It’s Official: EA Owns the App Store – Now What Do We Do?

Alarmist.<p>EA is running a massive sale- 99 cents instead of the usually $6.99. Because of that, they got a huge, massive boost in sales.<p>When they increase prices, download amount will go back down.<p>The Paid charts are based on <i>downloads</i>, not <i>revenue</i>- seems to me they're increasing their iOS install base ahead of putting out new versions of their games, so they can cross-promote against those new paid apps.<p>EA is usually dominant on the App Store, but not this dominant. The big story is how many independent developers are normally in the Top 10. Ever see a 50/50 studio/independent split on Xbox or Nintendo DS? iOS is still the best deal going for independent game developers.

What Do We Do? Make better games. That's what mobile game devs need to do.<p>Angry Birds isn't up there because EA bought the publisher a couple weeks ago. It's up there because it's a fun and addictive game.

Pardon my ignorance:<p>What does it mean for Chillingo/EA to "publish" Angry Birds in this case? I understand what publishing houses did back when software was only sold in a box; but in this case, I fail to see what exactly does EA do for Angry Birds.

I believe that EA only publishes Angry Birds and does not own it as the article states. How that effects the revenue stream is beyond me.

There is still unprecedented independent developer parity. I'd build on iOS if I were into making games. I am more interested in enterprise software, however. :)