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[awp69]

It's been long rumored that Amazon was going to set up a set of permanently free, premium apps and/or freemium games with free IAPs.

Well, it's here and it's pretty unbelievable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/get/android/ref=mas_ug_slp_redir?ie=UTF8&isUnderground=1

I think most thought this would be for Prime members but that doesn't appear to be the case. The link explains that Amazon is somehow paying devs for their apps based on how much we play it so hopefully it is a win-win situation for gamers and devs.

I'm not going to list all the games in it, but some include:

Goat Simulator
Badland
Space Marshalls
Star Wars Rebels (with free IAPs for the content)
Duck Tales Remastered
Shadow Blade
Shadowrun
Sonic CD

... And a ton more.

 

[Retromelon]

The month and a half long wait til i get my pc just went from shit to fucking awesome
I picked up ducktales remastered, galaga special edition and r type 2. I just got 14 dollars of free stuff!
They also had aralon sword and sorcery up there which is about as good as gets for rpgs on mobile (though a bit old)

 

[gofreak]

The business model behind this for developers seems interesting.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-underground-new-business-model-for-android-apps/

we’ll pay you on a per-minute-played basis in exchange for you waiving your normal download or in-app fees. This means, you can turn 100% of your Android users into revenue-generating customers, so from the minute your customers start playing, you start getting paid for each minute they use your Amazon Underground app. It’s a win for both customers and developers.

They'll pay the developer a fifth of one cent per minute the user is playing their game.

Your game has to be available on at least one other app store either as a paid game, or with IAPs - but will be free and free of IAPs on amazon's marketplace.

If we had a candy crush style success - 90m players per day, say playing for 2 minutes, that equals $131m/year, vs the $1.3bn in reported IAP revenue from that game in 2014. So with something like that it might not be worth it...

But for other games it could well be quite attractive for the developer, I guess.

I wonder if they'll kill the monetisation programme once they hit a critical mass of customers though.

 

[anddo0]

Way to step it up Amazon. Some good value there. I'm shocked that this is long term and not some 48hr promo.

 

[Vorg]

Castle of illusion remake and ducktales remastered are included. Wow. It would be pretty great if Square Enix would join in. Those games take a lot of time to complete but they're expensive so maybe it would be win/win for everyone?

Edit: why was this moved to community o.o

 

[awp69]

The business model behind this for developers seems interesting.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-underground-new-business-model-for-android-apps/



They'll pay the developer a fifth of one cent per minute the user is playing their game.

Your game has to be available on at least one other app store either as a paid game, or with IAPs - but will be free and free of IAPs on amazon's marketplace.

If we had a candy crush style success - 90m players per day, say playing for 2 minutes, that equals $131m/year, vs the $1.3bn in reported IAP revenue from that game in 2014. So with something like that it might not be worth it...

But for other games it could well be quite attractive for the developer, I guess.

I wonder if they'll kill the monetisation programme once they hit a critical mass of customers though.

Thanks for that link! I had thought it was $.02 per minute so that's a lot lower.

I don't know how well this will turn out for devs, but time will tell.

 

[awp69]

A lot of the previously F2P games just removed IAPs and give you things like a coin doubler or a butt load of currency.

But there are a few that left the IAPs and literally just made them free. In Jetpack Joyride, the previously ridiculous 1,000,000 coin IAP for $29.99 just let's you buy it for free.

Most of those are older runners and stuff that I've burned out on, but it would be interesting (but will never happen) if a more recent game with insane $99.00 consumable IAPs did this.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Heads up to those who actually read permissions before installing an app, the Underground app probably has the most evasive ones we've seen thus far:

com.amazon.mas.client.install.KICKOFF_INSTALL_com.amazon.mShop.android

Access platform metrics

Call the single sign-on provider

com.amazon.mas.client.CONTENT_PROVIDER_READ_com.amazon.mShop.android

com.amazon.mas.client.install.RECEIVE_INSTALL_STATE_com.amazon.mShop.android

Install packages

Access customer attributes

Access coarse (e.g., Cell-ID, Wi-Fi) location

com.amazon.mas.client.authentication.permission.DEREGISTRATION_BROADCAST_PERMISSION_com.

amazon.mShop.android PowerManager WakeLocks to keep processor from sleeping or screen from dimming

Access information about Wi-Fi networks

Manage the list of accounts in the AccountManager

Allows an application to receive messages via Google Cloud Messaging

Receive broadcast intents from in-app purchasing

Access device credentials

Receive updates when Amazon app settings have changed

com.amazon.mShop.android.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE

com.amazon.mas.client.GLOBAL_BROADCAST_com.amazon.mShop.android

Read permission settings

Get notifications of permission changes

Manage regional settings

Record audio

Change Wi-Fi connectivity state

Open network sockets

Install an app update

Read account changes

Read the user's contacts data

Access the flashlight

Access the list of accounts in the Accounts Service

Act as an AccountAuthenticator for the AccountManager

com.amazon.mas.client.CONTENT_PROVIDER_READ

Write to external storage

Access fine (e.g., GPS) location

com.amazon.mas.client.malware.blockedapp.BLOCKED_APP_PROVIDER_WRITE_com.amazon.mShop android

Allows an application to uninstall home screen shortcuts

Access information about networks

Get access to Appstore’s settings

Delete packages

Allows installation of home screen shortcuts

Monitor incoming SMS messages, to record or perform processing on them

Send SMS messages

com.amazon.mas.client.install.CONTENT_PROVIDER_WRITE_com.amazon.mShop.android

Generic permissions access

Allows an application to read device settings

Access to the authentication SDK

com.amazon.mas.client.install.INSTALL_com.amazon.mShop.android

Update configuration values

Access the vibration feature

com.amazon.mShop.android.getui.permission.GetuiService

Access the Amazon video SDK

Request authtokens from the AccountManager

Required to be able to access the camera device

Read from external storage

Change account property

Read only access to device state

Communicate to Google Cloud Messenger (GCM)

 

[zerodeefex]

This will be much better once M is out with granular permissions. You should be able to deny the permissions you don't want to give.

 

[danowat]

Yeah, I was just looking at this, fancied monument valley for free, but some of the requirements are scary, the app can send SMS without my knowledge?, no thanks!