HappySqurriel on 22 January 2013
The ios business model works really well if you produce tiny applications, can get massive volume (tens of millions of downloads), or can convince enough people to pay for the real version of your game; most developers don't see any of these happening. Quite a few projects I know of had development costs of $100,000 to $200,000 and are seeing tens of dollars a month in advertising revenue, and they get dozens of people a day to pay for the full version and they get about $0.50 per copy sold.
I really wouldn't be surprised if, while total downloads might be far smaller, far more people buy the typical 3DS game and the developer gets more money per copy sold.
