I've released shareware in two ways. The first was to release a fully
functional product and rely on people's honesty to pay for it. The second
was to provide an initial bankroll (they're casino games) and require
registration in order to get more chips.
I've found that very few people pay for software if they don't have to. I
had one game released using the first method described above that has been
on the market for almost two years. Recently, I upgraded this game, and as
part of the upgrade started requiring registration. I have as many
registrations over the last month as I had the previous two years, which
tells me that either people really liked the upgrade, or that they've liked
the game all along but only paid now because they had to. I suspect the
latter is the case.
If I had to assign numbers, I would think that [much] less than 1% of users
pay for a game with no restrictions, whereas the number of people that pay
when there are restrictions is closer to 4% to 5%.
....::....::....::....::....::....::....
Mike Walters
President
Rose Software
www.rosesw.com
....................................
p//314.496.5149
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Jeremy
> Evans
> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 11:36 AM
> To: Palm Developer Forum
> Subject: OT: How many people actually register shareware games
>
>
> Not to open up the whole "best way to copy protect your work" thread.
>
> I've been working the past 6 months on a game, mainly for fun and my
> own personal enjoyment. Now that it is coming to completion I would
> like to release it.
>
> But I have to decide to GPL it or release it as shareware.
>
> Soooooo, I wanted to tap the community for a rough average of how many
> people actually pay for shareware. I wouldn't mind making a couple of
> bucks for my hard work, but I want to weigh it against building a copy
> protection scheme and billing infrastructure.
>
> What have other developers found? After you worked for months and
> released a shareware product, was it worth the effort?
>
> okay back to work...
>
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