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Square Enix Throws A Sale 'Final Fantasy,' 'Chaos Rings,' And 'Secret Of Mana' All Discounted

posted August 5th, 2011 3:20 PM EDT by Brad Nicholson in News, Sales

It’s a big week on the App Store for Square Enix. Following the release of what looks to be a fairly hobbled port of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion [$15.99], the publisher has cut the cost of a tremendous amount of its existing library on the digital storefront. For a limited time, you can grab some pretty hot games for up to 50 percent off from its fairly “up there” price points.

Sadly, my personal favorite Square Enix App Store title, Final Fantasy III, isn’t one of games targeted in this deal. If I had to pick a runner-up that was included in this listing, I’d grab the original Fantasy Fantasy at its lowered price point, though only because of the nostalgia factor. It’s a great game and all, but it’s also pretty long in the tooth.

Anyway, happy shopping and I hope you’re able to afford any of this after giving away your first born and shoveling over close to twenty bones for Tactics.

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  • Kevin Clark

    Those are some ... interesting discounts.

    • http://twitter.com/zylchcheesecake Sophey

      discounts of -200% off haha

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5FLRQI2X2LU3IHMCG7HEAEFD5I Cat Astrophy

    At least it gives people the confidence that FFT will eventually get discounted and hopefully be worth it after a few patches to improve performance.

    • Vovin

      Yes, but waiting one year for a drice drop of 2-3 bucks? It that really worth it?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Rabattino/1129592217 Michael Rabattino

    They're going UP in price? lol

  • http://twitter.com/proto_zon Zon

    Pretty disappointed by FFT, as well as SE's other app store titles/ports... touch controls just can't cut it on games that were designed with a standard controller in mind. 

    • http://twitter.com/21tigermike Michael A. Robson

      That's why FF123 for iOS (oh yeah and pretty much every other SE game) had a redesigned interface.Despite all that, despite what would seem like an obvious lesson, SE mailed in FFT, and yeah, it sucks. Lazy developers suck.

  • Roza0802

    discounting up/.?

  • HisDivineOrder

    Eventually, they'll figure out that selling more of something at a lower price can often be more profitable than selling far, far fewer at a higher price.

    • http://toucharcade.com Eli Hodapp

      Squeenix games are niche titles. They need high price points because they'll never see the volume of something like Angry Birds. You're fooling yourself if you think that if Final Fantasy Tactics was 99¢ it would have the top 10 staying power as something like Fruit Ninja.

      Anyway, judging by all of their games spending significant time at the #1 top grossing spot following release I'd say they're doing a-ok at current price points. ;)

      • Vimy

        I like your point, but i don t really agree with you, they are not that niche, with films and anime series titled from there games., they are more mainstream than you think.

        the question for the business end is, will selling 2 copies at 16 $ be better than selling 32 copies at 1 dollar. comes to the same in the end but it doesnt do much to expand the brands.

        this is a company that feels there product is worth more than the average so they charge more. they are selling well enough for them to be happy although i think they are gouging the public a little since, beside the chaos rings stuff, its mostly just ports of older titles. as for expanding the brand, there public is large enough for them.

      • anonymous

        I think Eli meant "niche" in the context of iOS gamers. We toucharcaders are a niche group. Most idevice owners tend to want 99 cent titles yet expect a TON for their money. Sure, they'll get it- in the form of Angry Birds and other Crush the Castle ripoffs, but in terms of games harder to make such as Final Fantasy? Not likely. It's just not profitable to spend the time and energy while not being able to set a decent price point.

      • http://twitter.com/21tigermike Michael A. Robson

        I think you're mistaking supply for demand. Yes there's a lot of casual games, because, guess what.. there's lots of devs that don't have the time or money to do a real huge involved game. But most of those don't sell much at all. There are a few huge games like Fieldrunners or Cut the Rope and Little Wings that are crazily addictive, and that's great, but for most gamers, they want actual games with levels, powerups, and even a story. I think Square is doing very very well with their ports (in time we'll see 4, 5, and god willing, 6). 

        Why does Square price these highly? Because that's the only way to justify making them. And the reason they can get away with it is the... oh.. 30 years they spent building brand equity and trust with the customer.

        When you hear people angry about something as offensive as Song Summoner, or the lack of Retina in FFT, what you're seeing is the flipside of that trust: we have very high expectations from Square, and as a result, are willing to buy their games, even if they're 10, 15, 20 bucks (The iPad version of FFT will almost certainly be $20). No name devs can't draw on any brand equity, they have none, so they do casual games... Their goal is to build trust, and built equity, so maybe one day they can, like Square, sell $16 games that sell like crazy with almost no press or promotion. Square's one video of the game showed NO INGAME FOOTAGE. What does that tell you about SE? It tells you most of their customers grew up with classics like Chrono Trigger, FF3, FF7, etc.

        Anyway, getting back to what people actually want. People want awesome games. And with the average price of iOS games trending up (as the complexity and power of these games increases, and payouts to Devs goes up).. we'll see more and more bigtime Developers putting serious money and effort into iOS games, actually great games, and those will blow away Casual games, and you'll see what iOS Gamers actually want to play.

      • Vimy

        i hear the argument but I still feel they are gouging there client base and not building for the future.

        what they are doing is hotshotting there legacy. they are rehashing old titles without even investing in some shine, ie retina or universal support, charging top dollar for there apps, even raising the price for,'sales' in some cases. hotshotting works in the begining but people will eventually feel burned by your company and then they will just toss you aside.

        they can get away with it because people want there product and good for them for making money. 

        I don't feel like i need to support this, i find it in bad taste and disrespectful to your clients. especially when i compare it to EA or Gameloft, whose prices for original titles as well as classics are reasonable and are increasingly universal

        if they charged 15-20$ or double the going rate for ios premium titles, at least have the decency to release universal coded and salable graphics with retina. perhaps bonus levels if not, an entirely new game.

        In other words, give us the extra mile and i will stop complaining about the high price. the price point at present is not justifiable. some one needs to take a pay cut or you need to do better.

      • Gouldsc

        2 customers at $16 is vastly superior to 32 at  $0.99.  You have 16x the support cost and a user base that has made a very trivial investment in your product which is why you'll see a great $0.99 game with 1-star reviews like, "I wish this game had more aliens" in a puzzle game about chickens from 8-year-olds that will only ever play your game for 2 minutes.

        The assertion that $16 is somehow gouging for a game is simply ridiculous.  If you divide the number of gameplay hours by the price, it's among the most cheap forms of popular entertainment in existence.  Price out a movie ticket and popcorn + drink and get back to me.

      • Vimy

        charging double the premium price point is gouging.
        having a sale, where prices are higher than regular price is gouging.

        you dont have to like it, it is what it is.

        2 clients at 16$ means few gave you a chance and maybe only 1 will be there the next time.

        32 at a 1$ means your audience is larger and the potential for growth is larger.

        so by the next time, maybe you will get 1 at 16$ or 100 at 1$.. what i do know is that all the people who are sitting  on the fence, are still sitting on the fence.

        regardless,I dont begruge there choice i wish them the best,
        but i wont buy there products 

      • Gouldsc

        "charging double the premium price point is gouging."  what's the premium price point?  Console games typically go for $60, I can assure you that trying to squeeze every drop of processor cycles on a device with limited CPU and memory is a very difficult task.  The limitations of the device can make it HARDER to code, not easier.

        I can assure you that developers would much rather have a smaller, older, and more invested user-base than a broader one that is looking for spending the least amount possible.  Quality software is hard to produce, it should be worth more than a happy meal in my opinion.

  • Arthur Hogemann

    GFDAMNIT SQUARE!!! I want secret of mana so baddly >< ... but I need to finish FFTactics first.

    • Gabriel

      Yeah I also have lots of square games that need to be played in my device before playing the newer ones. It's quite the waiting line, considering how long they tend to be. People have to remember, you're getting a lot of "bang for your buck", unlike those flimsy $.99 games.

  • RoderickThe13

    Damm, I'm expecting a price drop of FF III too

  • Anonymous

    srry just wanted to make an account on disqus, posted this by mistake :P But yeah I was WAITING for a sale on FF3, more so than FFT :/ What's the next game release? It's gonna be a while no?

  • Vovin

    Fun thing. People are waiting 6 months for a sale three dollars less.
    You can expect FFIII on X-mas, maybe. But I guess it won't be a bigger price drop than 20-25%.

    • Anonymous

      yeah couldn't resist and bought it! lovin it so far :D


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