Our first week in the Chrome Webstore: the numbers | Hacker News Reader

Our first week in the Chrome Webstore: the numbers

blog.lostdecadegames.com

83 pointsrichtaur9 comments

Many of the reviews (and my first impression) were "Oh. It's a flash game", which I'm habitually used to paying nothing for on Newsgrounds or Kongregate or wherever.

Given the number of people who are playing vs. the number buying I wonder if you might generate more revenue from advertising than from straight app sales.

That's a good point; we've thought about it. As a knee-jerk reaction, the idea doesn't sit well with us because it's a less-than-ideal experience. Users don't want to sit through or be saturated with ads, but I guess it does come with the "web-based game" territory.

Have a look into http://flashgamelicense.com if you haven't already. If you have a quality game, you can actually end up with a bit of a bidding war going on between potential licensees, and most deals allow you to sell again to other sites after an exclusivity period. Each of our Pretender games so far (http://launchingpadgames.com/games/the-pretender-trilogy/) has earned in the high four-figures, with zero in-game advertising except for fairly tasteful co-branding from the sponsoring sites.

Thanks for the info! We will definitely look into that.

I guess I don't really see it as an either/or scenario. Why not leave the app on Chrome app store and also put it into circulation on Kongregate or wherever?

> Newsgrounds

Newgrounds! I guess they could sort of be about the news if you include their topical news games (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/528055) but otherwise... maybe not :p

Site is down right now.

thanks for sharing the numbers! found that very interesting.

one suggestion that may make me pay, add collaborative multiplayer (where only one person have to pay for the game)

Multiplayer or even an iPhone/iPad version may help increase sales. Whatever happens in the long run, thank you for giving us this insight!

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