What happened with MacHeist? One minute, it’s on top of the world. Its creators were swinging the Mac world by the tail with all the glitzy, gimmicky games and whatnot. Then, yesterday, Mac developers nearly started a riot.

Perhaps that’s a bit much but there’s definitely been a falling out.

Is more marketing really what we need?

Marketing tactics like MacZOT, MacHeist, and others have been patiently ignored by most of the Mac developer community. On the one hand, they’re voluntary gimmicks that developers can choose to opt into and that usually give pretty good discounts to Mac users. On the other hand, they tend to show that marketing trumps actual usefulness. Sure, I love AppZapper but Disco fairly well sucks. Disco, however, was marketed extremely hard and it seemed for a while that MacZOT was simply a marketing gimmick for each of these apps. Anyone that bought a MysteryZot when MacZOT started soon tired of receiving AppZapper. Hell, I received one license free from an earlier promotion and I’ve got two more from said MysteryZots. Disco received a massive push from MacZOT, even having people pay for the privilege of being beta testers.

So if this is usually ignored by the majority of Mac developers, why did the MacHeist bundle set people like Gus Mueller, Justin Williams, Frasier Spears, and Rory Prior?

It’s a bit difficult to think of a reason to dislike the bundle. There are a lot of great applications and Disco for a cheap price. If the bundle goes high enough, another couple of great apps will be included. Furthermore, 25% of the bundle goes to a charity. What about it makes Gus Mueller drop an F-bomb?

Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction…

Frankly put, it just seems like a raw deal for the developers involved. Sure, there’s tons of marketing, but it’s likely to small group of people. It seems that the same people who follow MacZOT are the same ones following MacHeist and are the same ones that follow everything else. How important is it to market to the same basic group of people? Not to mention that the developers are taking massive cuts to their normal charges. Did Delicious Library need any more marketing? Seems like they had a good deal of pre-buzz before it launched.

(Offhand because it just occurred to me, isn’t DL due for a 2.0 release? Seems like I remember a 2.0 hyped. But then, I also seem to remember thinking that Delicious Monster had another application in development that we should all look for. What happened to that? My memory may be faulty.)

Back to the deal, each software developer is getting ripped off. There are, however, plenty of developers lining up for it. Big names, too. Delicious Monster, Unsanity, DEVONtechnologies, Realmac Software, Pangaea, and (possibly) Macromates are willing to give their apps away at a pittance. Why? It simply doesn’t make economic sense. If there were some altruistic purpose, more money could be tossed at charities or the apps could have been involved in Child’s Play Day.

There are a lot of people that are likely a lot smarter than me selling apps through MacHeist’s bundle. I’m fine with that. I also know that something isn’t a smart thing to do just because smart people are doing it. There’s a significance shift in support costs immediately after one of these bundle sales. I’ve also heard stories of sales spiking for one day while on sale and not seeing any after-ZOT boost. But then, it’s hard to argue with a bunch of software developers that give it high marks.

So this is a good deal for Mac users that want a bunch of high-profile applications for a dirt cheap price. It may even be a good thing for the developers. I dunno.

Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.

I do know that calling it a “Week of the Independent Mac Developer” and getting the word out about “hidden gems” but then tossing together some of the highest profile Mac shareware apps is ridiculously stupid. How can Disco or Delicious Library be called “hidden”? And if it’s really about the independent Mac developer, why weren’t all Mac developers invited? Creating a Mac holiday like this is presumptuous and foolish. I’m not offended but I can easily see where others may get a bit annoyed. It’s a lot like being someone’s friend but not being invited to their party. Apparently, only the inner circle are allowed. I’m an IMD but I wasn’t consulted.

How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?

Now, if we go back and look at the numbers that Gus Mueller provides, it’s fairly obvious that people are being screwed. If developers get a flat $5000 payout, they’re basically gambling that the bundle sells poorly. Unfortunately, the house always wins.

I think that’s what Mr. Mueller is angry about. MacHeist is tossing around a flat rate to developers and keeping the rest (minus the charity money). If the bundle sells well, MacHeist is making a small fortune and the developers get kinda screwed. Mueller asked for a percentage and was turned down. The MacHeist crew was not interested in profit sharing.

So Mueller’s anger makes sense. MacHeist may be screwing developers over. If Gus had taken the deal, he’d be screwed over.

As of right now, there are 5 days left to the deal. 2,650 bundles have been sold and $29,543 have been raised for charity. If we assume that each developer got $5000, we can come up with some quick (and wrong) numbers.

If we assume $45.00 for each bundle (sure, it’s $49.00 but there were some MacHeist people that saved money on the deal and I want to give MacHeist the benefit of the doubt), you get a gross profit of $119,250. $5000 for each developer and there’s 8 at the moment means that they pay out $40,000 to developers. If we subtract the gross from the dev payout and the charity, we’re left with $49,707 before tax, title, and loan.

So, if $100k charity is needed to open all 10 apps, then there needs to be $400k in sales. If all 10 developers get a $5k payout, then MacHeist is out $50k to the devs. That leaves $350k to MacHeist.

If the developers are on a flat-cash payment of $5k, then they’re getting screwed. Those are the numbers that Gus was quoted when he asked for a percentage. The percentage meant that Gus shared in the success.

I’m sure not all of the devs in the bundle are getting the same deal. Some may have a percentage and some may have a base payout. Of course, there may be a tiered thing. Devs may all get a base payout but the payout changes depending on the success of the bundle. That could even the score a lot. Otherwise, some developers are getting screwed just to make a bunch of marketers rich.

I don’t know, I’m not involved with MacHeist and I don’t know the agreements. I’m just working with the only negotiations that have been publicly disclosed: Gus Mueller’s. If he’d taken the $5000, he’d have been taken for a ride.

If you wake up in a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?

So, to recap: bundle is good, the name is annoying, the developer deal is potentially horrific. I’m not throwing stones at MacHeist here and I’m not outraged. I’m just crunching a few numbers that may have nothing to do with reality. They’re just the numbers that I have on hand.

I’m also a bit miffed at John Casasanta. He wrote: “I’m sure we’ll see yet another wave of hate and me-too posts like the last round with all the Disco fallout.” Look, this isn’t a me-too post. I’m giving MacHeist the benefit of the doubt, I just wanted to evaluate where Gus Mueller’s outrage was directed and look at all the factors involved. I am, however, willing to say that Disco sucked. It was a lot of sizzle with little steak. Sometime criticism hurts. That doesn’t make it wrong.