Sorry but I have to point out a major inconsistency here - you say you can't afford the game because it is 3 dollars and you have 35 cents in the bank -- and then you say you would be all over it if it was a dollar ----- yet you still would only have 35 cents in the bank??? Add: then I see another post that you got it??? Be consistent k?
well it's not too hard to find another 70 cents laying around the house... a little harder for me to come up with $3... sad as it sounds...
doesn't even matter anyway... I ended up buying the game anyway... now I've just got to try and get $3 into the bank before iTunes takes it out... =o/
Sorry, just honestly all the whining is irritating to me today and your post didn't make sense so I took it out on you. (not to you S'Void) Why must threads get littered about the price of games? I have said this before and will probably say it again. The price is what it is. Buy it or not but don't inflate your post counts with whines about it - we all can see how much it costs either in the appinfo or on iTunes and can decide for ourselves. Don't insult us, we can read and contrary to your artificially inflated self worth, we don't need you all to tell us.
No worries, I have those days too... And yes, hearing "$3, that's way too much from this de I've never heard of" can get annoying... Even though I'm sure I've dropped that line at least once here on the forums... If I have, I ended up buying the game anyway... I'm a "post the first thing that pops into my head" poster... Gets me in trouble quite a bit here... =o/ But you're right... Buy it or don't... And I need to stop with the little "I'm so broke" comments... SORRY GUYS!!! won't bring up my poorness ever again!!! =oD
yo why don't u spend some time in the promo codes and contests section? considering your situation, spending 15-20 min entering some gift card contests (like tweet this to get entered) would make it much easier to get games and save some money....
Ur right... I'll start doing that.. I always kinda figured what's the point, cause I never win anything... But really, what have I got to loose... =oP
I usually just enter the simpler ones like tweet something, like a page, or something like that. if I try, I'll win 1-4 a month so it isn't too bad. its a similar budget as u except it doesn't come outta ur pocket.
And this is why anyone who says that smartphone gaming is somehow the future of the industry is sadly mistaken. I don't know what that guy from Epic was smoking, but the man is clearly delusional. If iOS gaming is truly the future then Rockstar, Bethesda, Dice, Capcom, Konami, EA, Bioware, Square-Enix, Infinity Ward, and Gearbox are all going to be out of business. Enjoy a world in which Glu and Zynga are the world's most successful video game "developers." Enjoy your $300 "freemium" games too. The smartphone model cannot sustain so-called "premium" gaming, so if no other model existed, premium gaming itself would cease to exist. The day that happens, I'm out. I'll find something else to do with my time. Games that are cheap in price are also cheap in quality. And that is why iOS gaming is, more times then not, fail for serious gamers. I don't want cheap games, even if you sell them cheaply or give them away. You can keep your Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja and Pocket God. I'll be over in the corner, playing real games. And, yeah, chances are they cost me more then $3.00. So what. Just because you polish a turd and sell it to me for .99c doesn't mean I'm going to buy it.
On the other hand, cheap casual games are clearly more in line with what a large percentage of the portable gaming market is looking for. I know that for myself, my gaming time has gone up exponentially since I've had my iPad. Sometimes I'm just looking for a quick diversion to calm down and relax. It also helps the brain to initiative a background process for a specific problem that has you stumped while you're consciously preoccupied with your game, a (hopefully) less demanding activity.
The almighty dumaz1000 has spoken! I'm glad you weren't smoking anything, as you were able to clearly see into the future. I think it is time to place an add on craigslist to sell my iPhone, iPad, and while I'm at it, my Macbook Pro.
It really depends on your situation in life, and not just financially, what type of games you want. There's not much else to say. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja are perfect for many people, even if they're extremely wealthy and can afford any type of games they want easily. Just keep the pricing comments to yourself I guess.
I actually find the pricing comments extremely interesting and valuable. We have a brand new market model (one where production costs are near zero and the barrier to entry is also near zero), and we all get to be a part of how that market shapes up. Even "whining" provides, in my opinion, valuable insight into the decision-making of consumers. So please, feel free to continue to list any and all reasons why a price-point above $1 prevents a purchase. It's all good information.
I recommend Destroy Gunner SP for... no explicit reason other than the fact that It's 9 dollars. Overpriced? Yes, by app store standards. Worth the price? Hell yes. By rational logic. It is the price I would gladly pay for a game that I would enjoy. Is angry birds worth a dollar? Nup. Didn't like the gameplay. Simple as that.
Well, one aspect that seems to be under-spoken, is the mass sabotage of the perceptional value of iOS games as consumer products. The price race to the bottom has been initiated by a bunch of devs and everybody else had to follow, in a economical model of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). Now everyone expects to pay a buck or two, and the quality of games has gone towards "more" rather than "better" since dev resources are so limited and the competition so bloody. In a weird twist, we get more approachable games this way, but we also lose a lot of substance gameplay-wise. To get back to more substantial prices, devs interested in restoring the balance should try to push some kind of "premium title" model, costing more but offering top-notch, deep gameplay and aesthetics. They should publicize those on a custom-made "channel", a sort of "iTunes for substantial games". It has to be noted that iTunes' layout on Mac/PC and on iOS is one of the main culprits for pushing this bottom-price mindset. The visual layout, top listing of free apps and top-selling ones and lack of promotion for older titles are death for "premium" titles. AppShopper, as fantastic as it is for us, is also a main culprit of this model, for it pushes consumers to wait for inevitable fire-sales that devs have to initiative to stay in the spotlight. Those sales, it cares to say, never fail to hurt the perceptional value : "Why would I pay four dollars when it was 99c a few weeks ago. Screw this, I'll just wait for the inevitable promotion in a few weeks".
Information for what? Your blog? From your sig: TEoR blog Now including the Economics of the App Store series.
EA and Gameloft have done this to everybody, including themselves. It if was the once or twice a year 99-cent sale, that would have been OK, but they've started doing it so regularly that people have grown to expect it. This is definitely an interesting market, I hope at some point that more extensive games can manage to hold a higher price, I'd like to see some more serious games on my iPhone. I find myself drifting away from 99 cent impulse buys, because I don't have time to play, or space to install. I've got two dozen games I've bought while on sale and haven't played yet. What am I playing most of right now? Ascension ($4.99) and Palm Heroes 2 ($3.99 + IAP when I get through the included maps.) Semi-recently we got our Wii online (it didn't like our previous wireless router) and I picked up a few titles off the Wii store, but man those points seem painful compared to the App Store. Not that the games aren't worth it... (And the Wii Shop totally sucks and is soooo slow! ) OK, I'll stop ranting now.
Production costs are what go into an individual unit of a good, i.e. how much does the steel cost to go into making a car. There are certainly development costs and those can get really high, but it doesn't cost anything to produce a single download (updates and whatnot can be considered production costs, but I think that's a little different). Development is a sunk cost rather than a production cost in economics terms. Well my blog's just my personal opinions on how the economics plays out. I'm also developing a game and this information is like consumer research. There isn't a whole lot of consumer research out there of the App Store, so I keep coming here, and to other forums where consumers have gathered. I'm also an avid consumer myself so I like talking about pricing from that side as well.
