Pangea picks iPhone

Pangea may largely abandon developing games for the Mac, claims the company's founder. In speaking with UK newspaper The Guardian, Brian Greenstone comments that the income earned by the developer through Mac games is "lunch money" compared to what it has earned via the iPhone. Enigmo -- though previously available on the Mac, and selling for only $2.99 at the App Store -- was downloaded over 810,000 times between July 2008 and January 2009.

After Apple's 30 percent commission on sales, the company is likely to have accumulated approximately $1,674,400 from Enigmo in the space of six months. iPhone games also tend to have smaller development costs, and a broader audience than that offered by Macs. Both developers and the public have complained that Apple provides little software or hardware support for games on the Mac.

Greenstone admits however that the company has had unusual advantages with the iPhone, such as extra publicity from Apple, due to Pangea's long-standing association with earlier platforms. Success at the App Store may also be less dependent on quality, says Greenstone, than keeping margins down, and somehow breaching the store's Top 100 list through sales of 1,200 to 1,500 downloads per day. Whether achieved through luck or otherwise, the feat is said to guarantee a "self-perpetuating" sales cycle.

by MacNN Staff