So I took some of my own advice and released a “Lite” version of Popper 2 a couple of days ago. The Lite version is pretty much identical to the trial mode of the paid version. The main difference is where there were prompts to buy the game, those have been replaced with prompts to download the full version. This makes for interesting comparisons of apples to apples, and it will take a couple of weeks to get all of the data to let you know how it’s going but I thought the early results are worth sharing.
I don’t know how many downloads are turning into downloads of the full version yet, but the downloads if Popper 2 Lite in 2 to 3 days have already exceeded an entire month of downloads of the full version. It looks like around a 10:1 download ratio versus the paid version in trial mode.
So what can we make of this? I think it’s confirmed that a free “lite” version of the game is going to attract a lot more eyeballs than a trial mode on a paid game, even with the paid game having lots of text saying how generous the trial mode is. It also shows how much work Microsoft has to do to make games with a trial mode more visible. I hate the fact that I had to do what I did, and I would have rather just stuck with the preferred method of providing a trial mode on the paid app instead of 2 different versions, but the current state of the marketplace doesn’t really make this a feasible option.
I’ll follow up with some purchase numbers when the reports are available, it takes about 6 days or so for the reports to catch up. In the meantime, you may want to start working on a free version of your game.
December 20th, 2010 at 11:07 PM
Very interesting… wish I had more time to get a free version out. Maybe after the holidays. Can't wait to see if the free version converts to purchases of full.
December 24th, 2010 at 11:36 PM
WOW! go MS! let every competitor make a handheld device, then pick and choose qualities, blantently copy and attempt to dominate market with an iron fist. Can you say "innovation"? I cant see why people dont make concessions to pioneers like sony, apple and nintendo. As much as a fan we all in the gaming community are of xbox live, one must admit that it has more of a synthethic-capitalist feel over the last year than ever before. If MS is listening, you get more business with free stuff.. most gamers feel nickel and dimed with crappy DLC and d-loadable movies that will surely repeat on windows 7 phone.. sorry about the rant guys, MS get your business together.