Subscription model for apps and mobile gaming
You subscribe to watch your favourite TV shows. You subscribe to stream your favourite tunes. But would you subscribe to a mobile game?
That’s the question on every mobile developer’s lips, and it’s set to play out in the broader app and mobile gaming space over the next year. It’s on the back of a massive change Apple announced in the lead-up to its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Within the next month, developers who create a subscription service and hold consumers on it for more than a year will keep 85 per cent of the revenue earned, instead of the usual 70 per cent.
It’s not just Apple, either.
Google immediately returned fire by matching the amount of revenue it takes from subscription services for apps sold through the Google Play store. However, it comes without the caveat imposed by Apple that customers must be subscribed for more than a year before the new pricing takes effect. That’s a huge incentive for developers to pivot their product towards a subscription service.
