Well, maybe I was a little bit too loud in this point (with the spelling of iPhone), but that's of course not something that does make me not buying the game...!
I voted 6.99, but only because I obviously haven't played it and I'm unsure of it's real value. But, just based on the amount of work you guys have put in, I think that should be your minimum price. I'd be willing to pay $10 (or even more if it's long/good enough).
Eh...I think he could get away with pricing at $5.99 or $6.99. With the bigger IPs, however, it would obviously be $9.99, because, despite what some people and even companies may think, there is still much life in the $9.99 intro price point for known IPs. Another poster alluded to Gameloft's market analysis giving them the data to believe that $6.99 intro prices were best for them, and, as some here know, I question such analysis and have gone on record here with my disagreement over Gameloft's pricing strategy. They give up greater potential revenue and product longevity with their low launch price points and too soon price cuts. Sega, Vivendi, and even EA (to a lesser extent, as they sink into the same issues as Gameloft, apparently) prove to have sounder strategies. But, of course, they're dealing with known IPs, or, if new IPs, they are known companies. That isn't the case here, so obviously a lower entry barrier might be a necessity. That said, IMHO, people paid $5.99 for Zenonia. People did, in fact, pay $5.99 for The Quest. Have the prices dropped over time? Sure. But they were initially high, thereby securing the consumers with the most desire for those games at the highest price point possible for such games (relatively unknown IPs from relatively unknown devs in a niche genre for this platform) Were they (the IPs and devs) more known than this game and this dev? Perhaps to some, but not to the mass audience of iPhone/touch users, I don't think. Why? I gather the majority of iPod touch users (who buy the most games of owners of the iPhone/touch platform, btw) didn't own PocketPCs or rarely played Korean action/RPGs if at all, and they skew younger anyway. So these games and their devs weren't really "known" to that mass iPhone/touch audience or even those targeted in their specific niche ("core" RPG gamers). And let us not forget that, beautiful graphics for an iPhone/touch game aside, Ravensword, as an RPG, and a lengthy "core" style RPG at that, will not find an incredibly sizable audience. No RPG, to my knowledge, has ever cracked the top ten on the paid games charts, let alone overall. So...I think they should sell high initially, but within reason. $9.99 might be too much for an unknown app from an unknown developer (I don't known how well Crusade of Destiny, a recently released RPG from a relatively unknown developer, is doing). $4.99 might be too low. $6.99 seems like the best fit. Of course, I wouldn't blame them if they priced higher to get the most interested consumers at the higher price and then ease up, but, as you pointed out, this may not be a great strategy for the combination of unknown devs and IPs.
They could price it in just about any way and still not make that list. Those games are known IPs or from "brand name" developer/publishers. That said, the list is only gauging gross, not net. The developer's primary concern is to break even and then generate profit. Pricing lower than $6.99 may prove detrimental to that goal. Pricing higher may do so as well if early reviews from those most interested in the game prove negative (we've seen the effect of negative reviews). It's a tricky situation. I don't envy devs on this one, although I absolutely envy the creativity I've seen from many on this platform. Enough people did, arn, to make it profitable in some way, because otherwise the devs would've abandoned the platform and not made all those add on packs. Apptism has Crusade of Destiny at #336 in popularity. Don't know if that's the ranking based on views on their site or actual app store rankings collated for world-wide popularity/sales. If the latter...then that's pretty damned good for an unknown IP (an RPG at that) from an unknown dev. Comparing this or any other niche game, new IP at that, from an unknown dev to DOOM is silly, of course, as you stated...but that doesn't mean that a similar pricing strategy, within reason, cannot be mimicked. Sell high initially, lower price over time. That's honestly what the top grossing apps have in common aside from being "known". Might not be able to price at $9.99, but $5.99-$6.99 is doable, IMHO.
Actually, you are wrong here. Based on highest grossing charts, RealRacing currently makes more money than Geo Defense Swarm which is $0.99 and ranked #16 in top 100. Real Racing isn't ranked at all in the top 100. Yes, Zenonia did do remarkably well at $5.99, which suggests that another RPG could do very well. Though, Zenonia was released in May... not sure if it would necessarily come out at the same price point today. arn
Those are existing add-on packs that they already developed for other platforms. They are just data files they are porting to the iPhone engine. It probably takes them an hour's work altogether. Based on the way the App Store data is presented, the best that number could represent is #336 amongst RPGs-only. Which is pretty poor. arn
Hybrid: Eternal Whisper is priced at $5.99, and is from the same dev. Zenonia 2 will most likely be priced at the same price point. So I'd say for "big" RPGs, $5.99-$6.99 could be a nice high launch price point. But...if they can actually get away with $9.99, more power to them.
And Hybrid has done much worse. Obviously, you can't tell how much is the current price sensitivity of the market vs. appeal of the game, but it doesn't help your arguement. arn
Oh, c'mon arn...you gotta give 'em more credit than that, as I'm fairly certain the dev took longer than an hour to bring over those add on packs, otherwise they would've brought them out sooner. Regardless, even an hour's time (and, yes, I know you're exaggerating) of work would be an hour too long for a game that has proved unprofitable. Obviously there was profit motive for them bringing out those add on packs, and they wouldn't have done so if the initial release didn't pay some dividends. That's what I was getting at. If it's RPGs only...perhaps. But looking at the other rankings (Frogger is #8 popularity on Apptism, for instance), I don't think it's broken down into genres. I actually don't know what the hell that number on Apptism indicates. I was hoping you did. But let's say that it's #336 in the games section, though, for the sake of argument (). An unknown dev with an unknown IP in a niche genre at a $9.99 price point doing #336 in paid games would be pretty damned good. ... Maybe we should ask the dev. And ask the folks at Apptism just what the hell that ranking represents.
iirc, Zenonia didn't really rank on the high charts until they dropped price to $2.99 and had a few temporary sales here and there. But by launching at $5.99, they increased the probability of greater revenue generation alongside giving the product a longer life cycle. Zenonia was released in May, after all. It's still selling, and very well, which not many games do after that many months on market in the App Store. Now, while $2.99 sees them ranking higher than they did initially and at a stead pace, that doesn't mean that it would've been a great launch price for that game. People were willing to pay higher prices ($5.99 in this case), and it sold well enough at that price point for Gamevil to launch other games at that "higher" price point despite not getting the amount of sales initially that they did when they dropped to $2.99. They're going for a longer strategy. Hybrid may not be high ranked now, but if and when it drops price the ranking will go up as they get those less interested potential consumers. But "blowing their load" initially wouldn't make for a longer lived higher money generating game. So...$5.99. It's not so much about ranking as it is about getting the best possible returns on investment. Launching Hybrid at a lower price point would have helped ranking, initially, but I don't think it would've generated the best possible returns overall than the strategy currently employed by Gamevil. You yourself kinda pointed that out with Real Racing in a roundabout way.
Sorry re formatting on iPhone now but you're wrong about an hours worth of time being too much regardless. If you could put one person into a project for let's say $50 worth of your time and make an easy $500 than yes it's easily worth the time. $500 even being an absolutely pathetic return. It's all about expense Va earnings. That's why ports are much less risk. I do know what the popularity index is and it's a cateory specific rank of popularity but it's subcategorgy specific. There is no unifyig games index. It's only broken down by subcats for hames. So yes it's rpg cat specific. Finanly zenonia hit the top teens or twenties at it's original price. arn
I suppose we are closer to a final decision on the price, seeing the poll here. Still a very tough decision though.
As I said before, I think this game should a be a low price. The lower the price, the more people will buy. The more people who bought it, the more potential fans you have. The more potential fans you have, the more people there are that will buy your expansion pack. You want to sell the pack to a fair amount of customers, right? Think of your future add ons to the game, rather than just the game. Thinking that way will better your success on the appstore.
