Yesterday, Google introduced subscription support in its own app store. Glu Mobile immediately took advantage of this. She introduced a subscription to her virtual currency: now for $9.99 per month, players receive twice as many credits as if they paid the same amount at a time.
At first glance, it may seem that Google, to put it mildly, is late. Its competitor, Apple, introduced in-app subscriptions back in February 2011. Another thing is that an Android subscription can be implemented in absolutely any application, not just magazines and newspapers.
This step on the part of Google opens up completely new horizons for developers. Now, within the framework of the mobile platform, MMOs with a standard payment scheme become possible, and the paying f2p player can eventually be fully transferred to a subscription, thereby securely tying him to the game.
Subscription updates will be downloaded automatically, as well as money will be automatically withdrawn from the account. However, Google promises to notify users if the subscription price will change, as well as regularly report how much each new update will cost the user.
Curiously, the subscription applies not only to Google Play. The user will be able to access the content subscribed to within Android and on other platforms (and even from the developer’s website) if the user identification system of this platform is ratified by Google.
From the subscription, the 30% already familiar to mobile software developers will go into the company’s pocket. However, judging by last year’s story with The Financial Times on iOS, not even everyone is ready to share them today. The essence of the story then boiled down to the fact that the management of the business newspaper refused to deduct 30% from each subscription to the “apple giant” and withdrew its application from the store.
Anyway, the British company Glu Mobile, known for such projects as Deer Hunter Reloaded, Blood & Glory, Frontline Commando and Eternity Warriors, has already taken advantage of Google’s new offer. She even increased the efficiency of the service by creating a universal virtual currency for all the company’s projects. So now, for “just” $9.99 per month, the user receives a substantial amount of points (520), which he can spend in all the company’s games.
In a month it will be very interesting to learn about the first results of such an experiment, but for now we can only guess on the coffee grounds whether this type of subscription will be able to significantly increase the revenue of applications on the Android platform.