Appular

Cannibal Cookout

Appular — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:20:50 +0000

When PR Needs PR: Duke Nukem Forever’s Epic PR #FAIL

Tyler — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:00:14 +0000

2K Games’ latest release Duke Nukem Forever stirred up some serious controversy in the gaming community in these last couple of weeks. As we all know, the game, reportedly in development for 12 years, was panned by reviewers and gamers alike. The reviews were brutal… 2/10 on Destructoid, “F” on Gaming Nexus, 6.75/10 on Game Informer. The bad news could have been the end of it, but The Redner Group, the agency of record for Nukem fired some ill-advised Twitter backlash at the press.

After the reviews poured in, Redner threatened to ‘review’ (translation = blacklist) members of the press who posted poor reviews of Nukem. Needless to say, the press didn’t take the threats lightly, expressing their candid opinions via Twitter and various blogs.

So what went wrong here?

Fail #1 – Retaliating
PR blacklists are never threatened publicly. They do exist (with some firms, though we don’t see any use in them). Press have the right to call out a PR person’s lack of judgement.

In fact, media outlets occasionally blacklist publishers and PR firms. The media outlet holds the bargaining chip. If you want exposure, you need (and should appreciate) their attention. The journalists control the outcome of reviews, we accept ‘em even if they hit us hard.

When it’s on, it’s on. As soon as Redner opened the floodgates by criticizing the press, the press were free to return fire. In a battle of PR vs. press, the press always wins. So, the inevitable public apology ensued. The Redner Group formally apologized, and 2K Games stated that the firm had been indefinitely dropped as representatives of 2K.

Fail #2 – Taking it personally.
As PR professionals, letting your frustrations and emotions pass through is setting yourself up for failure. All actions have consequences and reviews are never ever supposed to be taken personally. Reviews are meant to consist of opinions and legitimate facts regarding your product. The media and PR professionals have a delicate relationship. As PR professionals, it’s our job to create product buzz and inform the press of newsworthy stories. The press strive for readership and often rely on PR professionals to help them stay ‘in the loop’ on major news. Let’s admit it, we can’t survive without each other. Redner should have never lashed out.

The Bottom Line:
The Redner Group seriously FAILED on the Duke Nukem PR front. There were several reviews filled to the rim with venom, as The Redner Group claimed. Nevertheless, we’re in the business of lighting controlled fires, not pouring gas on one that’s out of control. In the end, Duke Nukem and the Redner Group tested and failed the old saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad press’.

Have a dying question to ask or a suggestion to get across? By all means, please send your hate mail to: tyler@appular.com. Prefer Twitter? Hit him up at http://twitter.com/honorablesquid.

[Image Source: Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica]

Push Panic

Appular — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:00:20 +0000

Push Panic is an exhilarating color-matching puzzle game that includes four action-packed gameplay modes focused on the frantic creation of explosive color-coded combos! Each mode delivers intense new challenges that also feature a competitive live ranking system so players can face-off against friends in this challenging yet easy-to-learn game that’s as rewarding to conquer as it is fun to play!

Click here to download press kit and assets.

Invaders World Tour 3

Appular — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:38:48 +0000

Defend the planet from an onslaught of extra-terrestrial invaders with the release of Appular’s Invaders World Tour 3, for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. In the game, countries all over the world have witnessed a surge in extra-terrestrial activity with appearances of worm-holes and alien life-forms in the sky. The United States, Canada, Europe and China have collectively gone up in arms to defend against what seems to be a hostile takeover, and are asking players join the fight for humanity!

Neo Defender 2

Appular — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:13:23 +0000

Neo Defender 2 is a retro-style arcade game for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. In the midst of an intense intergalactic struggle for survival, the player is the sole defender of the last surviving craft and must prevail against an increasing wave of cosmic adversaries. Neo Defender 2 gives the player versatile shooting options with single touch, dual touch, and continuous firing modes to effectively defend against an onslaught of kamikaze crafts. The annihilation of enemies earns the player crystals to spend on purchasing shields, power-ups, nukes, and craft repairs that will better prepare them for their next epic battle.

Exclusion Zone – Anti-Air Warfare

Appular — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:41:17 +0000

Exclusion Zone: Anti-Air Warfare offers a combative spin on strategic line-drawing games. An invasion led by fighter jets, stealth bombers, and Apache Helicopters is quickly approaching the military’s land and naval bases! Players must avert the attack and prepare the silos for an all-out air-strike. Guard landing strips and helipads by drawing anti-aircraft missile paths that intercept and annihilate enemies before they land. Bonus weapons such as electromagnetic pulses and homing missiles enhance the combative element of Exclusion Zone by adding more firepower to a player’s death-dealing arsenal.

Hand of Greed

Appular — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:42:46 +0000

Hand of Greed is an intense and remarkably unique adventure game that puts your reflexes, timing, and speed to the test in a magical, blade strewn gauntlet.

Avoiding everything from swinging guillotines to spiraling sawblades, you rack up wealth by grabbing ancient coins, valuable gems, and more!

Key Features
- 50 intense levels of increasing difficulty
- Experience 5 worlds including desert, dungeon and jungle environments
- Complete achievements and compare scores via global leader boards
- Wildly different blades, jewels, and power ups that change and evolve throughout the game

The iPad App Store: It’s a Mess

Appular — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:33:32 +0000

Originally posted in April 2010
With the iPad hype subsiding and the first bits of data beginning to spring up, we took it upon ourselves to examine just how efficiently the iPad App Store is operating. We have studied the iPhone App Store closely since it launched, and are confident that we have an accurate model of the approximate sales and revenue for iPhone apps in the Top 100 Paid Overall Chart. When we set out to construct models of the iPad App Store, we found clear differences in how apps were selling. These differences could spell very bad news for iPad developers.

This new market looks and feels much like its iPhone counterpart, but right off the bat, we knew there were some major disparities. For one, iPad sales charts by categories weren’t added to iTunes until Tuesday (4/6). Another clear difference is the buying experience on the device – the App Store on the iPad still doesn’t have charts for the top apps within categories, only charts of the top 50 iPad apps overall (paid, grossing and free), so fewer apps receive any exposure at all. It’s estimated that the majority of app purchases take place on consumers’ iDevices (as opposed to on the desktop), so unless you are featured by Apple or in the top 50 overall, you are virtually invisible. It seems as though iPad developers are, for the moment, being hung out to dry.

This led us to do some digging on this new marketplace, and the data uncovered was staggering. Using a few data points and building out a model by comparing iTunes’ Top Paid Apps Chart and iTunes’ Top Grossing Apps Chart, the following sales graphs were constructed. To illustrate, one data point that proved to be very helpful was GoodReader for iPad which was the #2 ranked app on the Top Paid Apps chart, and the #18 ranked app on the Top Grossing Apps side. (All data as of 4/7)

Please note that all charts and tables are rough and based on limited data

The above table references the Top Grossing and Top Paid charts respectively, i.e., the #1 Top Grossing app is generating about $70,000 a day, whereas the #1 Top Paid app is at about 7,000 sales a day.

At the top of the iPad Gross Revenue charts, it appears as though revenues are already near 50% of gross revenues at the top of the iPhone chart, quite impressive for a store with a fraction of the devices as compared to the iPhone side. As we move down the chart though, the gap starts to widen… dramatically.

iPad App Store Too Top Heavy

According to the model, the #1 grossing iPad app is earning about 70 times more than the #100 top grossing app.

It may no longer be enough for developers to simply climb into Apple’s top 100 grossing apps list to survive. While life continues to be great at the top, what was a graceful walk down the charts has become more of a tumble directly into the App Store’s lower middle class.

It should be noted that Apple currently holds the top three spots in the Top Grossing iPad Apps rankings. According to the model, those three spots are worth about $170,000 a day in gross revenue or 23% of ALL revenue generated daily in the Top 100 Grossing iPad Apps chart. The iPad App Store is so top-heavy that, at least in the immediate future, it may be very difficult for anyone outside of the top 10 or 20 to generate any significant revenue at all, as revenue drops steeply.

The story gets worse for apps not in the top 100. From conversations with developers who we believe are just outside of the Top 100, sales quickly drop into the single digits per day.

One guess is that this is all a calculated attempt by Apple to showcase the device by pointing consumers towards a very limited selection of apps, to help with the device’s image during its launch. Let’s hope Apple can throw developers a bone and even the iPad app playing field before developers sour on this great new platform.

This is our first of hopefully what will be frequent posts to the Appular blog, where we share our thoughts on the App Store ecosystem from the business perspective, focusing on topics like economics, pricing, marketing, and more. Today’s post was written by Dino Decespedes, CFO of Appular and former CFO of Freeverse, who analyzes the App Store charts on a daily basis. If you wish to contact him, or perhaps share market data anonymously to help build out these charts, he can be reached at Dino@appular.com.