Marketing a game by having an introductory sale price is, IMHO, the stupidest marketing idea that has ever come out of the App Store market. Seriously. You know who thought of that as a marketing "gimmick"? Developers. You know who didn't, and who think it a bad idea, and quite frankly, stupid? People who actually work in marketing. Why? Early adopters are those with the highest interest, and those who, among those with interest in the product, are thus willing to pay the highest possible amount. If you sell initially at a low price in a misguided attempt (and it is truly misguided, btw) to raise visibility, guess what? You've undercut whatever revenue you may have generated off of the higher price point you would've sold the game for initially. And there's no guarantee that the lower price is going to raise visibility anyway, as there are literally hundreds if not thousands of other games priced similarly. So you'd have a situation where you might not get visibility at the lower price, and because of the lower price you miss out on getting as much out of the consumers with the highest level of interest in your product. The people with lower interest, those only willing to pay a specific amount lower than the price those with the highest interest would be willing to pay, can be had later in the life span of the product. You can always lower price to grab those potential consumers later. You can never turn back the clock to get extra bucks out of people. I know we've seen some apps go from $1, go up in the charts, and then raise price, but rising up the charts happens rarely, and raising price after introduction is usually met with vastly diminishing sales. Why? Because the people that would've paid the higher amount? They already bought your game at the low intro price. It's counterproductive, it's an amateur hour attempt at "marketing", it's likely to fail, and it goes against basic common sense. Paul's going about this the right way. Have patience. They know what they're doing.
To be honest, when pretty much all of the games are less than 10 bucks (most a lot less), complaining about a few dollars is about as tight fisted as you can get. I think we should enjoy it while it lasts, because not everyone is going to keep putting their software on the Store at fire sale prices for much longer. Something will eventually have to give.
Thousands of developers are competeing for our money, the pricing of games is not going to change. With other consoles, you have 50 maybe a 100 big names keeping prices high. Thats why you can find computer games or software so cheap, the market is saturated with thousands of developers, and there is always someone new, who is smarter and has a better idea, and he undercuts the price of your basic idea. Apple revolutionized gaming by undercutting the man. They pretty much told the gaming industry what they told the music industry; that they werent going to let them monopolize the way consumers get their media. If the media producer doesnt like the terms, then "so long charlie, dont let the door hit you on the way out" Apple is the largest media distributor in the US, delivering games, movies, and music, directly to us, in our homes, at a fraction of what it has cost us for years. Apple no longer deals with these major media developers, they deal with Apple, and they want the consumer to have the best, at the best price possible.
Yeah, I agree. A lot of people have been saying how "OMG the prices are gonna have to go up again" but I disagree. The market started out low priced, I doubt it's gonna get higher. As for big name companies SUPPOSEDLY selling games in a premium games section at ~19.99, those games better be damn good. Right now, even the quality games are selling at or under ~10 bucks, I doubt anything higher will sell well.
False. The reason prices are higher for game systems is due to cost of physical media (developers and publishers have to order their games pressed onto disc by the console manufacturer), distribution of said media, higher dev kit and licensing/royalty fees, and the prices being set by the console manufacturer. That's why games on game consoles cost more. Correct, in a way. There aren't associated costs with PC development that you'd find on home console. They did nothing of the sort. The revolution on their front was releasing a free SDK, keeping dev licensing costs low, and letting developers set price. lol You've sipped the Kool-Aid a bit too much. FYI< Apple NEVER dictated price to app developers, including game developers, and they NEVER dictated price to the music industry. The industry set their own prices. In terms of the game market, Sega set the "ceiling" of sorts with intro price to Super Monkey Ball ($9.99). At no point did Apple tell anyone, including Sega, how they should price their game. They let Sega set price, as they have with all other devs. That's why you see different price points, btw. And the "rush to the bottom" was perpetuated by the fly by night indie devs (not to be confused with the long term indie devs) who bought into the ridiculous notion that they could make up revenue by selling larger amounts. Ridiculous notion because it's a complete crap shoot as to whether any dev would be able to sell the amount needed. You give Apple WAAAAAY too much power/credit. Apple has to play ball just as media companies have to play ball. It's NOT a one way street. They do NOT dictate price, but allow the free market to set the price. And that, btw, shows just how different this platform is as a platform for games. Apple doesn't have the tight strict control that other platform manufacturers have (and they don't really have internal studios either). That's both a benefit and a curse, as we have seen with the crap apps that litter the app store from time to time.
The game submarket of the App market started at $9.99, and it was set by Sega, not Apple. Sega priced at $9.99, other companies followed suit. Data has proved that the larger companies, those with distinct advantages in IP recognition and larger marketing budgets, can not only survive, but thrive selling at the higher end prices. Why? Longer term investment, that's why. *sighs It was a RUMOR, nothing more. Again, the companies set the price, not Apple. And they could've, if they wished, set price at $19.99 from the very start of the App Store and they could now if they wished. They didn't, and haven't, for specific reasons. The market has been set: $4.99 - 9.99 for the larger companies, and pretty much everything below that for the smaller companies. The only chink in the armor is the silliness from larger indie companies selling at $0.99 initially in a misguided attempt at selling low early for marketing purposes. I've shown why it's silly. The really small indie devs (one or two person crews) might be able to afford such a gamble, as their investment costs are low and they need money quick, but larger devs are better off with higher prices than a buck. The devs themselves are starting to realize that, btw.
if any one had the time to read all of that i will be surprised >:l Has CJS been submitted to apple, sorry i dont have time to go through 35 pages.
It costs no more to make a game disc than a dvd, throw in the case, mass production, and wholesale costs, and a stick of gum probably costs more. They revolutionized it cause indie devs will get the same slice of cake that a big dev will get. Prices go down because genres get flooded with games just like it in a very quick amount of time. there are a lot of great Tower Defence games, but they've all came out in under a year, its overkill. Apple doesnt play ball, they make the court even. It doesnt matter what developer you are, you pay the same start up costs and 30% to Apple. Do you think they cared if Paramount or Sony didnt want to sell their movies on iTunes? Would you not buy movies off iTunes cause Paramount didnt put their movies there? That would be Paramounts loss. Thanks for finishing it up right though, they dont dictate price, thats what is so important. They havent even tried to encourage devs to charge more. They dont have to charge $60 a game, because they have 30000 $2 apps. They want the playing field to be wide open, so that consumers can continue to get the best possible, at the best price.
The Dev told us on SlideToPlay on March 21st. That they are submitting it later that week. So I think its been submitted.
Thank you but then apple has been reviewing it for a long time or they accepted it and paul is waiting, is that right? >:l
