Hacker News Reader

Most of these articles are about the long tail of app developers who didn't make anything. I don't see how gaming is any different to that.

On a related note, this shows game developers are making their cash with in-app purchases, much as non-game app developers are increasingly making their money with subscription models.

View on HN

Is it really a long tail of app developers, or is it a long tail of non-competitive app monetization strategies? That is to say, if you make something just as "evil" as one of these social-pressure addiction machines, but it doesn't break the top ten (because there are already tons of other companies making social-pressure addiction machines), will it still be profitable (because it's a good model) or will it fail utterly (because it's in the long tail)?

Thanks!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com