How do you qualify that, though? Is it a poor value because it's short? Because of the simple game mechanics? Or because other games sell for less on the App Store? You could make a valid case for all three arguments but I remember putting in more than $10 playing Time Crisis in the arcade and spending $80 on the PSX conversion and I felt like they were worth the price because I enjoyed playing them. I think pricing on the App Store still struggles with the ghost of the legacy of J2ME. Developers, publishers, and customers collectively regard iOS games as something quite a bit less than the full-fledged portable titles they can be and the pricing strategy reflects that.
Prices don't just magically go up. There's a reason why prices are so low and Dumaz already covered most of it in his post. Do you expect the developers to form a cartel and all agree to sell games at $20? Then the one independent developer who comes around and sells their game for $15 will make a killing, and someone else will come around and sell it for $10, etc etc. Heck, if Apple allowed smaller increments in the prices, many of the apps would sell for < $0.99, guaranteed. And what makes you think that S&D doesn't determine the price?
Ok, lets think of it like this... Nazi Zombies came out for 10 bucks. Bonus maps cost extra too. When it only had one map for 10 bucks, it was one of the top grossing games in the app store for a long time. Is it really unfair if that say, COD:WaW was completely ported, campaign and multi, and it costs around 30 bucks. It would still sell pretty good. Short version- One small section (Nazi Zombies) of a console game (Call of Duty- World at War) sold for 10, so you can't expect the full game to only cost 10, can you?
I was referring to Hodapps comment on the Crimson Gem saga; I mistakenly thought I was reading a reply from some kid at the time.. I dunno about you guys but Chaos Rings has been the only game even approaching something I'd consider PSP quality, and its a pretty shallow game IMO... Hopefully we'll start seeing some stuff with the Unreal engine, so that theres more time spent on story/content... all thats needed IMO; content+graphics... The price next to the game relates to the quality/time i expect, I havent expected or seen much from the $10.. short missions that last a couple bathroom breaks..
I agree in general but there's the ports of some older games, full game and not that old stuff like Settlers, Civilization Revolution, Myst (ok this one is older), Rayman 2 (not full? or too old?). There's certainly more and this already make players used to lower prices than 10$ even for full games. I don't see why the imarket will evolves to higher prices with games with a high production cost. A lot of elements let feel the reverse. Myself as a too old player who lost a part of his ability to get amazed by hyper production, who feel many (PC) games are a lot too long and get me bored a lot before the end, who enjoy much more play plenty different smaller games than just one big one, who feel the production focus of modern game tend make teams lost their focus on design of pure gameplay, for a player like me I don't see as negative that the game producers get a high pressure to make games that cost a lot less. But I'm not representative of the mass of younger players.
It's a beautiful Market- you got developers who enjoy making games, and you have the gamers who enjoy playing them. Most of the games are casual also- that had flash been on the idevice would have ruined the app Market some. Any wonder apple didn't allow it on the device?(citing 'problems')
For starters, as I've mentioned on other threads, those who think iOS prices at some point have to or should match DS/PSP prices are ignoring the huge cost savings to developers by eliminating the need to use 3rd party retailers to sell their products. In addition, there is no need to spend money to produce actual game discs and packaging. There is no reason, other than habit, for iOS games to need to match that $40 price. We should see a reduction in price just based on the removal of everything involved with packaging and selling of games via a 3rd party. With that said, I think some top quality, big name titles can sell for more than $10. Chaos Rings proved that the $10 barrier can be broken. Assuming Final Fantasy Tactics isn't a garbage port or is some asinine price, it'll likely be well worth it's price, which I'm sure we all expect will be $15 or more. As cheap as prices are, you can still get screwed. Activision is selling essentially a multiplayer game mode out of CoD:WaW with just a few maps for around $20 total. Even on a console, that amount of content is pretty weak for $20.
I believe he meant that S&D isn't the sole factor that determines price. There are alot of other factors such as preference, brand name, a persons way of thinking, what kind of consumer (ostentatious, wise consumer) he is so on so forth. Other people here seem to make it look like S&D is the sole determining factor.
True, but the consumer base here is largely a combination of kids and/or casual gamers. It's not just supply and demand, but premium priced games appeal to hardcore gamers and there simply arent enough of them. Don't let touch arcade skew your perspective. There are hardcore iDevice gamers HERE, but we are in the minority. Just look at the ridiculous success of Angry Birds & Pocket God. Or go to iTunes sometime and read the app reviews. Trust me, you'll see what I'm talking about. Hardcore gamers are buying a 3DS. I never thought I would associate hardcore with Nintendo, but times are a changing. AppStore developers know what butters their bread. Just look at Ngmoco. Look at the "games" they are making these days. Extremely casual social networking games. It is what it is. I have serious doubts as to whether Unreal Engine will survive on the AppStore. My hunch is no. Too expensive.
I see what you mean, and agree. Games are just too casual on the appstore. I myself am eyeing the 3DS.
