Punch Quest, a recent iOS hit, managed to rake in 600,000 downloads in very short order. Unfortunately, the game wasn't able to rake much else in, as in money.
It’s a hit across the board, and not just because of the whimsical audio visuals or the rock solid gameplay: Punch Quest relies upon the freemium model, which have in-game items acquired either by earning them throughout the course of the game, or simply forking over cash to help expedite the process.
This is hardly a new approach, though many freemium titles get under the skin of gamers when it's usually abundantly clear that earning said goods would take forever, so forking over dough ends up becoming an absolute necessity. But Punch Quest was different; it was far more lax in this regard, which in the end, was perhaps the worst move possible.
Touch Arcade reports that developers Madgarden and Rocketcat Games have decided to charge 99 cents for the game. Ultimately, this news is hardly surprising; almost immediately after word got out that the game had reached almost a million downloads, yet failed to pass the figure figure revenue mark, many wondered about the longterm future of the game.
An updated not long ago made the in-app purchase more visible, but according to Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games: "The update improved things for like a few days, and then it sank, hard." Soon, a hard decision had to be made: "It's 99 cents or increase the price of everything by 8x or more, really."
It'll be interesting to see how the game fares from this point forward. Already there are reports of fans doubling up on the in-app purchases (or finally taking the plunge for the first time) to show their gratitude, and in hopes that Madgarden and Rocketcat Games get the paycheck that they so clearly deserve.
