Popularity of Infinity Blade's IAP was 'pretty shocking to us' says Chair's Donald Mustard

By the developer's admission, Infinity Blade was something of an experiment in bringing console-quality gaming to iOS.

Another experiment was the addition of monetisation options, following the game's original straight $5.99 release.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Chair Entertainment's heads Donald and Geremy Mustard said the decision to add in-app purchases wasn't the result of an intention to drive more cash. Instead it was more of a whim, driven by audience demand.

"Interestingly enough, right when we put out the game, we were getting thousands of emails," said Donald.

"They were pretty much split between 'Yay! We love the game. We want more of it,' and 'Why can't we buy gold? Why can't I buy gold to buy more swords and more shields and more stuff? Because I don't want to have to just play the game'.

"That was a foreign concept to me. I didn't understand how prevalent that mindset was in the marketplace."

As a result, Chair strapped on the option to buy gold (the in-game currency), but didn't expect it to take off.

"We're like, 'Let's put it in. We're experimenting with the marketplace; let's see what happens'," he added.

"But as soon as we put that out, we started selling thousands and thousands of bags of gold a day! That was really kind of eye-opening to us as to the kind of mentality that's developing and how people want to consume their games on these devices. That was pretty shocking to us."

In response, Chair – which also developed Shadow Complex on XBLA – is calling on console platform holders to try something similar on their marketplaces.

The studio believes it allows developers to better their games quickly and easily, responding to reviews and customer feedback almost on the fly.

"This is an eye-opener for me, having not had this kind of experience before," said Donald.

"I think that the things that are happening in the social space and the handheld space are going to completely change the way we look at console games moving forward.

"I think in five years the console games will look very, very different than they do now, and it will be because of the work that's happening in these spaces and the agile... way that the market's developing."

[source: Gamasutra]