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.
Says something interesting about the strength of WH ip - if not the actual games! Armageddon is about as close as it gets to raw WH tabletop essence, and I'd be amazed if it'd been a best seller. It's just way, way too geeky. Even for me*.
Whereas reasonably faithful adaptations of their (much) lighter efforts have a slightly better chance (eg Talisman, Leviathan, Chainsaw Warrior).
And some of the games that have virtually nothing to do with GW gameplay - ip aside - are utterly tremendous (eg Freeblade, Quest, Carnage).
So, yeah. It's the IP that's selling it, IMO. Less so the actual gameplay.
*And I spent hundreds on painting pewter miniatures in my youth...
There's also probably a strong element of legacy appeal there. I'm late 30s. When I was early teens, WH was a marker of social awkwardness, an interest in gaming, and relative affluence (bc it costs an absolute chuffing tonne. As in, an *absolute* chuffing tonne to gather a small army. Let alone paint it).
In addition to whatever subsets of contemporary yoof might be drawn to a game, I suspect the older socially awkward and historically affluent market is not a bad *additional* market to appeal to...
Hey does anyone know if the emblems work in multiplayer?