The only joke is how much time you've invested in this thread instead of doing ANYTHING else which would have been substantially more worthwhile and productive.
Who the hell thinks taxes are super cheap? Do you live on Earth? Or some other planet where taxes are equivalent in price to store brand 2 liters of soda.
I read thoughghly and I have given 2 ANALYSIS where you have just been chatting and fighting. I even quoted myself 2 twice , but you want to lead arguements and fighting instead of number crunching. Plus you never respond when I break down numbers , which further proves you just want to argue. I love this thread , do you know the reason Hodapp redirected whiners here like you ? He brought whiners like you here to give Himself and the staff a break from having to look through every post and erase comments from people like you. See I can tell when Iam talking to a regular person and a sick individual . I used to work in the hospital and I seen mental patients. They allowed the normal functioning mental patients "privilages" for behaving like TV and computer use. So I see you have been a good-boy , until you hop on the computer and rant. The only question I have is what did you do to get yourself admitted?
It was changed a long time ago. I know this. You know this. You know that I know that you know this. So, what now?
Just a reminder, Joke thread or not, this thread is not exempt from forum rules. So unless you can argue without attacking other members and hurling insults at them, dont bother posting.
Weehoo, stop acting like you're friendly, or like you've planned it all, when 5 to 10 pages ago you were trying so hard to be creative in your insults. Just quit, you're done, that's all. edit : ImNoSuperMan beat me to it
I'm tired of this attitude. People need to stop complaining about prices. No one really complains about the price of $50 PSP games. However, I think the reason games like Final Fantasy are only $16 on the iPod Touch/iPhone and not $40 like on the DS is because they don't need to pay for discs + covers + manual books. Anyways, there's no need to complain. It's because of the complaining and greedy buyers that developers like Activision are done with developing App Store games. If you want the game, pay the price. If you don't want to pay as much as $16... then don't buy it.... it's not rocket science.
[THIS HAS BEEN EDITED SO IT DOES NOT VIOLATE ARCADE RULES, ACCORDING TO I AM NO SUPERMAN] This guy has made a lot of you appear very uninformed . Aside from this thread getting personal, he made a clear, coherent point that if people will pay $16 for a game, developers will continue to raise the bar. I feel like a broken record already but if you want to waste $16 for nostalgic purposes, I really do understand that. If Final Fantasy 6 for SNES (FF3 in the U.S.) was on the iphone for $16, I'd have to show major restraint. But if I did bought it, I'd understand that I paid an unprecedented amount of money for a game that has been ported endlessly and that I could play on a freaking emulator on my Android. I would have been ripped off, and I'd be pissed that I was a sucker. I already listed the top iOS games that cost $10 or less and that are undoubtedly superior and more expensive to develop. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to ponder: "why did Infinity Blade, GTA:CTW, Real Racing 2, Modern Combat 2, Tilt to Live, SFIV cost less than a port of an average FF port!?" And Yemi, I already discredited your number crunching, so please pay a bit more attention. You all call this guy out for spending tons of time on here ranting. That may be true, but look in the mirror you hypocrites. You spend countless hours on these forums as well. I Am No Superman, you are on here all the time!! At least he is attempting to stay on point. You have been reading through this thread, but you just aren't capable of refuting his points or contributing anything. If you were the good guys that you claim to be, leave the thread and don't come back! But you like the drama!! I'm not just trying to defend the guy. His bragging and holier-than-thou attitude is started to grind on me, but it's hard not to fall into that trap when trying to have a conversation with people devoid of logic or common sense. In conclusion, you can shut down this thread or rename it to try to discredit the guy, but you are the ones who have turned this into a circus.
Yeah, i also don't necessarily think that this paves the way for devs to outrageously increase prices either. Didn't happen when GTA came out at a high price, nor did it happen when Chaos Rings launched at another high price point. 99c games are still commonplace, and price drops still go on. I don't want to pay the required 16 bucks for FFIII, therefore i won't buy it. And ooh look! Gameloft are having a 0.99 sale! They sure boosted their prices in the wake of that new $16 premium price point, didn't they! Oh no wait... [EDIT] @natedogg213: oops, sorry- your post came in whilst i was posting- my general sarcastic tone was not being directed at you!
As I wrote 10 pages ago : imho it was about time for giant studios to raise their price to DS / PSP bar. Additionnally : because it will, at last, attract other giant studios (which didn't want to take the risk to produce an AAA game for 5 dollars).
But what giant studios aren't in the iOS scene other than Microsoft (competitive reasons) and perhaps Activision? If studios see profit potential they will enter the market, no doubt. Touch games should not cost what DS/PSP are because of many reasons: physical product, meaning production and distribution costs not present on iOS. Further, a lot of the pricing is (sad to say) based on precedent. Think of all the DS and PSP games you can get for $5-10 now when they were originally released for $30-40. Evidence of this is in the PSN store. You can get games such as Angry birds and other games originally made for the iOS for very cheap. Also, there is not much risk for big game developers to enter the market. Why Blizzard hasn't joined, I truly don't know. But just the allure of the App Store's reach to millions, the iphone/touch/pad gaming market is just beginning. Back to my point. To charge $16, $4 more than I have ever paid for a single game (Chaos Rings), there has to be justification of why. Is it novel? No. Did it cost a lot to make? Probably not. Square Enix is saying "we know there are people that will buy this for $16, so we release it at that price and when those sales dry up, we drop it down to $10. There are just so many better iOS games out there for SO much cheaper. Rovio is making millions off a $1 app and off of advertising on the Android. Yesterday I read about a free game with IAP that had made 750k. The studio - 3 guys!
One minor problem: there is no actual evidence that this is the case. None whatsoever. Zero. (A second problem: his point was neither "clear," nor "coherent." It was continually buried under long-winded rants, personal attacks, vicious anti-American raving, and grotesque attempts at "humor"). If you've got some evidence, feel free to provide it. That would put you a step ahead of WuWu, that's for certain. If anything, the App Store, overall, is an even bigger bargain now than it was when it opened. Developers and publishers have been forced to race to the bottom of the pricing scale, not the top. There's some amazing games (and non-gaming apps, of course) available for 99 cents, $1.99, and $2.99. And even for mid-range titles — for the sake of argument, say $3.99 to $6.99 — are easily attainable for a fraction of that cost by using just a little patience. Check the AppShopper history for virtually any mid-range title and you're likely to see that it has gone on sale (perhaps even down to 99 cents) a number of times. The App Store is very much a buyer's market. To think otherwise is to ignore the overwhelming evidence that stares you in the face every time you open it. FF3 might or might not be a success at the price offered; the publishers might or might not have to adjust the price down the road. But it really doesn't matter in terms of overall App Store pricing. Casual games will continue to sell for 99 cents, mid-range titles will continue to bounce back and forth between $2.99 and $4.99, and premium releases will still try a $9.99 price point. Sure, every so often, an "elite" franchise might try for $12.99 or $15.99 or whatever, but those releases will represent less than one-tenth of one percent of the titles available. The market will dictate their success or failure on an individual basis. To claim that that will somehow affect the other 99.9 percent of the titles in the App Store — the overwhelming majority of which are geared toward a casual audience — is patently absurd.
I completely understood his point and am not going to interpret it for you. You can start back over if you'd like but I'd rather focus on my views. You don't need to explain that the App Store is a buyer's market. That is not in question and I am well aware of that. Otherwise I wouldn't have 400+ games on my ipod touch 3 & 4. That is what makes Square-Enix's price point so absurd. I own so many damn games that I have a good understanding of what is generally priced where. This game should be from $6-$10. Square Enix acts as if it is the Blizzard or Valve of iOS gaming, when really it is a fledgling company. It's FF series is tired, Kane & Lynch 2 was one of its best hits from last year...c'mon.... So for them to be the ones trying to push the boundaries of the app store market on a ported game w/revised graphics sure raises my eyebrow.
Yes there are quite a few giant corporations in the appstore, but they don't take it as serious as making a game for the PSP or Nintendo DS. Check out Capcom with Nintendo's 3DS port of Street Fighter IV. Now take a look at the iPhone port. Yeah, I know maybe the graphics of a iPhone can't do that, but just look at how many functions they put into the 3DS version. Activision already do treat the iPhone as a joke, want others to come along and realize too? (Compare CoD Zombies with the DS port of MW2 and you'll see the difference) If Square Enix can earn a decent amount of money, we'd be able to get ports of maybe Dissidia but instead we're getting Tower Defense and Voice fighting crap out of them most of the time. What's so bad about having social apps and more 'console'-like apps at the same time?
(Yes, in this way you are right, I should have been more clear on what I call "giant studios". In fact I was litterrally referring to game studios, not publishers) From my standpoint, every game changing console hits these last years didn't come from franchises (aka. Microsoft, Activision, etc). They came from smaller studios who developped a prototype from a fresh concept, and used that prototype to be funded by big publishers. The problem encountered with the appstore, is that it's so crowded, and so quickly renewing that you will never be able to really guess a game's success, before launch. Therefore, investors will never be assured of a secured investment. Imagine yourself having an awesome AAA concept, with an astonishing prototype to present to a publisher. How can you prove to him that investing 2 million dollars for your team will not be wiped out 10 days before release by yet another series of one-minute awesome games ? It's easy to understand this argument attempt by just looking at "iPhone & iPod games" section of TA : As soon as a big, big hit is announced, there is already a river of other potential gems flowing on top of its thread list. On top of that, that crowdiness makes gamers hesitant about buying a product, even if hyped to the max, because either their purse is emptied by the river of potential gems, either they keep the last buck for last month's hit going on sale. In short : it's too few reward for too much risk, in big cashmen's eyes. And I can understand ! Look, you have 2 millions in bank. You want to spend them in skyrocketting an unknown great game idea to the top of the charts. Studio A brings you an outstanding concept for the appstore. Game will be sold 5$. Studio B brings you an very good concept for the XBox. Game will be sold 70$. Now considering all the risks mentionned above, and considering that on XBox your game would have its own box, its own place in Gamestops, and its own 2 pages long tests on every magazine/e-zine of the world : do you really want to fund studio A ? Yeah some will, because they like handheld gaming, or see potential in their franchise's market penetration (for Chair Entertainment that was to promote Unreal Engine 3 mobile, ID Software their new ID5). But all the rest, aka a wide bunch of studios/investors/publishers, won't take off their cosy console position. That's why I think raising the price to higher [decent] grounds will act like a bait to these. Additionnally, it will also purge the market from "garage" games, like Nintendo call it (half baked games full of bugs), because they will be unsalable at a higher price. To conclude : I'm not advocating a blind price raise. I'm just convinced that inserting more AAA games with higher prices will produce a high contrast between minute games and true AAA games. And therefore attract more AAA games producers. And that is what Square Enix wanted to do, legitimately : bait for a more sane market. "People don't understand ? Ok let's put it down to 10$, nevermind." Sidenote : all the opinion above may not be perfectly formed, as english is not my mother tongue. So please look for the main ideas, more than specific details In fact, FF3 latest release was a complete 3D remake. Initial game was in 2D, so they had to redo everything. That pretty justifies the cost in my eyes ;-) Well that was my only long post in this subject, as other posters did explain the thing better than me ^^
It depends on the type of game. First person shooters get tricky because you lose the control. Strategy games are tough due to the small screen (talking my ipod touch here, don't have an ipad I thought that Chaos Rings was a step in the right direction. Sure, there it's not as epic as FF7 but it really was solid. I paid $12 and never looked back. But Square already released FF1 and 2 for $10, why is there a 60 percent premium all the sudden on FF3? Listen, you don't have to accept my opinion, just think about the app store and all the great games you have and how much they cost. Now compare it to FF3 and its price. And give these devs some credit. They are pricing them based on forecasts. Meaning: What selling price can we set to maximize purchases and get us the highest amount of revenue. The precedent has been set and Square is trying to buck it with an average product.
To be honest it all boils down to this Natedog yeehoo herosoft Are the only 3 people who will fight when it comes down to price being a little high. All 3 have very if any knowledge about how much money it takes to produce games. All 3 people will take an example that has nothing to do with games , and say it will happen here. Here is my proof of my point.Lets use real history here. When the iphone 1st started games were $7-$9 . There was no gold rush and people didnt buy games like they do now. As smaller developer creeped in , the prices of the games got lower. When the games finally reached the 99 cent point , the gold rush came. From 2009 and up majority of indie developers have made and continue to make 99 cent games. Major developers like enix,capcom,sega,etc have all tried to raise the price point . They all failed and have to resort to making 99 cent sales. Yes they push and comsumers dont buy it. Now tell me where the hell do you see the price point for the whole appstore raising!! Its been proven in history when prices where high people didnt buy!!! Dont use examples of soda in disney world or whatever crap comes out of your mouth. Use the appstore history , which is the only thing that matters here.
