Free version of Threes doubles dev’s income

Free-to-play may still be a turn off to some sections of the fandom, but for developers it can often remain a very sensible choice.

A perfect illustration of this is Asher Vollmer. He’s the creator of hit mobile (and now console) puzzle game Threes. It was originally released as a premium title but last month was re-released as a free-to-play download.

The result? It has doubled our daily income. Thanks for playing,” Vollmer said. It was not a very glamorous game release, but it was a good business decision. Excited to make bigger games now!

Anyway I’m glad this model worked out. Its value comes from the fact that it respects the players AND the developers."

We released a free version of @ThreesGame one month ago and here's how it's doing:

It has doubled our daily income. Thanks for playing 🙂

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015

It was not a very glamorous game release, but it was a good business decision. Excited to make bigger games now!

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015

Graphs (with matching y-axises)!

On the left: paid profits
On the right: ad profits pic.twitter.com/hLv1n1vCo8

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015

.@NimbleDave a bunch! pic.twitter.com/Q8okZPIG1b

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015

.@vzlotskiy Basically nope!

orange = paid
blue = free pic.twitter.com/frRqAEQaL9

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015

Anyway I'm glad this model worked out. It's value comes from the fact that it respects the players AND the developers. Thanks for listening.

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015