into the top of these lists, is a disservice to consumers. Nowadays, with the whole freemium promotion craziness, I think that these apps, as a whole, are starting to make an impact that Apple can’t manage.”
“On the other side, you have developers with legitimate concerns about discoverability and getting their app out to the masses,” he continued. “If you take away their ability to effectively market and promote themselves, then they are at the mercy of Apple. They can’t get sales unless they appear on a rank list, and they can’t appear on a rank list unless Apple features them.”
“At the end of the day, if you have a business strategy that revolves around creating a discoverability portal or promotion service, you have to know what you are getting yourself into. Apple has and will change the playing field whenever they feel it best serves their interests. Look at OpenFeint, Plus+, and Tapjoy. Make money while you can, but just know that Apple can (and should if it hurts consumers) shut down your business model at any moment. My opinion is that management of the app store is a good thing in the long run. This is the biggest reason why apps are so much more successful in the Apple App Store than on Android,” he concluded.
Source: GamesIndustry International
