Apple's free promotion led to 5.7M new downloads of 'Infinity Blade II'
Included last week as part of Apple's App Store fifth anniversary promotion, Chair Entertainment's "Infinity Blade II" saw its rate of downloads triple, with nearly 6 million new users added in just seven days.
The success of the promotion was revealed by Chair publicist Laura Mustard in an interview with AllThingsD. She revealed that 1.7 million downloads occurred on the first day of the promotion, totaling 5.7 million by the end of the week.
Those downloads came in three times faster than usual for Infinity Blade II, one of the premier gaming titles available for iOS. The game usually costs users $6.99 to download.
The game was one of a number of titles that Apple made free last week to celebrate five years since the iOS App Store opened. Others included Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Traktor DJ for iPad, and Barefoot World Atlas.
Though the 5.7 million downloads of Infinity Blade II were given away, Chair and publisher Epic Games may still come out on top, as the title also includes in-app purchases that allow players to obtain in-game currency for upgrades more quickly.
The sale also had a ripple effect, boosting downloads of the first "Infinity Blade," available for $5.99, by 2.5, as well as the $2.99 e-book title "Infinity Blade: Awakening" by 70 percent.
The success of Infinity Blade II came as another title, "Infinity Blade: Dungeons," was canceled by Chair and Epic. That game was shown off last year alongside the third-generation iPad with Retina display.
However, Chair Entertainment has confirmed that the Infinity Blade franchise will live on, with more games, books and other products said to be in the pipeline. Publisher Epic has also said that the "Infinity Blade" series on iOS is its most profitable series ever, even eclipsing the blockbuster "Gears of War" title for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.
The success of the promotion was revealed by Chair publicist Laura Mustard in an interview with AllThingsD. She revealed that 1.7 million downloads occurred on the first day of the promotion, totaling 5.7 million by the end of the week.
Those downloads came in three times faster than usual for Infinity Blade II, one of the premier gaming titles available for iOS. The game usually costs users $6.99 to download.
The game was one of a number of titles that Apple made free last week to celebrate five years since the iOS App Store opened. Others included Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Traktor DJ for iPad, and Barefoot World Atlas.
Though the 5.7 million downloads of Infinity Blade II were given away, Chair and publisher Epic Games may still come out on top, as the title also includes in-app purchases that allow players to obtain in-game currency for upgrades more quickly.
The sale also had a ripple effect, boosting downloads of the first "Infinity Blade," available for $5.99, by 2.5, as well as the $2.99 e-book title "Infinity Blade: Awakening" by 70 percent.
The success of Infinity Blade II came as another title, "Infinity Blade: Dungeons," was canceled by Chair and Epic. That game was shown off last year alongside the third-generation iPad with Retina display.
However, Chair Entertainment has confirmed that the Infinity Blade franchise will live on, with more games, books and other products said to be in the pipeline. Publisher Epic has also said that the "Infinity Blade" series on iOS is its most profitable series ever, even eclipsing the blockbuster "Gears of War" title for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.
Comments
If so, you could still consider it a clever move, because it's one more reason to buy an iPad. Or more accurately, one more reason 5.7 million people will be glad they did.
Wow! 5.7 million! If they could've charged a $1 each...they would've made...ahhhhh?????
Crap!!!!
Someone help me with the math!
Wish I had heard about this last week. Were these free apps listed here on AI?
Developers give away the apps, not Apple. The same goes for the various 12 days of Christmas promotions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by christopher126
Wow! 5.7 million! If they could've charged a $1 each...they would've made...ahhhhh?????
Crap!!!!
Someone help me with the math!
If they did three times more than normal, then normal is ~2 million downlaods per week at $6.99 per download for how many weeks?
So Apple served up 5,700 terabytes for one single App in one week? My internet connection can sustain about 10 MB/sec so it would take me 6597 days or 18 years to move that much data. Damn. No wonder Apple is building more server farms.
Sadly, the in-game currency purchase is ridiculously overpriced. And I mean RIDICULOUS.
2'500'000 coins for 50$, that's like buying an entire PC title. Needless to say 2'500'000 don't get you very far.
Are IAPs required to progress in the game, or are they just a shortcut for rich kids?
Just a shortcut. But my point was that they are arguably not going to make much money from IAPs because the prices are so prohibitive that I guess, most people will just grind the coins themselves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by G-News
Just a shortcut. But my point was that they are arguably not going to make much money from IAPs because the prices are so prohibitive that I guess, most people will just grind the coins themselves.
Not true at all. It's a common trend in freemium apps that while the majority of users make small purchases, the majority of sales come from the so-called "whales" who make ridiculously overpriced IAPs. I don't pretend to understand the mindset of these users, but it's a pretty well-known phenomenon. A 2-year old study from Flurry gave an average IAP of $14 per transaction, which is pretty high considering the great frequency of smaller transactions. The money they are making comes largely from those price points that most of us find prohibitive.