Has anyone had any success in developing a game for the Mac and selling via the Mac App Store? I'd be interested to see and try out anything that anyone has built for that platform.
I've sold apps there, but not games. The market is way smaller than on iOS, not to mention most ad networks don't support desktop games/apps. I'd recommend charging for your game on the Mac. E.g. going paid, instead of freemium. I plan to ship my forthcoming game on iOS, Mac, and AppleTV - Hopefully submitting later the month. iOS will be free with ads, Mac and AppleTV will be paid. I'll be sure to share my findings once the game is released. Cheers, Dan
Exactky the same here @dan_counsell, I plan to launch my first BB game to iOS for free and then follow up with paid apps on both the Mac Store and Apple TV. @AndyG, have you launched anything to the Mac Store yet or do you plan to?
Nothing on the Mac Store yet Phill. Just exploring the idea at the moment. Will be interesting to see how yourself and Dan get on with that particularly Apple TV. I would imagine it will be a slow burner waiting for Apple TV numbers to grow but of course anyone getting a game out in time for Christmas will reap the benefits.
Yup, defo @AndyG, you know, first to market and all that. You're dead right, of course the new Apple TV will be a slow starter in terms of app adoption, but there is already a user base who'll upgrade to the latest model, so I expect initial sales to be pretty high, so to have an app poised and ready to rock, would be a great advantage for any dev.
I may be forced to but an Apple TV @Phill Mason. Purely for development reasons you understand. Or at least that's what Im telling the wife
Thinking about this further @Phill Mason and @dan_counsell I wonder whats a good price point for the new Apple TV games, at least to begin with. $4.99?
I always found 2.99 to make far more money than .99 or 1.99 for mobile apps and IAP. So I would certainly go no lower than 2.99. Not sure what effect a higher price point would have. Obviously it's a new platform so it will take a bit of testing to see what works.
Thanks for that feedback @Andy very useful info. And your saying that you've found that IAP at a price point of $2.99 has been a sweet spot also?
I tested a bunch of price points (albeit this was a few years ago). The difference in quantity sold between .99 and 2.99 price points was almost nothing over an equal period of time. So I made almost 3x more pricing purchases at 2.99 rather than .99.
Interesting @Andy I've had a similar experience. Out of the 26 apps I have in the app store I priced 2 of them to have a remove ads IAP priced @ $4.99, much higher than all my other games. One of them didn't get a great deal of traffic, but the other has made me the most IAP-money out of all my other apps. I compared this app to another similar game, with similar amount of downloads and as @Andy mentioned, it's had about the same amount of sales compared to a $0.99 IAP. Regarding pricing the app for sale on TVOS @AndyG, I was thinking around $2.49 - $3.49 to see how it goes. It'll be interesting to see where others have priced their apps when the store launches.
$0.99 also not good as that is the first tier upon the free one, so you cannot make sale promotions (50% off or similar).
Okay, I've just submitted Almost Impossible! to the Mac App Store. Fingers crossed! Pricing wise I'm going $3.99 (Tier 4) - May adjust that before launch, still not 100% sure…
Wow, really curious about this. I think you are one of the first. Actually, I think @zenmartin might have?
@dan_counsell Really appreciate this Dan. Will be interesting and informative to see the results. Thanks.
