Which is better, ads in games or pay for game up front?

[ThinkertonGames]

As a developer I find players are less willing to pay up front, which is a shame as I'd much rather create paid games and focus purely on giving players the best experience.

With my new games I'm trying to avoid spamming the player with ads - my game More! Gold! Now! has a banner ad and then rewarded video ads which you can choose to watch. You can choose to remove the ads in a coin doubler/remove ad IAP.

That seems to work quite well - I've not had any complaints yet about the ads but like I said, I would rather just make paid apps.

As far as monetization for the developer this looks the way to go these days. I recently had to release a free (ad-supported) version of my Android game purely because of the piracy rate, in the first month I had 1500 sales but 20,000 unique installs tracked!

But yes, as a purchaser, I'd rather know what I'm getting up front and pay for it.

 

[Ledsteplin]

The ads in free versions didn't use to be all that bad. But now there's more than one ad often and those full page ads that count down and don't allow you to dismiss it until they're finished with their countdown. No, I don't like that at all. I'd rather pay up front for the app. Be done with it. What I rally hate are paid apps that have ads and/or in app purchases. I avoid those.

 

[bobdos]

Me too.

 

[Silk ASMR]

Prefer ads, with iap option to remove ads.

 

[cbDev]

I rarely spend money on games anymore. I don't play games as often as I used to so there is more than enough free material out there to waste my time on. A few ads are expected and don't bother me at all but I make a point to rate apps with too many ads 1 star. I will also occasionally watch a video ad in order to earn an in-game reward.

 

[Aris Christofi]

upfront is always cheaper but it can have in app purchases as well