Punch Quest goes paid as free-to-play model fails

Hit free-to-play iOS title Punch Quest has been turned into a paid-for title after the developers failed to garner significant revenue.

Speaking to Touch Arcade, Rocketcat Games’ Kepa Auwae said that despite the game having had more than 600,000 downloads, it had struggled to break past the $10,000 mark.

Punch Quest had adopted an approach where it did not insist on users purchasing coins with real money, with users instead able to gain sufficient amounts of money through gameplay.

Having struggled with the free-to-play model however, developers Rocketcat Games and Madgarden made a move to change the cost of in-game items as well as make in-app purchases more visible, but despite a short-term hike in revenue, the update failed to gain much traction.

"We did that last Punch Quest update that fixed a lot of the problems people pointed out when they gave for Punch Quest," said Auwae.

"More high-end purchases, a coin doubler, a non-coins IAP option, a clearer buy button – didn’t work. That leaves one simple thing: The game is way too generous to be a single currency free game."

As a result of the developers’ failure to find a suitable free-to-play model for the title, Punch Quest is now available on the App Store at a cost of 69p.