Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Google are competing for exclusivity of apps in exchange for extra promotion on either iOS or Android.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple and Google are offering developers a chance to have their apps promoted in exchange for a period of exclusivity with either Apple or Google’s respective platform.
The Journal’s anonymous sources confirmed that popular games such as Plants vs. Zombies 2 were given special promotional attention during their exclusivity period. In this case, the period was two months after its release in August 2013 whereas Cut the Rope 2, another popular mobile game, remained exclusive for three months. According to Unspoken Tales CEO Patrick Mork, receiving promotion from an app marketplace can increase daily sales tenfold.
While promotional windows are common for console games and DLC, the concept is fairly new to the mobile world where developers are known to release content on multiple platforms at once. Emily Greer, head of Kongregate, argues that locking in popular games is an excellent brand-retention strategy.
“When people love a game and it’s not available on an alternate platform, they’ll change platforms,” Greer says. She argues that people will do anything for their favorite game, including changing platforms.
