A decade in, it’s really hard to imagine a time before the App Store. I still clearly remember downloading my first few apps on my O.G. iPhone, which I primarily did for something to do while I waited in line overnight for the iPhone 3G. I’m pretty sure the first game I downloaded was the (now defunct) Super Monkey Ball, but the early App Store launch games that I spent the most time with were Trism ($2.99) and Solitaire City ($2.99). (Solitaire City still being my go-to Solitaire game that I still play today, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right") Looking back on some of the earliest news on TouchArcade surrounding the App Store is pretty amusing, particularly when reading comments on those articles.

For example, when we posted our first look of games available on the App Store, one of the early comments we got was from Dave Addey, the developer of iDrops, who had this to say about discovery on a storefront with roughly 145 games: It’s not been all fun and games for developers – especially as a games developer. Our iPhone game, “iDrops", isn’t one of the eight featured puzzle games, and so we’re virtually impossible to find on the App Store. After all the effort put into developing the game, it’s very frustrating.
Many other concerns about visibility and the featuring process were raised in subsequent articles, which is a problem that still exists today. Regardless, unless you really played your cards...