Tapulous runs cross-promotion with Tron in latest iPhone game

Just a few weeks ago, we reported on Tapulous’s first foray into the App Store since being acquired by Disney in the summer.

The slightly underwhelming physics-based tilting game Zoo Rescue marked the jump-off point for this combined entity, with the expectation that more – so much more – would eventually emerge from the partnership.

Well, the next step in the evolving Disney/Tapulous strategy materialised this morning in the shape of Tap Tap Revenge 4, the latest in the latter’s long-running rhythm action franchise on iPhone.

In the Tap Tap Revenge offerings, you tap along in time to a series of cascading notes from an assortment of bands and artists, but what’s unique about this newest incarnation is the use of cross-promotion.

This occurs thanks to a link up with Disney's other App Store release Tron: Legacy.

So while Tap Tap Revenge 4 players can earn points for playing tracks from the sci-fi game, Tron: Legacy will promote Tap Tap titles via in-game advertising.

Tapulous also persuaded Disney to cut the price of Tron from its original launch price $4.99 to 99c.

"If you're not in the Top 100, if you're not featured by Apple, users don't know about you," Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem said in an interview.

"The only way to find out about an app is if they've heard of it, if they see it promoted, or if it's being promoted from one app to the other app. So building these networks of apps is really the strategy that we're all running towards."

Last year, Tapulous sold 800,000 games on Christmas Day and it's aiming for a million this year.

[source: ABC News]