Windows RT app developer abandons platform after making just £52 in one week

A top UK games developer who released a title for sale in the Windows RT App Store has made just £52 on the game after a week on sale – and has vowed never to work with the RT platform again.

Rubicon's title, Great Big War Game, received high-scoring reviews and plaudits when it was released on other platforms, including Apple iOS and Google Android, leading Rubicon to conclude that the rock-bottom sales in the Windows RT store were due to poor marketing of games.

But on its corporate blog, Rubicon Development claimed that Microsoft's only reaction to the poor sales figure was to confirm "they will not give us any promotional features or help us with visibility in any way".

As a result, Rubicon believes Great Big War Game will be "forever consigned to the garbage bin" on Windows RT, "presumably earning [Rubicon] less than £52 a week in future". At that rate, it will be two years before revenue from games sales recoups the salary of the individual who ported the game, claimed the company.

"Needless to say we will not be working with Microsoft again to bring any of our titles, old or new, to this platform," says the blog.

It added: "Apple regularly promote our apps. Android regularly promote our apps. Even RIM (BlackBerry) regularly promote our apps. We enjoy working with those companies and it's nice to see them acknowledge that we bring them some small amount of additional value to their set-up. Firms of our size need a bit of a leg-up, and we go out of our way to show our gratitude to the above for helping us out in this way from time to time."

In comparison, Microsoft, said Rubicon, "clearly do not value us at all".

"Even while there's almost nothing to promote, they will not feature our title for bizarre admin reasons. And this is while their store is empty and they need developers like us to fill their store far more than developers like us need them to pay us £50 a week." 

The RT port cost the developer a total of £10,000 and, while Rubicon says it is "fortunate enough to suck up [the figure]... and move on", it is wary that "other outfits may well not" be able to shoulder such a burden.

"Don't be one of them," the developer warned the rest of the development community. 

Have you developed or ported applications to Windows RT? What is your experience. Please tell us below or email us with your experiences.