By Beneath the harsh perception developers have regarding generating revenue on Android lie a few gems that produce tear-jerking success stories. One is that of Spacetime Studios’ – the popular Pocket Legends MMO for multiple platforms.
They profess that twice as many Android users download the game daily opposed to our iOS counterparts. (The rough numbers are 9,000 vs 3,000-4,000, if you care.) And download counts are only half the story: daily activity on Android is a lot higher than it is on iOS.
For Spacetime, that means more people will look to buy gold or other items using their real-world money. Even with the lack of a native in-app purchasing system, they are able to attract more paying customers than non-paying customers.
It’s a trend that is – unfortunately – not common in the Android market, but it gives us hope that we’ll soon reach a point where any developer can make money on Android. (Granted their app is halfway decent.)
CEO Gary Gattis says Android has definitely become their primary interest. If you haven’t seen it with their constant and timely updates, optimization for new devices, and other development, then perhaps you’ll believe them now. I’m not exactly sure why this is, but I’d venture to guess that the small amount of competition in the Android market has been a god-send for their efforts.
For users, this means more content will stream your way as they look to capitalize on a market where they seem to have found their groove. It also means more games as more studios look to emulate their success. For Spacetime, it means more money for them. That’s always a good thing. [via Computer World]
Good
FYI, Pocket Legends looks amazing on the Xoom :)
Way to go android! Clearly some devs are making plenty of money on the Android Market with ads, or we would have a paid version of the most popular games (ie Angry Birds, Words with Friends) by now.
This further propagates the idea that Android is for nerds.
All this means is that there are more MMO geeks on android (which makes sense)
@Jared it confirms the idea.
We need more games that build a long lasting community around the game. Not one shot games that you can beat in a day.
@ari most people however could care less about community within a game…
tell that to Blizzard and all those warcraft gamers
Nice. Good to hear stores like this with Android.
@ari nerds play those games, not average people. Hey i play pocket legends, but realistically mmo games will not advance the Android platform. The nerds already own android, android needs to court the average user who want mind numbing games.
(whines) ahh do we haaave to?
xperia play should bring in lots of mind numbing games to Android. But at least they will be fun to play with physical controls (I heard Crash Bandicoot for one and I saw the Bruce Lee video) and Sony’s backing.
Like has been said before, there are. More than likely A LOT more gamers using Android than iphones. I am a hardcore gamer. First thing I look at, even when buying a phone is high hardware specs and the freedom to do what I want. That takes iphone out of the picture :) perhaps if this trend continues, with Android handsets touting the best hardware, maybe we will begin to see Android turn into a fairly large mobile gaming platform :)
quite a milestone!
Well iPhone has more hard core games being tallied about than mind numbing.
@Storm your on crack.
In the top 148 apps I would count 8-10 games that are not mind numbing. Stop looking through geek glasses. Trust me I’m a huge geek and love playing games like Pocket Legends, but I’m also in business so I know that Android has the geeks covered as far as market share.
What Android needs to move forward from here is not more free handsets but more quality mind numbing games and apps. People could care less how awesome it is to root/flash OC. I love android being open and customizable, but its not a long term strategy. I want to see Android grow into a true Apple competitor, meaning Ease of use goes up.
Usability isn’t bad mind you; my wife has gotten used to her Evo eventually, but there is a grand canyon of room for improvement in Android functionality.
http://www.148apps.com/148-top-paid-games/
I love all the assumptions people are making on demographics, based on these numbers. Yet no one stops to think about how crappy Android software is over all, and the lack of A+ top tier games actually fighting for these dollars on the platform. Its not hard to see WHY they are making more money on Android than on the iPhone, less competition….
Jared has some good points, it’s the apps that Apple brags about the most. When Android equals that, Apple is in a world of hurt compared to just losing the top spot like they are now. Fortunately for us Android fans, the trend is working towards making that happen.
It will be just time before Android app developers catch up to iOS. Since iOS had at least a year head start. Peter, Founder Koowie.com
POCKET LEGENDS ROCK!!! Rocks the socks off peoples feet. I dont pay anything, there is ways to get free platinum that others pay for, and im past lvl 50. Love it!