It’s been a long time coming, but it’s almost here: Tapulous is putting the finishing touches on Tap Tap Revenge 3, the next installment of its wildly sucessful iPhone music game. The game, which is best described as a “Guitar Hero for the iPhone”, will feature in-game song purchases, which were finally enabled with the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update in June. If there’s a game ripe to make a killing with these in-game downloads, it’s TTR. Tapulous expects to have the game submitted by the end of August, with general release soon thereafter depending on the App Store’s approval process.
So why does this matter? Tap Tap Revenge and its various spinoffs has been some of the iPhone’s most popular games since the App Store launched last year (in fact, a very similar game was very popular on jailbroken phones before the official store even launched). Gameplay consists of tapping your fingers to a song as colorful bubbles fall down the screen, and newer versions also make use of the phone’s accelerometer so you can shake it to the beat. As with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, TTR tends to appeal to a very broad audience.
But until now it’s been handicapped by one major obstacle: there was no way for users to pay to download new songs. On console games like Rock Band, in-game purchases have proven very lucrative with gamers regularly plopping down around $2 per song. But the iPhone didn’t allow for this kind of transaction until recently, so Tapulous was forced to sell satellite games like TTR Weezer and TTR Coldplay, which did well but never saw nearly the usage of the main TTR app. Now they’ll be able to license songs from directly inside the flagship app, which means the number of paid downloads will likely skyrocket. It will also likely be easier to get premium artists on the platform, as they will be able to sell a song or two at a time rather than entire albums.
As a teaser, Tapulous has sent us the following frustratingly small screenshot:
Explain cash cow?
$5 million a month? Just trying to get a sense of what you think is success….Cash Cow.
I think this is likely what the company has been waiting for since it first launched TTR.
Answer the question… “Cash Cow” usually refers to a sustained and substantial revenue stream, i.e As Windows is to Mircosoft. How much they paying ya?
You clearly don’t understand the term “cash cow”.
“a cash cow is a product or a business unit that generates unusually high profit margins: so high that it is responsible for a large amount of a company’s operating profit. This profit far exceeds the amount necessary to maintain the cash cow business, and the excess is used by the business for other purposes”.
Obviously not. So, again answer the question; is TTR making 5m a month which is sustaining the business growth, or is it VC funding?
I’m a beta tester of it and Jason, did Bart send you that pic and info?
I beta test also Jason and I’m just wondering who sent the picture?
http.//tapulous.com/blog .
Of course, they will have to charge at least $0.99 for the app now (Apple won’t let it be free if there are in-game purchases), so my guess is that many people won’t bother to upgrade…
uh-oh O.o
Pfft, it’d be more awesome if they took advantage of the 3.0 iPod library APIs. I’d love to do some tap tap tapping with songs from my own library, and I’d gladly plonk down $10!
I agree. This was done with the original Tap Tap before the App Store opened for jailbroken iPhones. If they are going to charge for the game now I would to have this feature.
Correct me if I am wrong but Apple does not allow in app payment API for free applications. So if it is true then TTR 3.0 MUST be paid application to get all advantages of OS 3.0 payment API.
Correct sir. $1.19 isn’t that much to pay, if they’re going to be charging us for songs.
They could just make it as an upgrade and then turn the free app into a paid app, so only new users would have to pay. But they’re not stupid so probable they’ll make it a separate app.
You forgot the Nine inch nails Satalite game..
What if the “coins” are used to purchase DLC instead of money? They did say that leveling up was going to be worth it. It looks like 1 coin = 1,000 Song points.
hey Jason Kincaid, great artical, but theres somthing important that you got wronge, that game that was famouse in jailbreak was by bart d, the boss of tapulous, and when the app store came out he converted, please give him credit for this cause it shows dedication to the game by bart
You’re wrong, actually. The original is by Nate True. Bart is one of the co-founders that bought the rights to the game from Nate. See: http://tapulous...ge-2-a-history/
I think it’s retarded that we’ll have to pay for new songs now. I don’t know why people are so excited that developers are finally allowed to charge us even more for stuff that could be included for absolutely no money. It’s just like Apple; you buy their stuff, but then they don’t include any accessories, making you pay even more.
“In fact, a very similar game was very popular on jailbroken phones before the official store even launched”
IT WAS THE SAME GAME BEFORE TAPULOUS BAUGHT IT!!!!!!!
And back then it had the AMAZING function of letting u play and create your own taps to the songs already on your iPhone… Now I doubt tapulous is going to put such a function in which makes them SUCK all the more!!!!
Dude if u just want to play ur own songs get tap studio it’s free and in the app store
They do suck they overhype everything most of these artist you don’t ever hear about but the say they are the greatest thing ever it such bs I wish they would speak higly only about artists that are acctually good and famous
Is the game gonna be free?? o.O
Cool.
I wonder why it isn’t out yet? I thought they would launch it on September 25.
Why in the world would we have to pay for the songs? That really sucks. I believe it would make TapTap Revenge less popular. Oh well.