Fruit Ninja Kinect sells a half-million copies; Jetpack Joyride reaches 14 million downloads

Australian developer Halfbrick is flying high on the success of its Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride franchises. Chief Marketing Officer Phil Larsen told us at the DICE conference in Las Vegas today that Fruit Ninja Kinect has reached a half-million sales and has been a very successful console experiment for the company. The company also plans to continue supporting Fruit Ninja on iOS with more updates rather than cannibalize its momentum with a sequel.

As for Jetpack Joyride, which went free to play in mid-December, Larsen notes the game has seen significant growth since the change.

“There’s an update coming in the next month,” Larsen said about Jetpack Joyride. “It’s the biggest one we’ve done so far.”

He told us the previously $ 1 app reached about 1 million paid sales before going free and has since seen 13 million downloads as a free product. He estimates about 5-10 percent of customers will spend at least a dollar on the app through its in-game store, so revenue has been higher since the game went “free.”