《Galaxy on Fire 2》这款宇宙题材的贸易和战争游戏，尽管售价高达6.99美元，5.49欧元或3.99英磅，但在上月底发行仅两天就在六个国家的App Store中跻身前十名应用榜单。其中，在美国App Store中排名第7，在英国是第4名，在德国是第3名。

据了解，这款游戏的预算已达6位数。

现在该游戏的上一版本《Galaxy on Fire 1》也可以免费下载，目前这两款游戏的下载量共达250万次，可见该游戏的德国开发商Fishlabs公司的游戏促销手段已经奏效。

近日，PocketGamer记者采访了该公司CEO迈克尔·施德（Michael Schade），了解到了其中更多详情。下文为访谈内容：

Fishlabs' CEO Michael Schade

对高价付费游戏来说，选择投放App Store是不是更可靠？（请拓展到口袋青蛙29.99美元版的下载数据）

很显然，我们看到在应用榜单上排名最靠前的产品，基本上都是99美分或1.99美元的游戏唱主角。

但是，我个人认为，榜单上的廉价游戏越多，就有越多玩家会选择更有深度的、类似掌机平台的游戏体验，他们会在一些论坛和像Pocket Gamer这类网站上搜索高端的游戏产品。这样的话，高价付费游戏就会开始受到关注，虽然下载量相对较低。

一些开发商可能会尝试推出类似《Galaxy on Fire 2》这种游戏的免费模式版本，以扩大用户规模，对此你有何看法？

我们自己也考虑过这个想法。不过，这款游戏刚开始体验时的发展进程很慢，这样才能让玩家对游戏的复杂性有个适应的过程，然后游戏进程就会加速。一些原先最痛恨这款游戏低速进程的玩家，后来就开始变成我们最忠诚的粉丝。所以游戏采用什么收费方式的确需要明智的选择。

这款游戏目前还不支持多人模式，但我们相信这种模式对走虚拟商品交易路线的游戏来说至关重要。

我认为《Galaxy on Fire 2》会带来更多成熟的玩家群体，他们比较愿意为优质游戏付费，不喜欢比较社交化的那种游戏内置功能付费模式。

《Galaxy on Fire 1》的免费下载对《Galaxy on Fire 2》的销售有何推动作用？

我不能肯定前者的两次免费促销活动和最近的升级版本，对《Galaxy on Fire 2》的交叉销售究竟有多大帮助，但我从一些论坛中得知，不少玩家原来抱着试试看的态度，下载了《Galaxy on Fire 1》的免费版本，体验了头几个回合的游戏任务后，立即又下载了《Galaxy on Fire 2》版本。

《Galaxy on Fire 2》可有其他跨平台发展计划？

我们已经宣布《Galaxy on Fire 2》将投放诺基亚高端智能手机平台的消息，现在正全力开发该游戏版本。

至于Android平台，它的最大挑战在于游戏很难实现营收。我们对Android并不十分感兴趣，因为这个平台的计费系统、Android应用商店都不理想，软件盗版问题也很严重。我们已经受够Java平台上的盗版问题了，盗版对我们的打击很致命。

不管怎么说，只要有很大的商机，比如说跟原始手机制造商的合作，我们也会认真考虑。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Fishlabs’ CEO says Galaxy on Fire 2′s success proves App Store premium pricing works

Launched two days ago, ambitious space trading and combat game Galaxy on Fire 2 has already leaped up the charts.

Despite being priced at $6.99, €5.49 or £3.99, it’s a top 10 Top Grossing in six countries, including #7 in the US, #4 in the UK, and #3 in Germany.

Good thing too, as the budget for the game is reported as being in the high six digits.

Of course, with the original Galaxy on Fire 1 also going free – something that’s boosted its total installs to 2.5 million – the promotional campaign from German developer Fishlabs has been well implemented.

We caught up with CEO Michael Schade to find out more.

Pocket Gamer: Do you think the App Store has become more viable in terms of higher priced content?

Michael Schade: On one hand we can clearly see that even the Top Grossing charts are dominated by 99c or $1.99 cents games.

However, my take is that the more low priced casual games dominate the charts, the more gamers who appreciate deeper and console-type experiences, are searching the forums and sites like Pocket Gamer for high end stuff. Then you can kick in with a much higher price tag although the downloads are much lower.

Some developers would try to make a game like Galaxy on Fire 2 freemium to drive audience numbers. What’s your view?

Yeah, we thought about it too. However, Galaxy on Fire 2 starts off fairly slow, so players can get used to the complexity of the game, and then it really ramps up. Some people who were our biggest haters in the beginning, because of the slow pace, are now our biggest fans. So the point of charging for content has to be chosen wisely.

Also, we don’t have a multiplayer component yet, and we believe it’s vital if you want to go down the virtual goods route.

I guess with Galaxy on Fire 2 we have a more mature fan base who are willing to pay for quality content and dislike monetisation on social behaviour.

How important was it to be able to release Galaxy on Fire 1 for free to push Galaxy on Fire 2?

I can’t prove exactly how effective the two free promotions and the recent update of Galaxy on Fire 1 were to cross selling Galaxy on Fire 2, but from what I have read in the forums, people who are still on the fence check out Galaxy on Fire 1 for free and get Galaxy on Fire 2 after they’ve played the first couple missions.

What are your plans for Galaxy on Fire 2 on other platforms?

We’ve already announced Galaxy on Fire 2 for high end Nokia smartphones and are heavily working on that.

For Android, the challenge is to be able to monetise. We’re not too excited about Android because of the poor billing, the experience on Android Market, and of course software piracy. We suffered from piracy for several years in the Java space and it almost killed us.

However, if there is a great business opportunity, such as working with one of the OEMs, this is something we would consider seriously.（source:pocketgamer）