ngmoco was initially the premier publisher for high quality software on the iPhone, launching titles like Touch Pets Dogs, Eliminate and Rolando and pricing games as high as $9.99. Lately, however, the publisher has been working more on free-to-play titles, and that change has affected their “premium” titles.
"Rolando 2 was right at the point where we decided, 'You know what? We're moving this business to freemium.' So I think none of us were really particularly delighted with the sales performance of Rolando 2," said ngmoco boss Neil Young to IGN. "That being said, it's done fine. It just hasn't done gangbusters. It sells every day and we don't really play around with the price on it. We just kind of keep it there and it does good, but not stellar."
Unfortunately, ngmoco's change of strategy and Rolando 2's less than stellar sales have had a negative effect on the next sequel. "When we made the decision to go free-to-play, we said to ourselves, 'Look. If we can't make the game free-to-play, we're not going to release it.' And Rolando 3 as it was envisioned at that time was not a free-to-play product,” noted Young. “So we've just taken the time to try to figure out how to do that franchise really effectively in free-to-play space."
The Rolando series, it must be noted, isn't gone for good – it's just in hibernation until ngmoco finds a way to use it in their new business model. "We're thinking about it and at the appropriate moment we'll deliver a new Rolando experience that takes full advantage of everything we've learned from the free-to-play world," Young said.
