About price drops, discounts in the app store. Some of the games are worth more than they are taq'd. ( certainly not most of them ) But the reason there are SOO many junk games and applications in the itunes store is precisely because developers that don't have a named product are scared that users will not consider it worth its price and developers don't want to put time into the games/apps and money needed for it to be good. If this goes on with this rate things are going to turn pretty ugly. At current: A) there will be 99% junk and 1% quality in the app store. Most of the developers will go out of business because they are not making any money since they price their apps at 0.99$ - 1.99$ The Hope: B) Developers will raise the price and the bar of quality - lower quality developers will go out of business. Everytime I see another iLaugh or iFart or ibounce or something crap like that, something that a developer spend close to no time developing and is selling for a 1$ just to try and make a quick cash the first week ( like lottery ), makes me a bit sad. These junk applications and games pile up like garbage and shade on the games and applications that I think users would love to spend a little money on. Something that has quality and entertainment, last's more than an hour and has replay value. Sadly, most of the stuff hitting the app store is not the case. I think that in the next 3 - 6 months, change will come. What do you guys think? Crap or Quality? 100 good games or 1000 bad games?
you're saying you don't like having 5 tip calculators, 4 Sudoku games, 3 fart apps, 2 racing games, and a partridge in a pear tree? (thanks inkstar)
its a new market, and new distribution point, give it 2-5 years and it will mature in the mean time, enjoy match 3 games and flashlights
Since we are on the topic of Change/Quality and along those lines. check this thread where I and the company I work for On The Rocks LLC are checking the interest in this type of project. Want to influence a game project?
I think the way the AppStore works is brillant. Almost anyone can develop an app for the iPhone. The market decides the price. A paid app can make money if its worth the price to enough customers. I really don't see how this is difference than the PC/Mac software market. There are plenty of free apps competing with the paid ones. The only difference is the distribution model. Seems to me developers don't like the ease to which it is to find free apps??? Developers should look on the positive side: Mass distribution, no piracy, no hosting. I would rather see an improvement to the Appstore itself: better feedback/rating system, gifting apps, wishlist/shopping cart for apps.
If the market decides the price there will be no quality games . It would not be worth it to develop one. A paid app can make money if there aren't so many crap applications shading on its visibility or if the developer has money to market, creates enough buzz, is lucky enough to make it to the front page or be endorsed by apple. This video will explain the difference between developing for the iphone and other platforms. You are missing the point. but lets.. If there where only free apps, would there be an app store? If there where only 99 cent games and apps, would it be a good store? And there is PLENTY of piracy. You can get paid apps, pirated on the underground jailbreak market. But, yes, bettering the app store will probably come. They have already done updates to it already
2-5 years?! I'm thinking 3 tops. 1) Think of the millions that got an iPhone/Touch this Christmas. Then think of NEXT christmas. We're talking about a ridiculously large market here. This is ridiculously appealing to developers. 2) If the AppStore is going to have nothing the novelties, it's going to slowly but consistently lose momentum. Apple is gonna allow this. They're probably working on a revamp of the AppStore right now that'll circulate the games more, and has better ranking systems. This will apeal to devs. It's definitely gonna take a while, though. Those iFart apps just don't die. 3) The only marketing that devs/companies are gonna need for the games is the internet, since if you're iPhone user, you're probably on the computer a lot. 4) No disk-pressing, cartridge-making, shipping, packaging costs. It's all digital. These are pretty good incentives to making good-great games. Not to mention apps. It's definitely gonna take a while, though. Those farts apps just won't die, even if you hit them with a plunger!
Hasnt this been discussed at length before? If you say you hired a team of world class developers spending hours on a "worthwhile app" show us. Without you saying it, I think your app would look like a million bucks, and you wont have problem selling it for 20 bucks. Fieldrunner, an example, I believe even if they sell it at 10 bucks they wont have any problem selling it. Of course, beyond graphics and artists, you need concept, making a fart app with graphics by picasso and fart sounds custom designed by Bono doesnt automatically make it worth 10 bucks either. You get the point. Yes there are some apps that are underpriced, and I frankly dont know why the developer decides to lower the price. I hope they do some sales analysis after the sales to double check the effectiveness of the price drop. If you study economics sometimes, lower price more sales amount, doesnt necessarily equal to a better bottom line compared to high price lower sales amount. Say if you sell your app at 4.99 and make 50 sales a day, how much more can you get by dropping it to 99c? double? triple? that still dont make as much as your original sales of 50 a day. OK sure beyond pure sales number theres a chance your app would go on the top list, and that in itself would generate more sales later on. This is just an example, but I hope they checked that. Back to the prices of games specifically, some games truly deserve to be 99c, Im sorry to name examples but the virtual pet (insert random animal name here) by dseffects is one of them. I think its pretty obvious which developers go for the quantity over quality. And yes games like MotoChaser, Crazy Tanks, should be worth more than 99c. Point is, prices will fall, you will not get a standard off the shelves game price, 30 bux up, just like when iTunes first come out with digital music, its nothing like buying a 20 bux CDs. Same with eBooks, you do away with making the hardware, paying the stores to distribute it, marketing, approvals, etc. The cost of putting stuff on the AppStore is less than traditional cartridges, Id say maybe half, so a traditional 30 bucks game can be worth like 15 bucks on the appstore. I think thats a decent assumption. Speaking of marketing, currently maybe there are no big third party app site, or other media, hence the developers reliance on the "top lists" of the app store and feel that they need to put their apps on 99c just to make it to these lists. True. But sites like toucharcade is growing and I believe will be a good marketing medium in addition to the top lists, mainstream mags like Macworld has begun a pretty substantial app coverage too recently, so in the future maybe theres less reliance to rely on the top list and 99c pricing. Frankly to me the top list is crap, iFart? cmon not even gonna download that even if its free. I just dont see the appeal of Fart and Beer. Yes they should raise prices, for apps that deserve it. But the remaining craps, are better off where they are. In fact they should do a cleanup once in awhile, if an app doesnt sell at all for like half a year or even a full year, they should delete it to reduce the rubbish.
