Price Increase Experiment $0.99 to $1.99 - Starting Soon!

@c0re : i'm pretty sure what you ask for is called "price fixing" and its illegal. But sure I get your point. All in all we are too often tempted by the 0.99 price..

 

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "price fixing"

edit : ok got it.
Well, technically it's not price fixing, as I'm not asking for every dev to fix their price to one unique tag.
I'm just asking not to devaluate and be agressive like this.
(In some way, this 1 dollar thing could also be called price fixing)

 

I don't think c0re's idea can be construed as "price fixing" at all. It's entirely reasonable to suggest that developers receive adequate compensation for the hard work they put into creating a game or app.

I'm not a developer--just a plain ole' customer--and I find the current app store pricing atrocious. I believe that, if it continues, it will lead to deterioration of the app store. What incentive do developers have to make higher quality games when they know they will be met with comments like, "That game should be 99 cents!" It's a slap in the face.

I am curious what will happen when the iPad is released. Will we see bigger, more intricate games at a higher price, or will the deluge of 99-cent bargain basement games carry over? My hope is that we'll be seeing bigger, better games. I doubt that most of the overly price-conscious, iPod Touch-wielding 13 year olds will be able to afford an iPad; maybe in that respect, the best is yet to come!

 

Blame it on Apple?

Personally, I wish apple would have never let 99 cents be the lowest price...it should've been a $1.99 maybe even $2.50. (BTW, my husband is the developer, I'm the wife and do the business stuff). No one would think people would pay $4 for a cup of coffee but look at Starbucks. People WILL pay for what they want at the price it is offered to them....hence, Apple should've set the bar higher right from the get-go.

Now, it's tough though...cause people are right, there are a LOT of good apps worth well more than .99 and a LOT of crap apps worth nothing, but people get pissey when you change the price on an app they bought. And people are cheap and want all but the most professionally developed games to cost as cheap as possible.

I think this is a great "experiment" and we'll be watching it. We've toyed with many of the same ideas and regrets....I think bottom line, as developers, we have to keep our prices up on apps that are good quality....if people CAN'T buy good apps for .99 b/c they no longer exist, they'll pay the 1.99 or more to buy them.

 

PS.

P.S....I think for the release of any ipad touch games or editions, developers should band together and not release ANY .99 cents apps. $1.99 or better...let's get PAID for the quality entertainment we are providing people. (PS this is the wife again).

 

I wholeheartedly agree. I think Apple making the software they showed at the keynote have a $9.99 price point is a nudge that developers are undercharging

 

I was thinking of tiers like this:

Code:

Indie Games ---------- $2.99
Small Studio Games --- $4.99
AAA Titles ----------- $9.99

Developers would be free to fudge between the values there depending on whether they feel their title is better, or need maneuvering room for sales.

For all of you concerned about "price fixing", there is nothing wrong with guidelines or "MSRP" price charts. As long as there is no meeting of minds with the intent of fixing prices (i.e. developers still choose prices with no direct influences on their decisions) everything is above board and legal.

Obviously, IANAL and this is not legal advice. So get professional advice if you are concerned.

 

This comes from a good intention, but I don't think Indies have to automatically be the cheapest prices around.
Indie is just a business state, as a freelancer or a micro-society.
But this doesn't have anything to do with quality. Some indies just push the working bar way higher than some game studios.

In the end, it should be the quality that would determine this price.
(and everybody should be able to decide his own price, of course)

An easy solution would be an automatic review score for evey submitted app, which would lead to a price tier advise.

Review teams at Apple (or anywhere else under the authority of Apple) could therefore drive devs to better adjusted prices.

After all, isn't this price masquerade the result of some lack of economical education ?
A solid price advise from an official, professional reviewing entity could do the trick.

 

I recently upped the price of Sick of Santa from .99 to 1.99 and I am getting the same amount of sales! Just goes to show that people think your app is better when the price is higher.

 

This is precisely what I was calling "economical education" in my previous post

 

this is a nice experiment and all, but i think you missed out on one flaw: if it's going down the charts, when (if) you cahnge the price back, the game will be much loer down the charts, generating less sales

 

This is exactly the mindset I'm talking about with "driven by fear".

At some point, devs have to be responsible and take some risks, for market's sake.


Until a critical price limit is reached (depending on its whole market), a large percent of a product value is decided by its own price.
This is not a rule I took from a book, this is just observation
And it can be easily justified : when you are used to buy things, you know that the more a product is wanted and rare, the more expensive it will be. So when a regular buyer comes at the appstore and only has star rating and prices as a way of classification, this price has an importance.
Therefore, as long as a game will have good ratings & reviews, its price will be authorized to be "a bit higher" (litterally, a bit over the average).

But as the appstore average price is total cheapness, this previous rule cannot apply fair prices to great games.
This is a vicious circle : Really high quality games can't be given their proper recognition, and therefore will slowly disappear from the appstore.

Result : only the average/mediocre apps will remain, prices will be driven to the bottom as quality is half not a selling argument anymore.

Rinse, repeat, but with average apps fleeing this time.

Result bis : only the mediocre apps will remain, at ridiculous prices.


Pricing is not a game.
It got a lower limit, and an upper limit, both relative to quality and rarity.
If you break those limits, this will vampirize its neighbourhood (or break the overall balance, if you prefer).
We are all that responsible about our market.

 

iTunes sales reports for 3 Feb haven't been released by Apple yet.