It is a belief among many that the App Store is the next great frontier for game development. However, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard says that his company had four top titles on the platform that never made more than $4,740 – $6,320 a month in profit.

“Everything’s moving online,” Gerhard said. “This is controversial, but the mobile bubble will burst this year and the social bubble will burst, too. There just isn’t the money there. The only people that are winning right now are Apple and consumers. Everyone’s rushing to make games for the new iPhone, and in that Apple makes a lot of money, but it’s a race to zero.”

“I think any closed platform, be it Microsoft, be it PlayStation Vita, XBLA, PSN, the App Store, ultimately are taking such a big chunk that people just aren’t making money. Facebook, too,” said Gerhard. “I think that fundamentally, bar a handful of winners that Apple is keeping, nobody makes money on their platform. It’s great for consumers, not good for developers, and that’s going to be the death of it.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz