@Rob Miracle : Any word on whether or not the Applovin plug-in will be offered for an annual fee without the 5% being deducted? Would be great to have all plug-ins available including that one as an option to business devs. Thanks!
I’ve not heard any discussion on plans to move AppLovin and FAN to flat-rate paid models. Right now we believe some people are happy with having revenue share based options.
Rob
@Rob Miracle, is there not a way to have two versions of the ad plugins? One with a rev share and one with a flat fee? Smaller users will continue to use the revenue share, bigger users will likely pay the fee upfront. I believe I suggested this earlier in the thread.
@Vince_ it’s software so just about anything is possible. But you still have to consider the amount of engineering involved. I don’t believe this would be a trivial matter but instead a major project touching multiple aspects of the company to accomplish.
We have to measure the value of dual mode plugins vs. the value that same amount engineering could be used on other things we need to get done.
So for now, things are going to stay the way they are. We will continue to evaluate things and adapt.
Rob
@Rob Miracle: It doesn’t seem to me like it would take much to have dual plug-ins. You would just have to remove the code that gives Corona the 5% fee, and let the dev keep 100% revenue.
Larger devs like us won’t use plug-ins that take a commission, so it’s money you’re leaving on the table. Either way, it should strongly be considered since it seems Corona is going that direction with other ad plug-ins too.
Makes sense to offer them for an annual fee, and if Applovin is of more value than the others, why not offer it for a higher fee? Doesn’t make any sense to not give people options.
We are not using any plug-ins that take a fee at all, I will pay for them like the Admob ones, but I will not succumb to using one that charges 5% commission.
I never dreamed you would charge to use Google’s ad platform, I thought that would be against their policy for sure, that’s why I used them in the first place, I thought Admob belonged to Google not Corona, it didn’t cross my mind that you make the plugin to use it.
Well that’s me finished then, my game has only made $150 in ad revenue in a year with Admob and that’s one of the best performing ad platforms. I guess that if I tried one of the free plugins the revenue would be far worse so I would be better off removing ads all together, before Corona decides to charge for those too, and be done with it.
This might surprise you but there are some people in this world (me included) that simply can not afford $199, to me that is a huge amount of money. It seems to me that the lucky dev’s who make thousands of dollars from their apps are getting a fantastic deal and poor dev’s like me are getting shafted before we get the chance to make any real money, and now we’ll never know.
You need to seriously look at a subscription tier system so that poor people like me can afford to use all of Corona’s features and then pay more when and if we start to make some serious money from our efforts. Seriously, not everyone has the same income, the average wage where I live is about $3 an hour but the cost of living is the same as the UK or the USA. What’s wrong with charging high earners and not charging new dev’s? I can’t see you losing out in a fair system like that, as it is I think you’re in danger of losing the next new wave of wanna be game developers and losing the poor ones you’ve already got.
I’m disillusioned, is Corona now only for rich folk? It’s nice to see so many of them here congratulating you on the price drop from ridiculous to expensive.
Corona SDK has to make money somehow. Before when they were charging for the Pro license, there were not enough subscribers, so they decided to open up the platform to everyone by making it free.
Admob will not allow Corona to take a % of ad revenue, it’s not set up the way Applovin is set up. So they have to make money somehow, otherwise there would be no Corona engine.
There would be only 2 options available to them - charge for use of the engine much like other engines like Unity do OR open it up to the public for free, and charge for use of the plug-ins. How do you expect Corona to make money from their engine to pay their employees?
Additionally, Applovin is a much better ad plug-in than Admob. Admob is a very good CPC network plug-in, but overall we have found that Applovin is a better ad network commanding higher CPM’s.
You should try switching your ads over to Applovin and see how it performs for you before throwing in the towel.
Corona SDK is still giving options - you don’t have to use Admob, there are plenty of other ad plug-ins you can use that don’t charge an up-front fee.
Overall I am personally not happy with all the flip-flopping Corona has done in the last few months with various offerings, but finally, I feel as though they are headed in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the solution will not satisfy everyone, but the bottom line is that Corona SDK HAS to make money in order too survive. It’s plain & simple.
Wish you the best of luck with your apps.
I totally get, of course Corona has to make money or we lose it but there has to be a better way.
What I say is go back to the old license system but have more affordable tiers in it instead of having either a free (useless), expensive or very expensive 3 tier system like they had before.
Tier 1 - Instead of free - $20 a month unrestricted (App revenue below $10,000 a year).
Tier 2 - Instead of $599 a year (with a year up front which I could never afford) - $50 a month (App revenue $10,000 - $50,000 a year)
Tier 3 - Instead of whatever the most expensive one was make it even more expensive.
Or even better and a hell of a lot fairer for everyone…
Scrap the whole tier system, make everything available for free, and take a percentage of all app revenue which is readily available information?
@QuizMaster: I doubt $20 a month would be sufficient enough for them to stay afloat. Gamesalad charges $29 a month for their engine, and it has nowhere near the amount of features Corona has. The $50 tier sounds reasonable, but I don’t believe people would pay for that.
I agree that a tier system would have been better, but there’s a reason why they ditched the Pro license in the first place. People were simply not paying.
It makes more sense fiscally for them to open up the game engine as free to use for everyone, and if they wish to use Ad Plugins in their games, then they have to pay in order to monetize with other options.
As is, the game engine is free to use with iAP, and other features that not even Gamesalad can compete with. You are still free to use Applovin too, one of the best CPI ad networks around. Why not try that out?
Regarding your suggestion to scrap the whole system and take a % of ad revenue from everyone - Admob won’t allow it. Not all ad networks can accommodate a revenue share system. It just wouldn’t work with Admob with the way things are set up.
Because Applovin only uses an SDK key (one for all apps) it made it easier for them to program the plug-in in such a way where they can net 5% of the earnings. Admob, because of the nature of how they set up the ID’s would be impossible for Corona to do so, unless they billed the client, and I don’t see that going over well at all.
If Admob won’t let Corona take a cut then don’t allow it.
I’ve never been a fan of Corona being free, I think it’s a terrible idea financially but I’m in the 50% of the population that simply doesn’t have $599 sitting in their bank account. However. $20 a month IS affordable (even for me), surely it’s better to make a little from everyone than to charge a lot for a privileged few? And if your app starts making $1000+ a month why would $50 a month be unreasonable? I think everyone would go for that, I would gladly.
@QuizMaster: I think you’re missing the entire point. Corona had a model similar to what you are referring to. It was called “Pro” and that didn’t work out for them. People were not paying for the license, and they were using the engine’s features and not paying.
These models that they have presented ensure a bright future for Corona, unless you prefer the alternative of them closing doors? Not sure what else you would expect them to do to stay afloat. Hard times for a lot of companies now, & this seems like the most reasonable effort to please all developers.
I think you are getting tunnel vision with the Admob plug-in. Try the Applovin one, you might be surprised 
I’m looking at Applovin now, I’m not happy about messing with my code and testing a new ad system while my app is live. I had a horrible experience when I got a variable’s name wrong and got a flood of uninstalls and negative reviews, ruined my Christmas.
Looks like Ive got now choice but to use Applovin so I’m going to use it.
@QuizMaster: that’s a bummer 
I think you’ll find that Applovin could be better, especially for iOS apps. I wish that it was available without the 5% being taken out, but we are choosing to use Admob until they offer it for a fee. Good luck!
Thanks @JBean, unfortunately I can’t make an iOS version because I can’t afford an Apple computer, not even a second hand one. I tried Mac In Cloud but it was impossible, wasted 2 weeks trying all sorts of workarounds, it’s a shame because my game would make a hell of a lot more money with iOS for sure but that’s life, money goes to money.
@QuizMaster: Too bad you can’t invest in hiring someone to help publish your app for you to iTunes? Seems like if it’s that popular on android, you should see if someone can help or assist with getting it on the apple store. Good luck!
Oh well, I really liked AdMob but now will have to use another ad delivery option. I only have 6 apps out there and I don’t earn enough from ads to justify $199 per year. I was perfectly happy with losing 5% to Corona since this is basically a hobby for me.
Corona, it sure would be nice if you could offer two versions of the plugins. The paid version for those who can afford it and the free version for us part time developers just playing around. Myself and probably many other small developers are more than happy to lose 5% ad revenue since we can’t justify the paid version yet. Seems this way Corona would still be able to earn money from both scenarios. I ask that you, Corona, please consider two options, the paid option and the free option. This should make everyone happy.
Thanks,
Guy
It would take a lot of infrastructure work to support a platform that would support the split model. Having two different plugins is a non-starter because it’s double the work to maintain, double the work to document etc. We have plenty of other great choices to use.
Rob
@guybryant: Admob never took 5% revenue ever, it was always a free to use plug-in but it was never updated properly. Now they are keeping it maintained, and charging a fee to maintain it. Admob wouldn’t work with the 5% model, as it is not set up for that. So that is why Corona choose to have this one as paid.
The structure of Applovin makes it easier for Corona to take 5% revenue, Admob is not set up that way just for clarification.
Just wondering, how will this affect Enterprise users ?
Do Enterprise users need to purchase :
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the plugin (e.g. AdMob) to use it with Corona (SDK build) ?
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the plugin for Enterprise builds (which are using AdMob plugin) ?
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the plugin for Enterprise builds (which are using AdMob .jar file) ?
Thanks