VentureBeat » Tap Fish

Apple will give parents iTunes credits, refunds over in-app purchases lawsuit

Ricardo Bilton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:37:04 +0000

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about kids it’s that having them is a bad idea. Worse, though, is letting them anywhere near your iPad.

Plenty of parents learned that the hard way after their young ones racked up absurd charges on their credit cards because of in-app purchases in games like Tap Fish. These games, while presumably free, made it exceedingly easy for kids to spend hundreds of dollars on virtual goods.

The problem was so pervasive that a group of parents sued Apple over it in 2011. Two years later, Apple has reached a settlement, which will give affected parents $5 iTunes credits for their troubles. For claims of amounts over $30, Apple will also offer the option of cash refunds.

The one big drawback? Apple won’t dispense the payments until next year at the earliest, as GigaOM reports, which should temper some of the initial enthusiasm greeting the settlement.

Timeline concerns aside, the big question is how much the settlement is going to cost Apple. Though the final amount will depend on how many people end up filing claims, Apple says it plans to send a notice of the settlement to over 23 million iTunes account holders.

Filed under: Mobile

Gameview shows iPhone hits are starting to take off on Android

Dean Takahashi — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:00:07 +0000

Gameview Studios is one of many developers that saw huge hits on the iPhone, particularly with its Tap Fish game, which has been downloaded more than 10 million times on Apple’s App Store. Now the company is starting to see good results on Google’s Android mobile devices as well.

It’s still early and the Android results can’t yet match those on the iPhone. But the results are good enough to pleasantly surprise Gameview, which is a division of Japan’s DeNA mobile social game company. That’s good for the Android platform, and not so good for Apple. With these kinds of results, Gameview will be motivated to port more of its hit games to Android. Both Google and Apple are keenly aware that they’re competing for the hearts and minds of developers.

The company is announcing today that its free version of Tap Fish has been downloaded more than 500,000 times since a quiet launch on April 1 with no promotional activity. The game has been rated 4.5 out of 5 stars in more than 10,000 fan reviews. And it just surpassed Angry Birds Rio (the latest version of the hit game from Rovio) by taking the No. 4 spot in the Android Market’s top free apps list. Overall, the game is the top casual game on Android and ranks No. 15 for overall free apps.

John Hwang, vice president of products at Gameview, said in an interview that Android is becoming a better and better opportunity for social game makers. He noted that, on average, Tap Fish users log in more than three times a day to check on their aquariums. The retention over seven days is 85 percent, and users have visited more than 1 million of their neighbors’ tanks. Hwang said that the title spread through word of mouth and by its presence on the Android Market’s top game lists.

Hwang said the company hasn’t really begun to monetize the app yet, but it could deploy in-app purchases over time. Google just turned on the Android Market’s in-app purchases, which allow users to make a purchase of a virtual good or a game without having to exit the app. Apple has had this capability for some time, and it is fueling revenue growth among iPhone app developers. But Google’s in-app purchases are available only to users of Android 2.3 software, which is available only to a tiny percent of Android users right now. Still, Hwang believes that revenue from in-app purchases, particularly cross promotion of other titles, will be more important than ad revenue over time.

Hwang said that Gameview ported the game to Android because of the sheer volume of requests the company got from consumers who had seen the game on their friends’ phones. The porting work isn’t trivial, since there are hundreds of different types of exotic fish, 80 tanks, and lots of decorations. The company also decided to port the game because of Android’s growth rate. Gartner predicts it will become the world’s most popular operating system by the end of the year and could capture half the smartphone market in 2012. Google still has lots of room for improvement, but it’s moving forward, Hwang said.

With in-app purchases now available on Android, and with application storefronts such as the Android Market and others making Android apps easier to find, Gameview Studios plans on releasing many other titles on the Android platform over the coming months. Gameview has 15 employees in Mountain View and more developers overseas.

The company was founded in 2010 by Riz Virk and Mitch Liu, and it competes with rivals such as Electronic Arts, Magma Mobile, Outfit7, Glu Mobile and Digital Chocolate. Other Gameview games include Tap Ranch, Tap Jurassic, Tap Town, and Titans vs. Olympians.

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Filed under: Business, Games

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Gameview's Tap Fish tops 10M downloads in a year on the App Store

Dean Takahashi — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:00:09 +0000

When it comes to simulating aquariums on the iPhone, nobody beats Gameview Studio‘s Tap Fish game, which has been downloaded more than 10 million times in the past year. And Gameview says that the game was one of the top-grossing free-to-play mobile apps of 2010 thanks to sales of virtual goods inside the game.

Mobile games are rapidly generating a lot of investor interest in the gaming sector. The frenzy over mobile games drew harsh comments from Satoru Iwata, chief executive of Nintendo, at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week.

“I can understand from his perspective why he would say that, because he sees mobile as a threat,” said Riz Virk, chief executive of Gameview in Mountain View, Calif. “But I think the center of gravity is shifting toward social and mobile games. There is a little paranoia about that.”

The 10 million downloads is a pretty good showing for Gameview, which was acquired in September by Japan’s DeNA. Tap Fish is a simple game, where you can buy Fish bucks with real money to acquire premium items.

“Others tried to copy us, but we got it right,” Virk said. “We didn’t make it too overwhelming or complicated.”

Now Gameview has expanded its Tap franchise to include Tap Jurassic, Tap Ranch, Tap Town, Tap Mall, and Tap Birds. It also launched the digital collectible card game Titans vs Olympians. Relatively few mobile games have hit the 10 million download number; Virk says the ones that do are the highest-quality games.

Virk said that the company plans to expand to the Android platform in 2011. Android grew its market share from 5.2 percent in the U.S. to 28.7 percent of mobile devices, according to comScore. Roughly 350,000 new Android-enabled devices are launched every day. And since in-app purchases will soon be available on the Android Market, developers are more excited about making games for Google’s platform.

Virk said that lots of indie studios are shifting into mobile games, where it doesn’t take huge budgets and giant teams to finish a game.

Virk said that Tap Fish is the company’s best performing game in terms of users as well as the percentage of users who pay for items in the game. Virk said the company studied the iPhone market and figured out that simulations were in short supply(TinyCo said the same thing when it raised a recent round). It then hit the market with a lot of different simulations games. Now that the company is established, Virk said the focus is on making high-quality games and more engagement, or high average play sessions.

As Gameview launches its games for the Android platform, it will add social networking technology from its sister company Ngmoco. Gameview has more than 120 employees, including 15 in the U.S. and a large team in Pakistan. Gameview was founded in 2010. Rivals include Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, Disney-Tapulous, and sister company Ngmoco.

Filed under: Business, Games