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

[markbw13]

Which do you prefer? Paying for apps up front or having them be free with ads?

 

[mikeo007]

If the price is reasonable, I almost always prefer to pay and have no ads.
That being said, ads don't particularly bother me, however micro-transactions drive me insane.

 

[markbw13]

Yea ads have never bothered me for some reason. I think it is smart when developers offer the app for free and then offer a $.99 USD option to pay to take the ads off.

 

[hearmeoutx]

If I am going to pay up front for an app, I expect to have all features available to me. I find that so many apps I pay for require in-app purchases to be able to use them to their full advantage which I am not a fan of.

I would prefer to not have ads in apps, but if it comes between paying for the app and still having to utilize in-app purchases, I'd rather just have ads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Just_Me_D]

Which do you prefer? Paying for apps up front or having them be free with ads?

I despise ads in apps and games so I prefer paying for an app that does not display ads. Furthermore, I'm willing to pay an annual fee to stay ad-free, depending on the app. If a game is good enough, I'll tolerate ads for a short period of time unless they are like the ones associated with Zynga games. I'll delete it in a heartbeat and will not download anything else from that company.

 

[markbw13]

Interesting, what are the ones like Zynga?

 

[Scatabrain]

Are you asking consumers what they prefer or what is best for a dev?

 

[Ledsteplin]

Interesting, what are the ones like Zynga?

Words With Friends is a Zynga game. The free version is so chock full of ads, it's not worth using. My wife I share the same iTunes ID, so I paid the $4.99 for the paid version. That's about $2.50 each. Most of my apps are paid apps. I have a few free ones, but the ads are not intrusive.


☮

 

[Just_Me_D]

Interesting, what are the ones like Zynga?

Take your pick!

 

[markbw13]

More consumers.

 

[markbw13]

Ok yea I know that game. So is it bad to have automatic video ads pop up after you end a level in a game?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Ok yea I know that game. So is it bad to have automatic video ads pop up after you end a level in a game?

Personally, if I'm playing a game, I want to be focused on trying to win it. I don't want to be distracted with ads of any kind. Watching a video, to me, wastes time and causes me to get impatient and then uninstall the game.

 

[warement]

I always preferred free apps even if they had ads
But now as a new developer i am seeing the whole point from different view.
I believe the best practice is the in app purchases give the app free and for a small amount get the full features of the app

 

[usedberry]

I download the game and disable mobile data access to the game when using iphone or just disconnect my iPod touch from wifi network when playing that game.
But if it's an app I'm going to use regularly, I pay for it. Like "Alarmed app".

 

[espacepublishing]

The freemium model works for me.

I don't want to pay up front until I've seen what I'm getting, but then I don't mind forking out a couple of bucks if I like it.

 

[Mike Vazovski]

Prefer free app with ads + inapp to buy full version if like the app.

 

[markbw13]

Haha smart! But sucky for the app developers!

 

[ThinkertonGames]

I think it's dependent on the game for me. For example something like Monument Valley would be ruined by ads, as it's more more than a game, it's an experience.

 

[baseballbert]

Rather pay up front.

 

[GrumpyRhinoGames]

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.