Careful about the price change.

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

Just want to remind everyone be more careful about your price change.

People got angry easily when they saw the price is lower than what they paid, and will hence rate your app low. Also, One star rating might significantly low down your average rating.

Here is the story:
I didn’t notice that my two promotions are too closely.
($0.99 for iPad2 goes on sale on 3/10)
(FREE for OpenFeint FREE Game of the Day 3/14)
One person who spent $0.99 felt unhappy when he saw the app is free today.
He complained that in a game forum and left me a very bad rating.

While most independent app developers like me didn’t expect others see our app as a product, it is a product. Our buyers might assumed us a greedy game company who just wants to suck more money from them, even if we didn’t really make any big money at all.

So please be more careful before you change the price, sometimes people hate that!
[import]uid: 4992 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 307819[/import]

#2

Great feedback. Sorry to hear the 1 star rating. But hopefully other developers can heed your advice. [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 27890[/import]

#3

I’m also sorry to hear about the rating, however if there was only one try not to beat yourself up about it - there used to be this silly kid who lurked at GS, if he got a promo or an app was free for a day he’d immediately leave a horrible review - often followed up with bizarre, poorly worded emails sent anonymously and I guess supposed to be offensive.

Anyway, my point is not to let one or two idiots ruin things; the poor ratings I got on apps that didn’t deserve them from this guy didn’t seem to hurt sales, in one case it actually improved sales - my app had no reviews and was up for a few months, he left a horrid little 1 star rant and since then sales have actually been higher. (Wasn’t featured, didn’t get any promotion, the only thing to change was his one rating.)

Might have been coincidence but either way, it definitely didn’t hurt sales :slight_smile: [import]uid: 10144 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 27936[/import]

#4

Thanks for all the kind words.

After free game of the day (In collaboration with OpenFeint), my app got 22,800 downloads and lots of 1 star rating (sigh…). I will write another post to share my experience. People don’t value free. Most of reviewers complained that the app couldn’t run on their old device (iPhone 2g, iPod Touch 2gen) while I’ve mentioned that in the description. Others left one star rating just for fun, or things have nothing to do with my app :

“2 star rating Delay - Well this isn’t really a game review but it’s kind of a complaint when open feint said this game would be free for A DAY. The are actually lying this game has been free for 2 days I’m not trying to be mean honestly I luv open feints games more than any game I’m just wondering why they make it free for more than 1 day when they say it is only free for 1 day”

There is nothing I can do to response this kind of reviews. Hey… I guess indie app developers need a support group~~~ [import]uid: 4992 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 27944[/import]

#5

That is kind of sad that people do that. I have always thought of apps as a product, of course, but never one to get so upset over - its $0.99!

It is a valuable lesson, though. One that I would have not thought of on my own - thank you for sharing! [import]uid: 13726 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 32458[/import]

#6

man that non-review to complain about OpenFeint is just bizarre.

First off, if you want to complain to OpenFeint then complain to them.

Second, who complains about too much free anyway? sheesh the things some people complain about [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 32464[/import]

#7

One thing that might help in terms of those users giving poor ratings because it won’t run in 2G devices is this:

http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/03/15/dont-want-1-star-rating

Basically if you set your target IOS version wisely, you can remove 2G devices from your potential user-base and let’s face it - those people can’t really play the games anyway so they aren’t going to be your customers…

Sorry to hear about the poor ratings though… [import]uid: 9428 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 32531[/import]

#8

@Lilarcor
Yes. This is very important!!!

People use ipod touch 2g/iphone 2g will eventually give your app a 1-star rating because of the bad performance. I will add this to my next update too. [import]uid: 4992 topic_id: 7819 reply_id: 32739[/import]