Apple iOS App Store blamed for too many apps as Sony NGP is called "dead on arrival"
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco this week, Trip Hawkins railed at Apple's App Store for having too many titles, while blaming Nintendo for inventing the concept of licensed games as Ngmoco proclaimed Sony's Next Generation Playstation "dead on arrival" due to the App Store's success.
My failures, your fault
Hawkins, once Apple's director of strategy and marketing, left the company in 1982 to found Electronic Arts. In 1991 he left EA to launch the failed 3DO gaming platform, which after attempting to transition itself into a games developer, went bankrupt and sold off its assets to French game publisher Ubisoft.
He's now running Digital Chocolate, which creates scores of games for mobile platforms, including Apple's iOS. However, he's not happy about the App Store, complaining that the company has "over-encouraged supply."
Hawkins told CNN that on average, the App Store earns publishers "$4,000 per application. Do you see a problem with that? That doesn't even pay for a really good foosball table," he told the audience from his conference panel post.
Apple now has over 400,000 iOS apps in its library, and recently said it has paid out $2 billion to developers. About a third of those are free, so even on average apps make far more than the $4,000 Hawkins said, even before advertising revenues are included. But more importantly, the App Store is a meritocracy, where good apps make a lot while thousands of junk apps make little or nothing.
"If we can't figure out how to make it a healthy ecosystem, it's not going to be a great business for developers to be able to remain employed in," Hawkins complained, before turning his attention to Nintendo, which originated the concept of a hardware platform creator licensing third party development and charging a cut of software developers' revenues.
"We used to have a free and open game business, and then Nintendo came along and introduced a thing called a licensing agreement," Hawkins said.
In 2008, Hawkins praised Apple's new App Store after his Digital Chocolate successfully launched several apps to "spectacularly pleasant surprise," but today he's changed his tune to say that the "overcrowding" of the App Store makes it hard for many games to get noticed.
He has set his sights on web-based games, saying "there is a place that we can all gravitate to over the years. Think more about the browser. The browser will set you free." Hawkins didn't elaborate on how the number of web pages compare with App Store titles, how gamers will discover web-based games any easier than in Apple's App Store, or how developers will make money from web games.
Nintendo fears change
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime panned the market for mobile games (which competes with dedicated handheld devices like the Nintendo DS), saying "the only thing that concerns us is that it becomes a distraction for developers, and it ends up driving development effort down a path that potentially has very little return."
Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata stated earlier in the conference keynote that "the objectives of smartphones and social-network platforms are not at all like ours. Their goal is just to gather as much software as possible, because quantity is what makes the money flow. Quantity is how they profit. The value of video-game software does not matter to them."
"When I look at retailers, and I see the $1 and free software, I have to determine that the owner doesn't care about the high value of software at all," Iwata later added. "I fear our business is dividing in a way that threatens the continued employment of those of us who make games."
Nintendo has refused to make games for iOS or other platforms after shifting its business from software development on early 80s consoles from Atari, Coleco and the Mattell Intellivision into an integrated platform business that sells console hardware, creates first party games, and earns licensing revenue from third party game developers, a model very similar to Apple's iOS.
A market for mobile apps and games
Apple entered the mobile software market and revolutionized how smartphone software was sold, creating the first viable market for mobile software. Speaking at the company's shareholder meeting last month, the company's leader of iOS development Scott Forstall pointed out that Apple has, in the iOS App Store, "created the best economy in software in the history of the planet."
Apple also brought its smartphone market to the iPod touch, which focused on games, and later expanded to the iPad, which supports a wide range of games, productivity apps and creative media titles, including Apple's own Pages, Keynote and Numbers, and the soon to be released iMovie and GarageBand titles.
Like Nintendo and every other game console developer, Apple licenses third party development and imposes a platform cut that helps support the App Store market. The difference is that Apple runs its App Store near break even, while other game platform makers rely upon licensing for the bulk of their profits, often selling hardware at a loss, as Microsoft and Sony have historically done.
The console makers' business model, which imposes a much steeper cut and fees upon developers, also makes it far harder for small indie developers to launch titles. Apple's App Store turned the tables, allowing individual programmers to launch iOS apps on a level playing field with big game development companies.
Consoles head toward online gaming, indie developers
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have more recently attempted to address the needs of indie developers via new download-based online stores, ranging from Nintendo's WiiWare to Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade.
Last month, the developer of World of Goo noted that it launched its popular title for iPad to find much higher sales and revenues compared to the console online stores and even the Steam store for desktop Mac and PC games.
"In the short term, we still think that if an independent developer can get their game on a console it?s a safer bet than playing the App Store lottery," the company said, "but one might wonder whether, in the long run, it even matters who wins the PSN / WiiWare / XBLA race."
App Store predicted to kill PSP and leave NGP 'dead on arrival'
Other game developers are even more supportive of Apple's App Store model, with Ngmoco's chief executive Neil Young saying "I think [Sony's] PSP is done and the new [NGP successor] is dead on arrival.
"It?s really difficult to compete with an App Store that has hundreds of thousands of applications and a wide range of options where the average price paid is around $1.20 and there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of free applications that are really high quality. So I just don?t think Sony?s going to be able to compete with that."
Nintendo has seen enthusiastic sales for its new 3DS handheld gaming device, but has been clearly pinched by the growth of Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and now the iPad in taking over territory in a space it has almost exclusively dominated for decades.
My failures, your fault
Hawkins, once Apple's director of strategy and marketing, left the company in 1982 to found Electronic Arts. In 1991 he left EA to launch the failed 3DO gaming platform, which after attempting to transition itself into a games developer, went bankrupt and sold off its assets to French game publisher Ubisoft.
He's now running Digital Chocolate, which creates scores of games for mobile platforms, including Apple's iOS. However, he's not happy about the App Store, complaining that the company has "over-encouraged supply."
Hawkins told CNN that on average, the App Store earns publishers "$4,000 per application. Do you see a problem with that? That doesn't even pay for a really good foosball table," he told the audience from his conference panel post.
Apple now has over 400,000 iOS apps in its library, and recently said it has paid out $2 billion to developers. About a third of those are free, so even on average apps make far more than the $4,000 Hawkins said, even before advertising revenues are included. But more importantly, the App Store is a meritocracy, where good apps make a lot while thousands of junk apps make little or nothing.
"If we can't figure out how to make it a healthy ecosystem, it's not going to be a great business for developers to be able to remain employed in," Hawkins complained, before turning his attention to Nintendo, which originated the concept of a hardware platform creator licensing third party development and charging a cut of software developers' revenues.
"We used to have a free and open game business, and then Nintendo came along and introduced a thing called a licensing agreement," Hawkins said.
In 2008, Hawkins praised Apple's new App Store after his Digital Chocolate successfully launched several apps to "spectacularly pleasant surprise," but today he's changed his tune to say that the "overcrowding" of the App Store makes it hard for many games to get noticed.
He has set his sights on web-based games, saying "there is a place that we can all gravitate to over the years. Think more about the browser. The browser will set you free." Hawkins didn't elaborate on how the number of web pages compare with App Store titles, how gamers will discover web-based games any easier than in Apple's App Store, or how developers will make money from web games.
Nintendo fears change
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime panned the market for mobile games (which competes with dedicated handheld devices like the Nintendo DS), saying "the only thing that concerns us is that it becomes a distraction for developers, and it ends up driving development effort down a path that potentially has very little return."
Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata stated earlier in the conference keynote that "the objectives of smartphones and social-network platforms are not at all like ours. Their goal is just to gather as much software as possible, because quantity is what makes the money flow. Quantity is how they profit. The value of video-game software does not matter to them."
"When I look at retailers, and I see the $1 and free software, I have to determine that the owner doesn't care about the high value of software at all," Iwata later added. "I fear our business is dividing in a way that threatens the continued employment of those of us who make games."
Nintendo has refused to make games for iOS or other platforms after shifting its business from software development on early 80s consoles from Atari, Coleco and the Mattell Intellivision into an integrated platform business that sells console hardware, creates first party games, and earns licensing revenue from third party game developers, a model very similar to Apple's iOS.
A market for mobile apps and games
Apple entered the mobile software market and revolutionized how smartphone software was sold, creating the first viable market for mobile software. Speaking at the company's shareholder meeting last month, the company's leader of iOS development Scott Forstall pointed out that Apple has, in the iOS App Store, "created the best economy in software in the history of the planet."
Apple also brought its smartphone market to the iPod touch, which focused on games, and later expanded to the iPad, which supports a wide range of games, productivity apps and creative media titles, including Apple's own Pages, Keynote and Numbers, and the soon to be released iMovie and GarageBand titles.
Like Nintendo and every other game console developer, Apple licenses third party development and imposes a platform cut that helps support the App Store market. The difference is that Apple runs its App Store near break even, while other game platform makers rely upon licensing for the bulk of their profits, often selling hardware at a loss, as Microsoft and Sony have historically done.
The console makers' business model, which imposes a much steeper cut and fees upon developers, also makes it far harder for small indie developers to launch titles. Apple's App Store turned the tables, allowing individual programmers to launch iOS apps on a level playing field with big game development companies.
Consoles head toward online gaming, indie developers
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have more recently attempted to address the needs of indie developers via new download-based online stores, ranging from Nintendo's WiiWare to Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade.
Last month, the developer of World of Goo noted that it launched its popular title for iPad to find much higher sales and revenues compared to the console online stores and even the Steam store for desktop Mac and PC games.
"In the short term, we still think that if an independent developer can get their game on a console it?s a safer bet than playing the App Store lottery," the company said, "but one might wonder whether, in the long run, it even matters who wins the PSN / WiiWare / XBLA race."
App Store predicted to kill PSP and leave NGP 'dead on arrival'
Other game developers are even more supportive of Apple's App Store model, with Ngmoco's chief executive Neil Young saying "I think [Sony's] PSP is done and the new [NGP successor] is dead on arrival.
"It?s really difficult to compete with an App Store that has hundreds of thousands of applications and a wide range of options where the average price paid is around $1.20 and there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of free applications that are really high quality. So I just don?t think Sony?s going to be able to compete with that."
Nintendo has seen enthusiastic sales for its new 3DS handheld gaming device, but has been clearly pinched by the growth of Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and now the iPad in taking over territory in a space it has almost exclusively dominated for decades.
Comments
Hawkins, once Apple's director of strategy and marketing, left the company in 1982 ... went bankrupt and sold off its assets to French game publisher Ubisoft.
He's now running Digital Chocolate, which creates scores of games for mobile platforms, including Apple's iOS. However, he's not happy about the App Store, complaining that the company has "over-encouraged supply."
I'm willing to bet that he's part of the Old Apple, the Apple that doesn't think how Steve Jobs thought and didn't like the man. And no doubt he's complaining when he has to compete in the real world against competitors versus trying to do marketing for a big company.
Move over Hawkins, figure out how to swim or just give up. Ngomoco clearly got it, why can't you? I think he'd gain more respect by blogging about how lousy his apps are nowadays because no one's heard of them because no one's been recommending them (hint: they're junk games and simplistic too compared to the competition)... and that he needs to clean up his act. He decides instead to take his rage out on Apple, instead of accepting responsibility for his own faults. But haters gonna hate, I guess.
But more importantly, the App Store is a meritocracy, where good apps make a lot while thousands of junk apps make little or nothing.
I'm trying to figure out the bad in this
Those who can, do. Those who can't, well, they piss and moan about it apparently.
exactly, amen.
Apple now has over 400,000 iOS apps in its library, and recently said it has paid out $2 billion to developers. About a third of those are free, so even on average apps make far more than the $4,000 Hawkins said, even before advertising revenues are included. But more importantly, the App Store is a meritocracy, where good apps make a lot while thousands of junk apps make little or nothing.
Is it any wonder he's confused about the success of the app store
It will be interesting to see how Apple handles this. For now I will rely on MacWorld to let me know the best app in a certain category is the one to choose.
Best
Is it any wonder he's confused about the success of the app store
That's the article writer's comment, not Hawkins. The writing is a bit confusing.
I think he has a valid point...it's easy to say that the App store is a meritocracy, but if good apps are mingled in with poor apps then the good apps are increasingly hard to find.
How's that? Lots of good apps rise to the top via word of mouth in the media. Like selling any product, you have to get good buzz going.
Gaming is changing. People are sick of paying $60 for a game and $29 for additions when they can have fun for under $10. Developers can now sit at home and write games which hasn't been possible since the early 1980's.
If anyone is greedy, it's Trip Hawkins. I suggest he wake up or he's going to be a middle aged gamer that can't find a job.
I think he has a valid point... [...]
It will be interesting to see how Apple handles this. For now I will rely on MacWorld to let me know the best app in a certain category is the one to choose. Best
Indeed. I sourced my apps from charts, web reviews and Apple's own promotions. If those whiners can't make to any of the three above then why don't they just quit since they're not that bothered to market theirs to make it look good or even make a good app worth a mention in the first place.
Worth to mention, if you happen to stumble upon a v. good app/games that deserve recognition shout it to the world, would you!
Being a former QA tester at a popular gaming company that has been at both the bottom and top I can see where Trip Hawkins is coming from. He wants the foosball table in his million office developing the next billion dollar game.
Gaming is changing. People are sick of paying for a game and for additions when they can have fun for under Developers can now sit at home and write games which hasn't been possible since the early 1980's.
If anyone is greedy, it's Trip Hawkins. I suggest he wake up or he's going to be a middle aged gamer that can't find a job.
+1
Also, good app/games will find their own way up no matter what. Too bad stupid games are at the bottom.
I think he has a valid point...it's easy to say that the App store is a meritocracy, but if good apps are mingled in with poor apps then the good apps are increasingly hard to find.
How does one find, in the millions of web pages out there, the dozen or so that you think warrants a bookmark? .... Same idea, no? The cream usually, if not always, rises to the top. "Build it, and they will come".
Less foosball, more marketing, fella. It's time to move out of the frat house and grow up.
I'm trying to figure out the bad in this
I had much the same response. Crap doesn't make money and never has. Frankly it sounded like he felt entitled to a profit no matter how much effort he puts into it.
""$4,000 per application. Do you see a problem with that? That doesn't even pay for a really good foosball table"
Less foosball, more marketing, fella. It's time to move out of the frat house and grow up.
I just flat out don't believe his numbers either. They are at odds with the rest of the article and everything we've ever heard about the app store.
It's easy to see how iOS and the app store have destroyed or lowered the value of console apps but to argue as he seems to be doing that no one is making money in the app store because of it's very popularity is just strange.
The article is spectacularly poorly worded though so it's hard to know if he's actually an idiot or if the article is just written that way.
But more importantly, the App Store is a meritocracy, where good apps make a lot while thousands of junk apps make little or nothing.
...
The console makers' business model, which imposes a much steeper cut and fees upon developers, also makes it far harder for small indie developers to launch titles. Apple's App Store turned the tables, allowing individual programmers to launch iOS apps on a level playing field with big game development companies.
Two best points in the article. Completely agree.
This guy seems to have a knack for leaving companies just before they get really big lol. No solution is going to be perfect, but at least the App Store lets anyone who has the will and creativity to create an app do so for a fee that anyone can afford. I think that's a big unsung point. In the 80s, many of my favourite games were written by small independents. That's back, and it's great to see.
There's nothing to stop developers advertising their App Store games just like they have always advertised traditional games. If you rely on Apple to lead the customers to your door, you can't complain when you find your app lost in the crowd. Advertise your app in magazines, tele, just like you do your Xbox and PS3 titles. If you believe in your app, why not?
URLs?
Everything I've read shows a very long tail: the top 100 make very good money, the second and third hundred make about as much as many small desktop software companies, and the other 399,700 make somewhere between a minimum wage and zero.
But if you have stats that can show even a tenth of iOS devs making more than they could make doing IT work ($100k-$150k annually) I'd love to read it.
Who cares? it's not Apple's job to guarantee them a six-figure income.
Apple created a marketplace. Just like any other marketplace, people are free to participate if they wish or pass on it if they don't. if they choose to participate, their income will be controlled by how good they are. it would be foolish (and bad for the market) if Apple arbitrarily started cutting apps just so other developers could make more money. If a developer doesn't make enough money to be happy, he's free to drop out (which doesn't seem to be happening, so the evidence is that developers are, by and large, content.
Oh, and btw, all the revenue figures are missing a very important element. The value of advertising supporting those apps isn't included.