The true cost of free-to-play games

  > Most of us won't pay $1 for a great game, but will pay $99 in IAPs

Here's the difference: by the time you're even considering an in-app-purchase, you already know you love the app. Would you rather support a product that has given you lots of pleasure, or an unknown product that lobs a couple of screenshots before footing you the bill?

While I don't have much experience with purchases in iOS, I can say for sure that of the apps I've purchased through Android, all but one (around three dozen total) SUCKED. They had good reviews and good screenshots - that's what made me buy them - but they didn't follow through with the promise. I'm willing to take the <$5 risk to try a new game with "good" reviews and pretty "screenshots", but so far, empirically, it has almost always ended poorly.

... lending the more interesting question: how do we get out of THAT rut?

If you like the business decisions made by some developers, and you don't like the business decisions made by other developers, vote with your wallet and support the ones you like.

I just wish free to play games were a little more balanced. It shouldn't be almost impossible to play/finish the game without buying stuff in it. I think at least 30% of the people playing it should be able to do that given they put enough effort into it. If I get a game and notice I can't even pass level 5 without paying for stuff, even after multiple tries, then I'll be uninstalling it.

The game should be balanced in such a way that people who really don't want to pay for it, can finish it, while people who are "lazier" could pay for some stuff to get them over some levels. But even then it shouldn't be like $99 for a game, except maybe for 0.1% or less of the players. For the vast majority of those who play, it shouldn't cost them more than $5-$10.

I think this way you get a game that is very popular in downloads due to it being free to try and play, and it should also make at least as much money as if costing $5-$10, but because it's free to try, and it could get addicting, and also because some players may spend tens of dollars on it, then it also has the potential to make a lot more. Just don't make it so anyone who wants to finish it must spend tens of dollars on it.