With half its Android revenues coming outside the official Market, HeroCraft has high hopes for Amazon's Appstore
Openess trumps Apple's central planning system
Russian mobile publisher HeroCraft has been an enthusiastic launch partner for the Amazon Appstore for Android with seven titles currently available.
Interestingly, these range from paid titles such as Majesty, which is cheaper, if marginally, via Amazon than the official Android Market, to free versions of its games.
We hooked up with sales and marketing director Alexey Sazonov to get his take on the situation.
PocketGamer: Why do you think the Amazon Appstore is important?Alexey Sazonov: We see this as yet another step up for Google: increased competition and a sizeable new investment in the future of Android.
Does the ability of Amazon to change the price of your games without your permission worry you?This term in the contract is a formality. I have no doubts that Amazon representatives would want to work closely with us on promotions and price changes.
What features do you hope Amazon will add to its appstore in future?Right now we're really just waiting for Amazon to go global with the Appstore.
Also having more billing options for end-users would make sense if Amazon wants to reach territories in which it doesn't currently have a large presence with its online store.
More generally, what's your opinion about the opportunities now available within the wider Android ecosystem?Android's market ecosystem is diverse, and for us that trumps Apple's 'central planning system'. Herocraft already makes over half of its Android revenues on third party marketplaces outside of the official Android Market.
Following Amazon's Appstore launch, we expect to see more big players joining the competition for mobile end-users. Maybe we'll see some second-hand mobile games on eBay in future?
Thanks to Alexey for his time.You can see HeroCraft's Amazon Appstore portofolio here.
