I'm really not sure what the solution is. $0.99 for great games definitely can't keep going on forever. I'm not sure whether the current situation in the App Store -- so much complete junk that the only way to find the good stuff is to follow sites like this -- can keep going forever, either. There really NEEDS to be a way for games to stand out from the chaff besides sheer number of sales. At the same time, as a consumer: unless the game is very cheap to begin with, I generally wait to see if there will price drop before I buy it. Sometimes it's because I really don't want to pay more than $0.99 for a game -- not because the game isn't worth more than $0.99 in absolute terms, but because it wasn't worth more than $0.99 to ME. For example, I love TD games, but currently I have a backlog of at least 4 -- many bought on sale for $0.99 -- that I haven't gotten around to playing much yet. Until I've had time to poke around at a few of those, it would have to be a really outstanding TD game for me to pay much more than that... regardless of whether the TD game in question would be worth a lot more than that to someone who has more time or fewer TD games! Zenonia is another example. I might buy it at $1.99, but never at $6. This isn't because it's not "worth" $6 in the objective sense -- it clearly is -- it's just that I *personally* am only mildly interested in the game. Essentially, there are games I don't want all that badly, but can be induced to buy if they're cheap enough! I actually try to avoid making these sorts of purchases, because $1 here and there can add up fast, but if they're TD games or really well reviewed, it's hard to resist... Sometimes I wait because I do really want the game, but I don't necessarily need to have it THIS SECOND... and I know that there's a good chance the price will drop for holidays or when it starts to slip in the rankings. In that case I may well buy the game at full price if the price takes to long to drop. But, that hasn't happened often. Usually the price slips to $1.99 or even $0.99 cents long before I run out of patience. (I suspect Myst will be my next "will have to finally pay fullish price because it's not going to drop in the long run" purchase.) So, there's the rub. Yes, prices should be higher than they are. But, as a consumer, it's hard for me to justify paying more to myself when I know the odds are the game will be much cheaper in a few months. I actually do wonder what the sweet spot is, pricing wise. It's probably not $0.99, but I'd bet it's less than we might think. I certainly have whole pages of games I NEVER would have bought for $10, even if all games in the App Store were that price. This is a certain advantage to keeping the games in the "guiltless splurge" range, especially when the majority of the market doesn't consist of serious gamers. There's nothing wrong with selling games for $1 instead of $10 -- as long as 10x more people are willing to buy it at $1. I also wonder whether a serious game released at a serious price might do better than we might think, provided the developer was willing to hold out and not slash prices (and provided there was a Lite version). I'll also be very interested to see what happens when micropayments are put into place. I wouldn't want to see micropayments for bug fixes (and I doubt that's going to happen) but I think that being able to charge small amounts for big updates could sweeten up the deal for developers considerably. I've gotten several recent updates that I would have been happy to pay for... and I have several games that I would love to see updated that I know never will as long as updates are free.
Actually, I looked at my iTunes receipts for grins and giggles, and of the games I bought for more than $0.99... almost all have since dropped to $0.99, and most of the others have dropped by at least a few dollars since I bought them. It's may be hard to convince people to pay a lot for games in that sort of environment. (I've paid $60 for games since I got this thing for Christmas. Good grief.)
I'm trying to think of something that you would get more enjoyment and entertainment out of for $0.99 other then a game/app, and I honestly can't. Selling your blood, sweat and tears for $0.99 is ridiculous. That's the most content you can get for anything at that price. At least that's the best thing I can think of. A small fry from McDonald's, or Glyder? A banana from Sonic or Car Jack Streets? Seems pretty obvious to the consumer, and pretty painful to the developer.
Price Drop I would like to see Brothers in Arms or Terminator Salvation. I'd like to get one, but I don't want to spend the money and then wish I hadn't. Also Giant Fighting Robots price drop would be kinda nice.
I guess another thing that has lead to this problem is that we expect pretty much all games to go on sale and that leads to us refusing to buy at the initial price it was set at (except Zenonia)
Speaking of Myst - it is a game that I might have bought if it had a Lite and I liked it. I have discovered that I enjoy P&C adventures, but I am worried that Myst puzzles are too difficult for me. And there isn't a PC demo to be found anywhere either. Seriously, it is not just a "consumer tyranny", it is that many Devs want to sell their games on hype alone and of course it is much easier to do this with cheap apps. But realistically speaking the one thing we can do is to petition Apple to rank by revenue. I am sure that the big publishers are doing the same from their side and if there is enough outcry, they may even budge. If they imitate Amazon's "people who bought this also bought...", recommendation linking all the better. Personally, I find myself deferring buying games more because I am not yet finished with what I have than because I am consciously waiting for a price-drop. An absorbing Lite or an interesting looking very cheap game can overcome this, but nothing else. And BTW, what Devs should do beyond releasing Lites is to test their games on non-gamers too. There have been quite a few otherwise worthy recent releases that have been marred by avoidable accessibility problems.
It's all wrong from the beginning. The big companies should've never competed against indie companies by discounting the price. Instead, the should've introduced more lites. It's party Apple's fault for not making the process of upgrading from lite to full version easy. At least they're doing something with OS 3.0. But still, it would be hard to change the price trends.
As far as I understand it, it is currently possible to transfer the progress from Lite to full version, although you need to download the full version extra. The Quest does it, both with Lite-full version and full version-expansion. But most Devs just don't bother. Seriously, it is not a one-sided street. Devs want to sell for more, but they don't release Lites in a timely fashion and very often just prefer to slash price instead. When they do release a Lite, they usually don't bother to make progress made in it transferable to the full version. And some of them don't bother to test their games on casual/non-gamers in order to avoid accessibility issues. All of this hurts their ability to sell at higher price points, IMHO. But Apple's ranking system is still the main culprit.
I think the constant up and down pricing on a weekly basis is really bad for the app store not only for consumers but for the developers as well. Terminator recently left a bad taste in my mouth not only for its 1 hour gameplay but its 50% price drop within a week of release. The better way to handle this I would think for everyone would be to as an example have a $10 game go on sale a month or so later for $8 then $6 etc.. Not a sudden 50% price drop within a week. (or in the case of Star Trek the next day or so lol?) If this continues people will (and already have) think "Well I'll just wait for the price drop in a week or so" and that hurts everyone. With all of that said I think it might be time for Uno and Hero of Sparta to drop to $2.99 or $3.99. They have been out a while in app store terms and have dropped off the popularity charts.
Oregon Trail and The Force Unleashed. TFU has been out for quite a while now, it's like they just forgot about it.
