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IAP Keys

FedoraFedora Posts: 15Member
in General Discussion
This has been said before, but I can't seem to find where so though I would bring it up again. 

It has been said that it will be possible to give out IAP Keys, or promo codes, to users, but to do so you need to pay the 30% fee for that IAP. I would like to know if this is still how this system will work. I don't see why you would need to pay a fee if you are giving away the IAP for free, as the Ouya team wouldn't need to take care of any currency exchange or bank fees. They would just need to save a receipt for each user. If there was a flat rate of say $.25-.50 I wouldn't have as big of an issue with this but if you are giving away say a full game unlock that usually costs $15 you would have to pay a $4.50 fee.

This will also be a pretty significant issue if you are running a Kickstarter and giving away IAP's as one of the reward tiers. You will then need to pay the Kickstarter fees and Ouya fees, leaving you with significantly less money to work with.

It would be nice to hear an official stance by the Ouya team regarding this issue.

Comments

  • DreamwriterDreamwriter Posts: 768Member
    edited March 2013

    I'd say that's actually the problem right there - how does OUYA make any money from the sales you are making from Kickstarter?  Say you presell 10,000 copies of your $20 game on Kickstarter, had you sold them through the OUYA store, the OUYA folks would have earned $60,000, but now they are getting nothing, or a smaller amount.  And what if someone decides to sell their game somewhere outside of the OUYA store, using these cheaper codes to get around paying the full 30%?  Or worse, opens their own competing store to sell OUYA apps from?

    The way Apple does it is to make the codes totally free, but you can only generate a very small number of them every month (larger companies working directly with Apple can often get some more if needed).

    I don't know what the solution is, but it's easy to see there are many issues they have to figure out with these codes, which is probably why they won't be available until the retail launch.

    Post edited by Dreamwriter on
  • FedoraFedora Posts: 15Member
    True. Really I don't have an issue with them charging 30% if you are giving away IAP for things like contests. However it would be nice if they could work with you and maybe lower the fee if you are doing a Kickstarer? 

    Also there is nothing stopping you from selling your game without going through the Ouya store. You could just set up a website and have users buy the game and download the.apk directly from your site. That way you wouldn't need to pay the 30% fee. You would, of course, need to set up your own methods of verifying that the IAP has been made. So if you have a large amount of game sales during a Kickstarter it may be more profitable to just provide the .apk without going through the Ouya store. So Ouya will need to do something to make their store more enticing to developers.
  • jayderyujayderyu Posts: 110Member
    They wouldn't make money off of Kickstarter sales. Instead Ouya get's a more quality game which can carry more weight for the value of the system.
    Question the paradigm you believe in
  • MechaBlueMechaBlue Posts: 8Member
    I'm preparing for a Kickstarter campaign and I need to know what limits there are/will be on IAP keys.  Specifically:

    - How many keys can be generated?
    - Is this limit by developer, game, or purchasable piece of content?
    - When will keys be implemented, both for generation and acceptance?
    - What's the financial upshot?  Will OUYA need a cut of Kickstarter sales?

    I understand that the OUYA peeps are quite busy but I suspect that this is something that a lot of indies need information on, especially since this information is needed quite awhile before the product launches.

    I'm okay with OUYA charging for keys as long as the process is smooth; I'm quite happy to pay to avoid the iOS debacle that Farsight Studios encountered when they crowd-funded the Star Trek and Twilight Zone tables.
  • MechaBlueMechaBlue Posts: 8Member
    I should probably simplify it a little: I need a way to reward Kickstarter pledgers with IAP content.  The exact mechanism is not important to me as long as the pledgers are happy.
  • DreamwriterDreamwriter Posts: 768Member
    edited March 2013
    One solution is to do it yourself - put a menu in your game where players can enter an unlock code that you email to backers. It's of course not as secure that way, but it's an option. I did that once with an iPhone game, where we gave out codes to certain websites who were reviewing the game, and had other codes we created that some websites could publish to give their readers small bonuses in the game.
    Post edited by Dreamwriter on
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