That's been pretty much proved wrong time and time again, salsa. The smart companies drop in smaller steps over time in order to maximize revenue potential. The silly ones "race to the bottom" in foolish hopes that increasing visibility will lead to increased revenue. It does, albeit in the short term, and in fact actually misses out on potential revenue generation. It's not rocket science. There are those who are now buying at a buck that very well could have bought at two or three bucks. Now Gameloft will miss out on getting more money out of those folks, selling to them at a lower price, and lumping them together with the folk who would have bought only at a buck that they could have gotten later on in the life cycle of the product. As for the new 3G owners, we actually don't know how many of them are actually "new", how many already have iTunes App Store accounts (and maybe have bought Gameloft's titles already), etc. It's a risky venture that really doesn't help maximize the amount of money they could siphon out of their games.
How much money have you made on the app store? How much money had Gameloft made on the app store? I am going to go with Gameloft on this one. No Offense.
While true, the "race to the bottom" doesn't guarantee increased sales, and therefore increased visibility, either. Loads of games each day are newly released to the App Store. Many are released at the dollar price point. One can, in fact, get lost in the shuffle amongst those very apps by dropping price to that point. I dare say the majority of time dropping price by that much doesn't do much to increase visibility into the top 100 for the majority of the app developers who follow such a practice. Dropping incrementally, however, has proved successful in maximizing money generating potential, carries less risk, and has, on quite a few occasions, done well enough to bring back top 100 visibility to a few apps. Who is to say that priced at $2.99 or $1.99 HoS wouldn't have come back to the Top 100 game sales charts (and it's game charts we, and the devs, should be most interested in...too many foolishly, IMHO, pay too much mind to the top overall charts, where they are competing with different types of software entirely)? Gameloft won't ever know now, really. They'll most likely raise price after this sale, and just like all the apps that we've seen follow this "strategy", the sales will thereafter plummet them right back out of the top 100 game sales chart. They've already blown their load, if you catch my drift.
How much money has Sega made in the app store? How much has EA made? How much have the publishers following the model I've outlined? Answer: On individual apps, they've made more. So, I'm going with Sega, EA, and the rest on this one. You can join hands with Gameloft, Pangea, and the rest of the publishers who've done the "race to the bottom" hula and sing the "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" song instead of doing the $afety Dance if you'd like, but that doesn't mean that you're following the right trends. No offense.
Anyways, enough of business! Anyone with a 3Gs just bought this game? How does it run? I recall the first two stages running like molasses on my 1st gen touch, but, strangely enough thereafter running quite smoothly (even though the levels were more detailed as the game went on).
It would be nice if Sega, Pangea and Gameloft released some sales figures plotted over time. Then there would be objective data from which this discussion could move forward. As it stands everything is theoretical based on more generic marketing principles.
I belive Gameloft has another strategy in mind. I belive that they reduced the price of HoS because aren't they supposedly creating HoS 2 right now? Now if your getting ready to release a sequel relatively soon, I would drop the price on the original to get people "hooked" to the franchise. Think about how many more people are going to buy the sequel now because they played and enjoyed the original. HoS 2 probably builds on the story of HoS too, so you wouldn't want to play the second one without first beating this one. If this is the case then I think Gameloft has a good business strategy.
I said enough of business! Well, we do know that Sega sold nearly half a million "units" of Monkey Ball at the $9.99 price point. Then they dropped lower in the charts, then a drop of two bucks brought them a bit back up, then another two bucks again. And they've rarely dropped below the 50 range on the top 100 paid games charts. But that's a "known" IP. It isn't Sonic, but Monkey Ball is still a high selling IP. Vivendi (Crash Nitro Kart) must be rolling in App Store money. They've rarely dropped out of the top 25, and they've not dropped under $5.99, iirc.
Well I sure as hell am not going to buy HoS 2 at $10 and probably will wait until it hits at least $2.99. Same with their other games. I have a whole list of devs that do this. I wait until Pangea's games hit $0.99 and I wait until Nimblebit's games become free. It's in general a good strategy because it will gain visibility of new iPhone owners but it's also going to hurt their initial sales of future games.
How much has sega made on the app store? Just curious if you actually know. Also, EA dropped their prices quickly too on their new releases, so I don't think you can use them. Gameloft is having limited time sales rather than permanent price drops. Enjoy it while you can. By the way, Gameloft has proven to be a very solid developer on the platform. I don't think they need any coaching on their business strategies from high schoolers and/or college students.
There are so many games in the app store. There is so much competition that companies have to match up with their competitors. Some of these drastic price drops seem stupid to those who look at it in a logical sense. Maybe look at it this way. I assume this is how it works with revenue on games. A game is created and released for people to buy. The first goal is for the company to make back all the money for the time put into the game, paying every person involved with it. So after that first step is done then the company wants to actually make money off it. Then finally from there the company just wants to make revenue. With games like Hero of Sparta, Asphalt 4, Let's Golf they have probably sold all the copies they are going to sell. Heroes of Sparta could have dropped to $3 and maybe made some more money, stayed off the top 100, and then be forgotten. So instead they can drop the price to $0.99 and probably sell a large amount of copies that surpasses what they would make at $3, make it to the top 100, and be able to market the company and the game. That cheap price causes customers to probably look at what other games that company has to offer. Maybe they might have other games that the customer didn't even know about. These $0.99 games for Gameloft markets for them. Most games that don't drop in price or "set the standard" for how price drops should work don't know consumers very well. People have been screwed over for a long time in the console world. You have to pay out the butt for games that sometimes should not be the price they are. To see a price drop you have to wait sometimes longer then you want. In the app store your seeing a trend where companies can't get away with over pricing. Yes, these companies have make to money because they have families to feed, but it doesn't mean consumers have money money laying around to pay for games at high prices.
Why am I not surprised? Oh well...I am still satisfied even though i got it at $5.99. It's a good title imo.
i would not have picked this game up ...but for 99 cents...hey why not gameloft made a sale that they otherwise would not of, plus 100,000+ others when the game made it into the top 100
I think all these armchair business experts that come out of the woodwork when any game goes on sale are pretty amusing. Surely GameLoft, a publicly traded company with a $200 million dollar market cap, a CEO who has been around since the birth of video games, and over 4000 worldwide employees have absolutely no idea what they're doing.
If for some reason anyone is hesitating even at 99 cents...pick it up...loads of button mashing fun with this game. A must download at this price IMO.
Well, at least it keeps things interesting, for there is otherwise little substantive value of this thread, but to bring the sale to the attention of the masses. Anyone, who enjoys iDevice gaming and doesn't already own this game, and still balks at its purchase, gets the raised eyebrow of confusion from me.
Because many casual iPhone users do not bother looking any further than the top 25/50 tab on their iPhone. That tab provides the most visibility. I'm downloading now. I'll leave feedback in a little with how it runs on the 3GS. On another note, Gameloft has made $2 (HOS & Let's Golf) off of me that it probably otherwise wouldn't have.
