At the beginning of the year, those of us in the United Kingdom (as well as some other unlucky territories such as Turkey and India) had to deal with the aftermath of certain political actions – even within the seemingly safe haven of the App Store – as prices rose by around 25% across the board. With many question marks over economic stability of certain countries around the world, it seemed inevitable that other states would soon be affected by this most recent App Store price hike, and today Mexico, Denmark, and all the countries that use the Euro have today faced a similar fate. As our sister site MacRumors reported last week, apps previously costing 0,99 € are now 1,09 € – more expensive games have risen even more dramatically, with something such as Death Road for Canada ($14.99) now 8,99 €, as opposed to its old 7,99 € cost of entry.
Even my boundless optimism is struggling to put some sort of positive perspective on this price increase, as it really is a massively disappointing action for all our readers in the affected regions. With ominous signs of support for 32-bit applications being abandoned in the next major iOS update, this is yet another kick in the teeth for the iOS gaming community. My grasp of international economics isn’t strong enough to state whether this is an unfortunate inevitability of the climate or an opportunistic move from Apple (both aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive), but there may be a small benefit to take from all of this. Similarly to on the UK App Store, a new 0,49 € pricing tier has emerged from some of the cheaper iOS titles such as Hitman Sniper ($0.99) – if you buy a lot of less expensive games or in-app purchases, there’s a chance you may benefit out of these recent changes. For everyone else, be sure to share your unfiltered (but still family friendly!) views on our forum thread.
