The Forgotten Shores of App Store pricing – Interesting discussion over Monument Valley and appropriate App Store pricing. I think there’s one point that Six Colors misses: a lot of users (including me) now have a negative association with in-app purchases. I associate it with Zynga and Farmville and all those scammy “Freemium” games that really were about tricking kids into buying lots of add-ons. Every time I play an iPad game with my nieces and nephews, they’re constantly clicking on the big attractive ads to “unlock” additional paid content. I stopped playing Words with Friends once I discovered people could buy hints (aka cheat). So for better or worse, I think of in-app purchase as a bit of a scam. I have a negative reaction when I see the option. I know that’s silly and by no means universal, and I’m definitely not someone that would leave a one-star review over it. But I do think it’s a factor that game developers need to consider going forward.
And don’t get me started about idiots who give one-star reviews for spiteful, whinging reasons. Ugh. Once this guy gave a one-star review to an app I’d help build thanking us for finally adding a feature that he really wanted and saying it worked great, but that he was giving a one-star review “because it took so long”.