<story><title>Amazon Underground</title><url>https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&amp;docId=1003016361</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eloff</author><text>I see this as hugely superior to the freemium model, both from the perspective of the user and the app developers. App developers no longer need to cripple their apps and sell in-app band-aids to make money. The developers of the more entertaining and engaging apps will make more money. End users no longer spend a bunch of time on a game only to find out they need to pay to advance to the next part, or bypass some artificial restriction that shouldn&amp;#x27;t be there.&lt;p&gt;It just seems like a much more civil relationship.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gdeglin</author><text>This model comes with a few problems:&lt;p&gt;1) High quality games that are meant to be completed quickly will make less money relative to poor quality games that stretch out gameplay.&lt;p&gt;2) Developers become incentivized to stretch out gameplay to increase revenue.&lt;p&gt;3) Amazon Underground is covering the costs for now. But if users were asked to pay themselves, I&amp;#x27;m sure many would balk at the idea of paying per-minute to play games.&lt;p&gt;All that aside, this is an interesting idea. I could see episodic games particularly benefiting from this model -- so long as they don&amp;#x27;t fall into the trap of stretching out gameplay to increase revenue.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon Underground</title><url>https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&amp;docId=1003016361</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eloff</author><text>I see this as hugely superior to the freemium model, both from the perspective of the user and the app developers. App developers no longer need to cripple their apps and sell in-app band-aids to make money. The developers of the more entertaining and engaging apps will make more money. End users no longer spend a bunch of time on a game only to find out they need to pay to advance to the next part, or bypass some artificial restriction that shouldn&amp;#x27;t be there.&lt;p&gt;It just seems like a much more civil relationship.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Blaaguuu</author><text>I generally agree, but it seems like it could have some bad side-effects if it becomes a popular business model, though.&lt;p&gt;There are a handful of interesting paid apps that are very short, unique experiences - which don&amp;#x27;t try to drag out the game to keep you playing it every day for months.&lt;p&gt;Its already getting harder and harder to actually sell&amp;#x2F;buy apps for money upfront, and this seems like it will make it even harder. And while I seem to be in a tiny minority of &amp;#x27;app&amp;#x27; consumers, that is still my preferred method of obtaining new applications.</text></comment>