We were on the hype train for Gambrinous and Versus Evil’s Guild of Dungeoneering ($5.99) ever since we saw it at PAX South way back in January of last year. However, as is common with multiplatform releases, Guild of Dungeoneering was released on desktop the following July, and us poor mobile gamers had to wait an entire year before the game finally launched in the App Store last month. It was worth the wait, though, as we thought the game was pretty darn good. There’s another side benefit to this staggered release too, as since the game has been on desktop for a year already that means it’s already had a major expansion released, and now less than a month after arriving on iOS, that expansion is hitting the mobile version of Guild of Dungeoneering. According to the developers, the Pirates Cove expansion includes “30% more game with a brand new pirate themed region complete with 3 new dungeoneer classes to quest with, 23 new monsters to defeat and 27 new items to equip." Here’s the trailer from when the expansion launched on desktop.

Of course, as we all know by know pricing on mobile is entirely different than pricing on other platforms, and even the base game of Guild of Dungeoneering is merely $3.99 on mobile while it’s $14.99 on desktop. This is true for the expansion as well, which is $4.99 on desktop, but will actually be released as a free update for all current owners of the game. To compensate, the developers will raise the initial price of the mobile version once the expansion is released, as was revealed when we interviewed Versus Evil last month. In other words, if you own the game right now you’ll get Pirates Cove for free. Anyone buying the game post-update will have to pay a dollar more, which is still a criminally low price.

I’m actually a big fan of the “raise the price with significant updates" tactic that Rocketcat Games popularized with Wayward Souls ($7.99), as it rewards early buyers with free content down the road but still demands more money as a game grows and gets bigger and better. Look for the Pirates Cove expansion to arrive in Guild of Dungeoneering on mobile at the end of this month.