Not only is Apple permitting subscriptions, it’s also giving developers incentives to use them: In the first year of an app’s subscription, Apple earns a 70/30 revenue share, but after a year, the new revenue sharing model calls for a revised split of 85/15.Īs Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the push toward Subscriptions 2.0 (as Apple is internally referring to this new rollout) was prompted because the iPhone company “recognize that developers do a lot of work to retain a customer over time in a subscription model, and we wanted to reward them for that by helping them to keep more of the revenue.”Ī game like Pokémon Go with its huge following seems like it could potentially be a good fit with the Apple subscription model, helping it to parlay Pokémon mania into a longer term customer strategy - one that is based on ongoing relationships and more predictable recurring revenue.īut only if it can prove its long-term value to players. Previously, only specific categories of apps could sell subscriptions - so this is a whole new (Poké)ball game. And it’s seeming increasingly likely that Pokémon Go could become one of the first mobile game apps to successfully test the potential of selling subscriptions in Apple’s App Store.Īs announced its most recent World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple is now permitting subscription sales across all categories, including games. It seems likely that the answer is subscriptions.
We now know how to expand our Pokédex with rare Pokémon, but here’s what we don’t yet know: How can Pokémon Go avoid being just another mobile gaming craze-and-fade scenario (hello, Angry Birds!), and how can the Pokémon Company and Niantic (which developed Pokémon Go), create a sustainable business model that will keep players coming back - and paying - for more, without corrupting the integrity and spirit of the game? More than a month since its release, and Pokémon Go is still going strong. Pokkén Tournament is a 3D Pokémon fighting arcade game developed and published by Bandai Namco Games that was released in Japan earlier this month, and no other information has been given regarding a release outside of Japan or arcades.ĭave & Buster's is a North American restaurant-arcade chain, with over 70 stores in the United States (including 1 in Hawaii) and 1 in Canada.What Happens When Apple Subscriptions Meets Pokemon Go?īy Robert Hildenbrand, SVP Global Services at Zuora.
If the tests do well, Dave & Buster's would bring Pokkén Tournament "everywhere".īachus also mentioned that he and Namco were more optimistic about the success of Pokkén Tournament than Tekken. Since these are only tests and not an official launch, Dave & Buster's will not officially promote them once they are available, but they do expect word to leak out. However, he also mentioned that Namco prefers the tests to be run near their own US offices in Chicago, but Dave & Buster's tries to convince them to run the tests in a wide variety of locations. When asked about where the tests will be run, Bachus mentioned that they hadn't even started thinking about it yet, indicating that the tests may not happen for some time. Dave & Buster's Senior Vice President Kevin Bachus has stated in a Reddit AMA that the company intends to run location tests of Pokkén Tournament at the US chain's stores.