Digital publishing is a wonderful thing for many developers, but they all face a common enemy: discovery. According to analyst Jesse Divnich of EEDAR, this could be a signal that most mobile developers should partner with publishers to get noticed in the App Store.
“Discovery is simply an analogue for marketing, which has traditionally been one of the key roles and reasons for partnering with a publisher and it would be an erroneous suggestion to imply that the burdens of marketing now shift entirely to the developer-although I do agree that developers must have a say in the messaging process,” he said. “App discovery shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of developers, nor should it fall on Apple.”
This could underscore just how important publishers still are, even in a digital world.
“I do believe that the absence of publishers in the digital environment is significantly impeding developer’s success,” Divnich remarked. “We have seen various ad networks and ‘pay-for-install’ programs form in an attempt to solve the discovery issue; this has only led to the rise in the cost of consumer acquisition, creating an even pricier barrier for independent developers. It really is an inefficient form of marketing; unfortunately it remains one of the few discovery tools developers can access.”
Source: GamesIndustry International