Games for ipad

The new trend of developing or redeveloping games to be supported by iOS devices’ gaming platforms made many developer to refocus their efforts in that direction. Capcom is one of those game developers, which focuse first on their freemium games for smartphones. The company’s reports reveal that Zombie Cafe and Smurfs' Village have achieved the mark of over 10 million downloads done from the App Store. These two games are part of the developer’s freemium strategy (the one that offers freely downloadable software to play, with its additional content being available after purchase only).

In Smurf's Village the player starts out as a single Smurf with a small house and a plot of land. Then this Smurf grows to shepherd the entire village. From this moment on all the extra content will be available only after purchase with prices ranging from £2.99(about US $4.75) to £59.99 (about US$ 95). In Zombie Café, where players need to train their undead employees in order to become skilled waiters, the same tactic is applied. A pretty smart tactic, one has to admit, to lure for free into the game and then, once the gamer is hooked, to start offering updates and speed-ups, and then charge for all those. With such politics Capcom will very likely end earning more money with its free-to-download game than most of the games at the App Store costing three dollars or less.

As Midoori Yuasa, the president of Capcom Interactive, announced recently, there is a strong tendency for gaming moving from portable gaming consoles on towards smartphones, particularly those powered by Android and iOS. Having in view this tendency they attach more importance and focus on mobile front what regards their plans for 2011. Would anyone doubt that they are moving in the right direction? Smurfs’ Village’s success proves how effective a freemium business model can be, yet there is one key condition to be observed when creating such games: that they should be designed as freemium ones from the very beginning and not adjusted and remade into freemium using the already existing design. This will make things a bit tangled - a fact, which users will be sure to notice and comment on.

And that is right, as with 10 million downloads and potential of premium content the final income from this game is not guaranteed. Capcom has a number of other premium titles released into the App Store. Those are from their main franchises, including Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter.