| BenVTrigger said:
Here's a hint Angry Birds has been downloaded over 50 million times. You would be a fool if your a game developer and you didn't recognize the vastly growing trend of quick, casual, cheap games. |
The thing is there is one Angry Birds and by any reasonable count anywhere between 10,000-20,000 iOS/Android games that probably haven't been downloaded even 1,000 times.
None of these games generate the kind of revenue Infamous, God of War or Killzone have, and frankly, none of them were even trying.
Even at 50 million downloads (at $.99), Angry Birds generated less revenue than any $60 retail game that sold 1 million, of which there have been many (anyone care to count them this generation, be my guest). It's not uncommon.
And before anyone tries to bring up the budget/profit point; you can stop. That's not the point here. Everyone knows Angry Birds has been one of the most profitable games released in recent memory.
So if any developer on a minimal budget can reproduce the success of Angry Birds, I think they would if they could. But like catching lighting in a bottle, it's an extremely rare occurrence.
The point here is never use one example as proof of a trend.
Angry Birds isn't shovelware. Roxio took a simple, original concept with likeable design and executed it pretty much perfectly which is why it sold as well as it did. Next to no portable app developers are capable of doing this without simply trying to copy or be derivative.
Most full priced apps whether they're $30-40 portable games or $60 retail console/PC games aren't even capable of doing this.
