Fuse Acquires Corona!

[joe528]

After reading the FAQ & the forum thread, the feeling as a Corona subscriber…

• Fuse: let’s get AdRally implemented asap, we will see how much money it can bring in by acquiring Corona

• CoronaLabs: although we cashed out, we will continue working on it as usual

• Corona subscriber: Corona will soon have a new Ad module

Maybe it’s not correct. Just a feeling.

The most important question is … After the acquisition, will Corona be expanding (e.g. hiring more people immediately, for example, another 20 people), or it just stays as it is?

Can Corona answer this?

[appilee]

I’m seriously pleased for the Corona Labs team. This is great news! Congratulations. Can’t wait to see where you take this platform next…

[darren.chee]

As a developer, I’m not sure what this deal will lead to. But, seriously I hope Corona will have better fund to hire and offer more technical support to developers from this deal. The technical support is very limited to developers for Corona especially on Enterprise version I’m dealing now, there are still difficulties in combining Native java code and Corona code. Hope to see a change for Corona.

[ingemar]

Being venture-backed, CoronaLabs have not published any investor news for quite some time. I personally think lack of cash is one of the main reasons for the acquisition. I hope this new partnership will be beneficial for both companies to drive forward the development of the Corona SDK.

I for one would like to know more about Fuse Powered. I had never heard of them before. Who are they, what is their plan for the future?

From what I could scrape together myself, they are also a venture-backed company founded in August 2009 with headquarters in Canada (Toronto).

http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/fuse-powered

[ingemar]

…also I’d like to know which ad networks do Fuse Powered serve ads from? I can’t find any info about it except that they serve ads from “30+ ad networks”.

I’d like to see a breakdown of which ad networks provide ads for:

• Static interstitials

• Video ads

• Rewarded ads 

[PXL_artificer]

Wishing Corona good luck… but I’d also like to know more about Fuse Powered.

Basically all the pages on their website (excluding a page on how to add their AdRally framework to a project and a very short faq (http://wiki.adrally.com/index.php/AdRally_Frequently_Asked_Questions)) are just kinda generic mission statement pages with nice illustrations and infographics but very few real informations.
Also, searching for AdRally reviews and opinions on Google and developers forums and such gives absolutely no results…

[ojnab]

Did you see thishttp://venturebeat.com/2014/11/04/fuse-powered-acquires-2d-game-engine-maker-corona-labs-exclusive/

[ingemar]

@ojnab
I saw that, but that’s basically just a regurgitation of what we’ve already seen. I guess the best thing to do is wait until the dust settles before we get a more clear picture of what this actually means long term.

[dkla27]

Is this acquisition going to affect access to currently available monetization options (plugins …)?

Did they ask for exclusive use of their network for ads?

[Lerg]

@dkla27, no, you can use anything you like, no forcing of use of adrally.

[DavidRangel]

Hey everyone - to answer the questions about Fuse, we are trying to set up a Corona Geek show (and individual videos) soon with Jon (Fuse CEO), just subject to travel schedules. We’ll post more info on that here.

In fact, if you have questions for Jon post them here and we’ll see if we can answer them. Of course, we are a private company, so there are things we won’t be able to answer. But if you have any specific questions go ahead and we’ll see what we can do.

[cspence]

@roballison182

I’m thinking more and more that Corona is not the framework for indie game developers. I’m so sick of seeing all these new features about IAP, adverts and getting as much money from players as possible. I know this model works for a lot of people and I wish them the best of luck with it, but I find it frustrating. I was really hoping that corona would go down the route of building for more platforms, but that seems quite stale now.

Good luck with everything though. I’ll probably be using corona for some time yet. I just want to make great games with great features and on as many platforms as possible. No adverts, no IAP, just great gameplay and a one of purchase price.

98%+ of apps in the app store are free for a reason, users don’t want to pay up front.  Unless you have a really good following, brand name, or truly unique concept using paid up front will not likely work well.  This is why IAP and Ads are so important, as it is virtually impossible to make money on the apps store (unless your a big established brand) without it.

As for Platforms, that’s always been Corona’s problem.  They are extremely slow to add platforms, lots of broken promises, and their priorities are not the same as their customers.

[akao]

Congrats on the acquisition David & Walter!

Just to chime in our 2-cents. Our preference is actually that Corona focus their resources on helping developers develop apps that are more sophisticated and can get up the chart. In the past few years, it’s becoming more the case that the largest developers generate the staggering percentage of the profit in the store. And unless more of Corona’s own developer base can start experiencing  that level of success, it’s a matter of time that they get squeeze out of the market. 

So, instead of adding more platforms, I would actually like to see more focus on addressing issues within the existing platforms, and addressing them quickly. For example, we have run into bug in the network code, performance with the zip plugin, various bugs in the filters, support for SD Card, etc. We feel that while these are the kinds of issues that are relevant for apps that maybe are a bit more sophisticated, they are also necessary for apps that can ultimately top the chart. 

As for new platforms, while we like them as well. The bulk of the $$ is still in the iOS and Android markets, so helping developers generate more revenue out of those markets seems like a better bet for everyone. 

[spacewolf]

@akao

Congrats on the acquisition David & Walter!

Just to chime in our 2-cents. Our preference is actually that Corona focus their resources on helping developers develop apps that are more sophisticated and can get up the chart. In the past few years, it’s becoming more the case that the largest developers generate the staggering percentage of the profit in the store. And unless more of Corona’s own developer base can start experiencing  that level of success, it’s a matter of time that they get squeeze out of the market. 

So, instead of adding more platforms, I would actually like to see more focus on addressing issues within the existing platforms, and addressing them quickly. For example, we have run into bug in the network code, performance with the zip plugin, various bugs in the filters, support for SD Card, etc. We feel that while these are the kinds of issues that are relevant for apps that maybe are a bit more sophisticated, they are also necessary for apps that can ultimately top the chart. 

As for new platforms, while we like them as well. The bulk of the $$ is still in the iOS and Android markets, so helping developers generate more revenue out of those markets seems like a better bet for everyone. 

I feel like Corona has two major benefits: ease of use, and cross-platform deployment. I think closing off the latter in favor of doing other things would be a crippling move. It seems odd to me that so many people are complaining about the new addition of the windows phone 8 deployment.

Corona has been behind in adopting this new platform and is in fact still behind as competitors are offering even more platforms. I hope that Corona will make it a high priority to keep expanding platforms such as the windows store, html5, desktop, etc.

[joe528]

@spacewolf

I feel like Corona has two major benefits: ease of use, and cross-platform deployment. I think closing off the latter in favor of doing other things would be a crippling move. It seems odd to me that so many people are complaining about the new addition of the windows phone 8 deployment.

Corona has been behind in adopting this new platform and is in fact still behind as competitors are offering even more platforms. I hope that Corona will make it a high priority to keep expanding platforms such as the windows store, html5, desktop, etc.

I was also very interested in cross-platform earlier. But after I started to make apps into the markets, I realized cross-platform is not that important. If you can’t make an outstanding product, you can’t make any decent money even if you can make your app available over 10 platforms. Now I actually want to go back to native coding and focus on iOS only (80% of my income is from here).

If you have limited resources (men & time), you must make choices in where to spend them. A lot of people (I am one of them) think putting resources into WP8 is not as benefitciary as into other things, such as bug fixing & other important features that will help developers to build a better product.

[spacewolf]

I do make a lot more money off iOS than I do android. But I make just as much money on the Windows Store and Windows Phone 8 as I do on iOS (I have built native games on wp8 and windows before). I guess my point is you never know on which store your game is going to be a hit. It can be much more successful on some than on others for whatever reason. I’d like to have more choices rather than less

[PXL_artificer]

Completely agree with spacewolf.

Easy of use (1) and relatively fast cross-platform deployment (2) are probably the most important points of Corona.

The more you focus on the core (opengl graphics, few native elements, avoid platform specific features), the more deploying on multiple platforms is fast and painless.

At the same time, the language syntax and the api are easy to learn and master, allowing you to release apps in short time.

Said that, I realize I’m not using the cross-platform aspect as much as I thought when I started using Corona. And since, like joe528, the majority of my revenue comes from a single platform (iOS), switching to native coding is getting more and more attractive (especially now with Swift).

For the moment I’m sticking with Corona because it’s just incredibly easy and fast to develop with and there’s still the option -if I want to- to release apps on multiple platforms. 

In the end, it all depends by the direction the new FusePowered-owned CoronaLabs is going to take, and that’s something not really clear at the moment.  

What I’m wondering is… Will Fuse let CoronaLabs work 100% on Corona or will instead use the Corona team to create new products for their core business (for example, interactive ad platform running on something similar to CoronaCards?)

I’m very confident in CoronaLabs, but let’s wait and see the next developments… for now, it’s really way too early to tell. 

[joe528]

Sure, I am not saying you can’t make good money in other platforms. I just think if you can build a great product that can make decent money (probably we have different perspectives towards “decent money”), you can always spend more resources to re-write the app for other platforms because you have a proven product already. It’s too early to consider cross-platform before the app is proven to be a big hit. But if your strategy is not about big money with a few apps, you may want the cross-platform feature more badly.

So there are two options with limited resources: make more platforms available or implement more features… There are always debate because people have different strategies.

That’s why I asked a question earlier in this thread (but not answered)… Does this acquisition mean adding more resources (man power) to CoronaLabs?

If so, it’s truly a great news for us that CoronaLabs can achieve two options at the same time, isn’t it?

If not, the acquisition doesn’t mean much for us, at least for now.

[PXL_artificer]

I would also like joe58 question answered. And I’m looking forward to the next Corona Geek show with the Fuse CEO to get an idea of what the future holds (hope it’s not going to be just generic PR lines) .

The only thing we know right now is that, besides integrating AdRally in Corona, no other changes have been announced… doubt they just bought Corona to add their ads library.

Basically, did Fuse believe in CoronaSDK as a product and acquired CoronaLabs to invest and expand it (adding more resources and man power)?

Or was Fuse more interested in some aspect/technology of CoronaSDK (and its team), and the focus is going to shift from CoronaSDK to another new product?  

If the acquisition means more resources and focus on Corona, hey, that’s awesome.

EDIT: Oh, ok, the new Corona Geek is online… let’s see

[ksan]

@PXL\_artificer

Basically, did Fuse believe in CoronaSDK as a product and acquired CoronaLabs to invest and expand it (adding more resources and man power)?

Or was Fuse more interested in some aspect/technology of CoronaSDK (and its team), and the focus is going to shift from CoronaSDK to another new product?  

Only time will tell. Nothing that is said or written now can be taken as an absolute truth. It is a private business acquiring another private business and they have no obligation to tell us anything other than what they would like us to believe for us to remain committed to this platform.