Didn’t complete it but played it for many hours when it first came out. Basically, the garage monetization scheme killed the game for me. Wait times got silly, and you basically had to upgrade to upgrade, which is doubly irritating. I also hit a serious wall that was clearly designed as an incentive to spend money on new cars. I think I put about $20-$30 into the game before I ditched it — for a while it was my go to racer on the platform. In answer to your question, some publishers have the mistaken impression that people are much more willing to pay a premium price for games on the Switch than on mobile. I think the failure of Gear.Club on the Switch puts a lie to that notion (it started at $59 and was quickly discounted afterward). People pay a premium price for premium games on the Switch, just like they do on iOS — it just happens that the Switch has more people who play premium games than iOS/Android. Taking a free to play grind fest like Gear.Club and giving it a premium price is a very poor strategy on either platform. BTW The Burnout Paradise port on Switch is killer. On iOS, there’s Grid and Asphalt 9 (FTP but less greedy, IMO).
Thanks for writing all this. Kinda sad that they think like this. A ported version and a sequel got released on switch while the ios version is pretty much abandoned by now, yet they are not willing to at least include the option to unchain the game and let paying costumers actually own it in exchange for a one time payment like on switch. Pathetic move. I bought grid of course and rush rally too from the current lineup...and that's pretty much all that's on sale as premium these days. I liked asphalt 7, and the early stages of 8 (still have "the great wall" update version saved and almost completed to 900*). I tried a9 for a couple weeks now on a burner iphone but I find the monetization toxic...it's basically gambling. Too bad, because it's super pretty. Ohh and ofc it's fully online, lives as long as gameloft let's it. A service, like a free chat app.
I've been playing the current version of this game for a couple days, and restarted at some point...new account, career restarts with the tutorial. After the tutorial it offers you the starter pack, which I skipped the first but bought the second time. Here is what's going on regarding the iap offers: If you buy their “starter pack” the second discount offer is coming in at 57% higher price compared to the scenario when you don't buy the starter pack! Same thing with the third offer, but since that is priced higher than the second they decided to lower the difference so it's only 28% higher. The game clearly identifies the "willing to pay" players and offers them the very same discount pack at a higher price! Is this fair, or even lawful?
I think they would claim that they are offering a deeper discount to the more difficult customer. It’s like when you try to cancel a phone plan or a credit card and you get a “crazy offer” to keep you as a customer. Gear.Club is not the only free to play game to do that. Doesn’t make it any less manipulative and scummy.
Wow, interesting theory. I still feel like it's an unfair thing to do. To roll that thought further: they are probably just as easily rubber banding the game to extract max profit from players. Deleted. I also sent this to the appstore customer service, looking forward to hear what they say about this.
You are not wrong about it being unfair. Rubber banding has always been an issue with Arcade-style racers, but it takes a whole different meaning when you use it as a paywall.
Pemium is sadly a rarity these days. I honestly don't feel like uprgading to newer ios devices as my ipad 2018 runs grid autosport nicely. I do like both realistic and arcade racing but thereare simply no games coming out anymore. Nfs most wanted (which I have on both ps3 and ios) are in the top ten paid racers still...with the failed/broken f1 2016 which codemasters abandoned. Maybe by some miracle project cars go releases as premium...if it ever comes out.
My wallet would disagree with you. With Apple Arcade and new Steam/Switch ports making their way regularly, there are plenty of premium games out there. Unfortunately, there are not as many premium driving games. I would love to see a port of Burnout Paradise.
Well to me gaming is mostly racing so that's what I meant by no premium titles. Anyway after some explaining to the app store staff they escalated the case to the app review team for inspection on possible guideline violations regarding the game's iap pricing strategy. I don't expect anything to change to be honest. Apple sat idle as premium racing game slowly vanished. The toplist of paid racing games lists titles from eight years ago still in the top 10. Like need for speed: most wanted, the app store best of 2012. Sad/pathetic, considering how devices evolved in the last years the racing game lineup is mostly garbage.
