Apex Designs gets a $400,000 Payback for GTA-esque iPhone game
Criminal game takes it to the bank
With the sheer weight of games currently bogging down the App Store, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for developers to raise awareness of their new iPhone software.
But Apex Designs’s GTA-style game Payback has just had its sales figures published. Despite rarely making it onto the money spinning App Store top lists, the game has brought in a whopping $400,000 (or £278,459 in real money).
“Payback has been on sale in the App Store for two months now, and it's been a real rollercoaster!” exclaims Apex Designs’s James Daniel. “We've outsold Trism which famously made $250K in the same time period.”
Payback has seen an impressive 65,000 copies sold worldwide, and the developer has learnt a lot about promotion and how the App Store could be improved to help game creators get their software seen.
“We do have one criticism though: it's vitally important to get visibility on the device, so getting into the Top 50 can really boost sales,” Daniels explains.
“Unfortunately, the paid app charts are sorted by sales, which is inevitably going to skew things towards the cheaper apps and so will make it harder for relatively expensive apps like ours to break through. In fact, we have only occasionally been in the charts in most countries.”
Still, even with the App Store mired in cheap games, Payback’s story makes you consider buying a book on how to program for the iPhone, eh?
