It's awesome that they didn't want to engage in predatory behavior, but what they did was self-predatory, which is no better! The opposite of exploitative game design isn't a life of asceticism; it's value for money.
I'm not a big gamer, but on the first page of my phone's springboard I count $300+ of apps, some of which have ongoing subscription costs. That's money that I paid because I got value. I'm happy with every one of those purchases, no developer starvation required!
One objection I take to your post is that I don't believe the narrative that the App Store is just a lottery. As an example, Tripit raised $7m, built an app that makes my life better, charges me $40/yr, and sold to a corporate buyer for $120m. That's a fantastic, real business.
On the flip side, these guys built an app with ARPU of $0.013.
Tripit didn't win a lottery; they provided big value and got paid because of it.
I'm not a big gamer, but on the first page of my phone's springboard I count $300+ of apps, some of which have ongoing subscription costs. That's money that I paid because I got value. I'm happy with every one of those purchases, no developer starvation required!
One objection I take to your post is that I don't believe the narrative that the App Store is just a lottery. As an example, Tripit raised $7m, built an app that makes my life better, charges me $40/yr, and sold to a corporate buyer for $120m. That's a fantastic, real business.
On the flip side, these guys built an app with ARPU of $0.013.
Tripit didn't win a lottery; they provided big value and got paid because of it.