'Spore Origins' Discounted to $7.99
posted by arn on October 11th, 2008 1:32 PM EDT in Sales
As first noted on our New Games and Price Drops page, EA's Spore Origins [App Store] has been discounted to $7.99 (from $9.99).
Spore Origins was a highly anticipated iPhone release which we enjoyed:
Spore Origins is certainly one of the most engaging games available for the iPhone. Using the Creature Creator to evolve your organism–to better equip it to eat and not be eaten in the dangerous game world–and to watch those changes work to advantage is highly satisfying.
However, some Touch Arcade commenters were concerned about the long term replay value. If you've been holding out, now may be a good time to pick up this high profile title.
App Store Link: Spore Origins
This reminds me, I want my money back. This game was not worth 10 dollars. I can never get the tilt thing to work correctly on my iPhone, it's ridiculous. EA if your listening, please. I want my money back. On the other, hand the graphics and everything are great. If it works on your iPhone/ iPod Touch I would recommend buying it. O
May I note the sale is U.S. only — here in New Zealand it's still full price. I was gunna buy it during the sale too…pass.
Yeah, same here in Denmark – still full price
not even worth 7.99
maybe 4.99, very little replay value..kinda boring…meh
This is starting to irritate me. Every app has gone on sale like a week after its release. This will definitely stop me from buying NFS Undercover on 'opening day' since it will likely go on sale a week later. Good job developers…
No sale in the UK either.
@ Everydaynormalguy
The app store is a mess, its starting to remind me of the financial markets. I can't believe I'm saying this but this up/down pricing ambiguity in the App Store is causing me second guess purchases. I think it would be better if the devs started selling the app at a discount and stipulated a time frame than upped the price to a retail value.
\than again what do I know, my degree (in 3 months hopefully!) is in Telecommunications/Networking
@Chris
That's a pretty accurate description. I wonder if all the devs will panic and bail out at the last minute.
It could be the 2008 internet depression.
that is my pricing strategy for my apps which will be released soon
express the retail price, and sales periods
out of respect to my customers, cause as a customer, i hate buying an app, then having a huge discount hours later which has forced me, as a customer…to hold out on buying initially
If they screw around with this kind of crap too much. People are just going to stop buying stuff all together whenever anything comes out and just wait until the developer freaks out and has a price drop. Spore Origins was easily not worth $10 and I regret buying it. I'm not buying anymore apps because of this price drop in 2 weeks non-sense. The only game that I'm going to buy maybe on day one is Rolando when it comes out but that's about it…
On the other hand, if a game *really* deserves it, I believe it will sell quite good even at full price — just to play it now rather than later.
There's lots to discuss regarding the App Store and its Wild West pricing nature right now. It's probably too much for a simple comment thread, but I'll still fire off some thoughts (pardon me, I'm being provocative on purpose):
- One way to fix the situation is for Apple to reduce the number of price segments, and to implement a policy that limits the content providers' ability to change their pricing to, say, once per month. If that were to happen, there'd be complaints about Apple stifling the free market…
- A major cause for the price drops is hobbyist developers who aren't really trying to make a living from their apps. There are hundreds of games from nightstand coders who can afford to drop the price below one dollar, because for them it's all profit. The situation is different for indies and big publishers.
- Big publishers don't have that much of a problem setting their price to the high segment of App Store games. Their games don't even seem to need demos, as people are always willing to buy branded games. Many of the branded games are simply ports from games that are available on other mobile phones.
- Small indie studios are caught in a difficult situation. They need their games to sell in order to pay the wages, and because App Store is flooded with dozens of new games almost daily, the only way to get buyers' attention seems to be through price drops. It remains to be seen if this is a viable strategy, or if indies will be forced out, or start making smaller and smaller games. Don't think any of the developers actually want to lower their prices. Some of them simply have no choice.
- At the same time, there's something to be said for the internet drama queens as well. Nobody's forcing a buyer to spend their dollars before reading a couple of reviews, so blaming the developer after making an impulse purchase that didn't meet the expectations is hypocritical and a troubling sign of a twisted perspective.
- Likewise, complaining about price drops when something that already cost about the same as a sandwich comes down a dollar or two… Can you really, honestly, say you feel cheated? Quite the contrary, you should congratulate yourself for being one of the few who agreed with the developer about the value of the application! You are the reason they might actually be encouraged to scale their games up in the future, as opposed to cutting them down to $2 tilt-sensor gimmicks.
- Remember, the big decision makers hate taking risks, and with the way the App Store is behaving right now, it is not encouraging publishers to bring in bigger games when the games that sell the most cost around $2. You get what you pay for, and what you buy now influences what you get in the future.
The app store is such a mess because everyone is b!tching and whining about the prices. I mean really, I'm 13, and honestly, $10 for a QUALITY app like Asphalt, Spore, or whatever is TOTALLY REASONABLE.
Does no one realize that for a quality X-BOX game, you pay SIXTY dollars?
If you're complaining about a crappy X-box game for SIXTY dollars, go ahead and b!tch all you want, but when you cry about wasting 4 bucks on a bad app because you ignored reviews and didn't bother to go on youtube and find footage of the gameplay, you really are a cynical and cheap person. It especially ticks me off when an ADULT complains about blowing 5 bucks. If you are an ADULT, that can afford the $100 per month iphone plan (Or has a several hundred dollar itouch), even working at minimum wage ($7.xx – $8.xx ish), surely you can afford a $5 app?!?!?!?!?!
Ok, my rant is over
Haha! That was a good rant Andy!
I can see your point- these apps are relatively cheap even compared to PSP and DS games. You could easily have Asphalt4 on the DS selling for £30, and people will buy it.
I don't know what the answer is to the fluctuating prices- I said myself the other day that it's like playing the stock market. The app store itself being a game all of its own. But I can see why dev's do drop prices to attract new customers.
I'm with andy.
I think Appstore pricing is great.
I like that they've made it so you have to buy an app to review it.
The devs have worked out that the cheaper something is, the more buy it…
It'll all work out.
Well done andy.
I've always been of the assumption that the people who complain about app pricing are the same who normally torrent music and movies illegally. Obviously these people have never noticed that when DVDs are released they're around $30 (in Australia), but drop to $25-$20 a couple of weeks later. Within a year or so they're in the $10 throwout bin.
Let's face it, if you go to the movies it costs about $10. If the movies crap do you ask for your many back? Seriously guys.
There is a reason Demo's and free trials are produced. There are lite versions of games in the app store that I wish most "big title" games would produce.
As for the Spore game, I paid full price and played it off and on for about a week and it has been sitting on my home screen since. (I have had it since it launched).
It runs well and I haven't had a problem getting it to do what it is made to do as far as controls go. Do I think its worth 7.99? not really. There's only like 20 levels or something and if you are looking for a creature creator like the PC version than you will be sorely disappointing.
Most games are under $10, not a whole lot of money to begin with. So far I've paid minimal $$$ for my apps, because I know what sites monitor app prices, and I patiently wait for discounts. When I do buy an app, if the price drops oh well. Some folks act like they've never made a purchase before, sometimes prices drop.
All I would add is that it would be nice if you got at least a 7-10 day price guarantee. If you buy an app and the price drops the next day, you should get the discount. Most retail stores have this type of policy, and it would make those on the fence more likely to buy.