It's hard to assume that you can apply standard S/D rules to AppStore market as well. There are so many confounding variables to consider. The topic has been debated infinitely since nearly three years ago. To the guy saying polluting the thread of a new game with "I'll wait until it's a dollar" and buying it at $0.99 is the same as buying a game as soon as it's out for the normal price..wow. Believe me, you're not supporting the dev worth shit. You're just supporting your own mindset of being cheap. Really, don't try to defend yourself by making a general statement that you think applies to everyone. This is especially true if you've grown up playing other consoles and have means to easily pay a max of $6.99 for a new game. If you're unemployed or have other reasons of not being able to pay, then that's a different story.
Usually when I pay full price for a game and within a short period of time the price drops to $.99, I feel cheated like many others. This game however doesn't fit that formula, no matter how low the price drops. It was worth every penny of the $6.99 paid and even at that price, I felt like I was stealing from EA. This game just oozes with development quality on every level. If this game never dropped in price at all, it'd be easy to see why. Thanks Vovin for your comment, I'm praying my situation changes soon...
Sure we can't estimate the exact shape of the demand curve, but we can assume that revenue = P*Q (by definition) and as price decreases, the amount sold of the product increases (by intuition), both of which are enough. Three years ago was before Race to the Bottom was estabilished and before Angry Birds existed and dominated the charts at $1.
now you're applying you're own justification of right or wrong..... I'm unemployed. Have been since December 2010. I buy whatever game I want whenever I want. My statement wasn't in defense of anything but the fact that both people posting are spamming up the place. I could care less if you are waiting for a sale or if you think writing insta-buy gives u some kind of forum credibility. If it's the official topic for the game, keep the content focused. And if somehow you think that $.99 sales dont support devs, youre just as diluted in your own mindset. Explain how games jump to top 10 when on sale then explain how the dev isn't being supported. You sound like the type who doesn't thing donating $1 to charity is worth anything cause you keep donating $2......self justified high-horsing at it's finest.
You don't compare things in the world that are completely irrelevant to each other. If you're waiting for an one dollar sale, are you really supporting the dev, or are you waiting because you're cheap and want the game for a cheaper price? You're buying the game at $0.99 because you wanted the game and thought it cost too much at the original price. You don't give a shit how much the developers are making. Believe me, most developers don't think their games are only worth a dollar a pop. Um, games jump into higher spots when they're on sale because more people buy it. But um, why don't you try checking the top grossing charts as well next time. That's the chart that matters to developers. They need money too. Oh, and aren't you assuming a little too much if you think I'm the type that spams "instabuy" in every thread?
This is true, but like you said, the infinite supply of download files makes the AppStore a nearly completely demand driven market. We can't apply what usually stands true for other markets here. Also, there's sentiments that we've never elsewhere in the video game industry like the race to the bottom effect, the easiest device to pirate games on, and the entitlement that comes with iOS gamers. Price and quantity of course always defines where the equilibrium is, but the AppStore is so unstable and fluctuates in a way we've never seen before that the point of equilibrium is completely different for every single game. The way top charts are calculated also plays a big part in all of this. Visibility makes for a successful game in this market, but an app can drop 100 ranks in an hour due to Apple's formula for calculating the top charts. Just because you lower prices by a certain amount on a popular game doesn't mean sales will grow by a proportion that will generate the same amount of revenue that would have been made originally. We have a constant amount, or possibly growing amount, of games that are originally already $0.99 in the top 100 and top 200 that will always dominate the market, causing the effects of sales to be less significant. Three years ago, prices were indeed quite higher on average. However, there were still tons of debate on the subject of pricing on iOS games because most people weren't willing to pay $9.99 a pop for just a "cellular game."
I'll laugh when easter comes and Dead Space goes back up to $6.99 Do it EA! An amazing game like this shall never go under $5!
You're supporting the dev, because what you're willing to spend otherwise is $0. In this market, a dev makes a final "prototype". That first unit has a real cost, modification to that unit have a real cost, and any advertising or marketing outside of its app store entry have a real cost, but producing infinity units for sale, completely free for all intents and purposes. Economically, everything becomes about finding the optimal strategy to maximize the gross income. Even if a dev knows as surely as the sun comes up that their game should be priced at $4 (or $8 or $12 or whatever), that dev also knows there is some subset of the gamers out who either are just enormous cheapskates or have a lightweight interest in their title. These gamers will never pay $4/$8/etc, but $0.99, sure, why not? Since most of the world doesn't spend their time haunting the sales forum here or plugging every single game into App Shopper so they won't miss the 24 hour fire sale, those promotional sales get them bumps in the charts, give them higher sales figures to cite in promotional materials and, yes, give them revenue they would not have captured otherwise. We can all wax philosophical about how much better games would be on iOS if everybody was willing to pay no less than $2.99 for every game, but that's ignoring the market that exists. Ultimately, you pay what you think a game is worth to *you*. I don't really see Dead Space as all that appealing. I want to play it, but I wasn't going to spend the original $7 or even the $5 it's on sale this weekend. For me, it's a $2.99 or less title. When the price reaches $2.99 or less, I will buy. That has nothing whatsoever to do with my feelings about supporting the dev, or being cheap, it has to do with what the game is worth to me considering that it's not like I'm suffering from any sort of shortage of games to play. I could spend that $5 on Dead Space and probably not even play it for another four months, or I could donate yet another $1 to Raptisoft, pick up the upcoming IAP for The Creeps!, and grab all three IAP packs for Bug Heroes - same amount of money from me going to support devs, but going to support devs who's products I value more. tl;dr: You can't read so much into into people waiting on a sale from a big publisher they know will happen sooner than later
Sounds like you're taking this kinda personally. I never said it was you posting instabuy. Nor do I think a hard workin developer deserves to be short changed. But u are saying that waiting to buy a game at a dollar is a person being cheap(not smart). You're also lump summing those same people in a "doesn't care about the dev" category when that's not true. If they didn't care, they wouldnt buy. Flat out. Some people are cheap, some people won't just spend for the sake of spending...get over it. The guy who owns a Bugatti Veyron thinks you're cheap cause you don't drive his car and support a manufacturer they like. Lets get a bit more down to earth: you probably have a computer. Did you buy it day one direct from the manufacturer or wait for a sale at a store? Its not black and white. Smart money goes far.... Waiting for a sale has almost become part of the iOS system. Especially with the release of up to 5 great games in one week. I used to and still occasionally will buy a first day release, but with over 300 of these games clogging the backlog I have an option. Give $5+ for a game I might not play immediately or wait it out and spend that dollar? I'm not cheap by any means. I just know what I want and when I want it. But since the assumptions are flyin about, I'm sure you buy every game that comes out right? U support everyone with everything you have....right? Can't be cheap......
Had to google what tl dr meant. Anyways, there's so many valid points here that it would take way too many words to dissect. The opportunity cost to try and make everyone view things the way I do for this argument is really just too high. But, as far as markets and economics goes, this nation has been around for a few decades now, and even with the hundreds of thousands to millions of economists we've had in our nation throughout the years, we still have completely conflicting views between different schools of economic thought (Keynesian, Neo-Classical, Rational Expectations, Monetarist, etc) so really, there's not true answer to this argument.
Did you really get all that from reading my short post? Tell me, do you post "$7?!, I'll wait for a $0.99 sale on this one! Angry Birds is only $0.99 so how dare you charge more than that." in the release thread of every new title? If not, then this argument between us ends here. First of all, these are the people I was targeting in the first place. These people give overwhelming evidence that they're cheap, and there's really nothing else to assume about them. Second, we don't have an argument in the first place. I have nothing against you, and you really don't need to defend others. If what I posted doesn't apply to you, you really don't need to try and pick a fight with me. And please, stop filling your posts with so much sarcasm. It's really not doing anything for either of us.
Just sharing... http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-obvious-reason-why-the-mac-app-store-is-so-expensive-2011-1 http://sterno.livejournal.com/540695.html
Thanks, but I don't think I learned anything whatsoever from those 3 minutes of reading random people's blogs.
Meaning the contents are no longer applicable for now anymore? Just asking, I'm new to app store market... peace.
Hm, I think the race to the bottom effect has long changed how AppStore prices are set since two years ago. We've seen the rise of casual $0.99 games as the dominating games of the top charts since that time. It's a pretty different place now.
