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Comment by bilekas | Hacker News Reader

This is cool, I love a good roguelike especially on my phone for flights and other time sinks.

I am curious though, why is the iOS version €4.99 but the Android version is free ? I've seen this a lot actually and have always wondered, I figured it might just be Apple's annual developer license fee but not sure.

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Yep that's exactly the reason, plus not wanting to compete with Pixel Dungeon. The developer talked about it when first announcing it was coming to iOS

> Shattered Pixel Dungeon will cost $5 US when it fully releases on the App Store. I’m charging because of a mix of Apple’s higher platform fees, not wanting to undercut Pixel Dungeon, and because Shattered is releasing in a much more finished state.

https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/shattered-pixel-dungeon-is-c...

I’m on iOS and I paid for it without hesitation. Evan deserves it, just read his blog for the game [1] to see how much he puts into it!

[1] https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/

Last time I checked, having an app on the Android app store costs $14 a year, vs $99 a year on the Apple app store

Isn't it that the Google Play store is a one-time $25 registration fee (and never again) but the Apple App store is $99 every year?

And also because historically iPhone users have been more inclined to pay for apps than Android users.

Can’t shake the thought that this is mostly caused by Apple not allowing easy side installs. Android making it easy to just install a custom app but not on iOS so basically the developer is (ab)using to let iOS users pony up install money.

I guess it is the same reason Anki isn't free either on iOS: you must pay Apple's dev account whether you make a profit or not

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