Amazon, what are you doing?
April 14th, 2011 by adminOne of my favorite brands is behaving most oddly these days, and I wish someone would help me understand why. Extant the personal disappointment that they’ve not yet released an update to the Kindle DX (where’s the color screen and better file management infrastructure, for starters?), which is really just a personal gripe, their approach to the film-making and game development communities has been anything but enlightened. First they stuck it to the Indie film maker, and today it seems game developers are also experiencing a less than pleasant wake up call.
Now, if this were a traditional hidebound multinational conglomerate of bricks and mortar operational assets, I might understand the disconnect, but this is Amazon! This is one of the most admirably innovative, customer-oriented, inspiring brands around. This is the company whose employees are endlessly drilled in the mantra that “it’s all about keeping the customer happy”. Well, who forgot to tell Amazon that “customers” exist all along the value chain?
Lest anyone else forget, your “customer” is anyone from whom you seek an investment in to your brand. This includes vendors, shareholders, employees (especially employees!), the Media, and end-users, among others. It does nobody any good to alienate one or more of these communities.
If anybody from Amazon is reading this, please get in touch with me, and let me know what the thinking is behind this latest move that has so angered entities such as Filmmaker Magazine, HitFix, the IGDA and Seattle Metropolitan. I’m sure your intentions are honorable (I have to hold on to that belief. I’m too big a fan!), so it’s just the implementation that requires review. At least you opted to revisit your approach to film makers (a little), so perhaps there’s hope you will listen to some sense, with respect to game developers.
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I can’t speak for the film situation, but Amazon tends to favor things that benefit developers less and consumers more. This includes sellers and vendors, but not to the same degree. So the purpose of the amazon appstore is to drive down app prices for consumers. Increased volume should counterbalance this for most game developers, but some game developers will lose money on it.
I like it, personally. If your product is good, you’ll still make money from the Amazon appstore, probably more. Meanwhile the consumers benefit massively.
I like it, personally. If your product is good, you’ll still make money from the Amazon appstore, probably more.
Except the terms state that Amazon can adjust the price of your app for any reason without your permission. Having your product suddenly set to 75% off or free MIGHT keep you making money, but I think a lot of groups would have to write it off as a major loss.
You’ll still make money…if Amazon decides not to be a jerk (when their terms clearly allow them to).