I’m on the record as absolutely hating Freemium, In-App Purchase based video games. Vlambeer, the company behind Ridiculous Fishing, seems to have bucked the trends successfully enough to prove that developers can make money on the App Store by charging upfront for games.
According to Joystiq, Ridiculous Fishing almost went the freemium model that ultimately would have them charging people for the boats they used in-game, including a $1000.00 in-app purchase for a snazzy fishing vessel. The company avoided going full-idiot, avoided in-app purchases and instead managed sell 300,000 copies of its game, charging $3.00 for each one up front ($900,000 in total for the math challenged).
It’s a big win for the little guys. Frankly, freemium games can go die in a fire somewhere. That garbage is a scourge on the gaming industry. Huge props goes out to Vlambeer and its team for avoiding it.
Ridiculous Fishing is easily the best game I’ve played over the last six months. It’s worth a download.
