This discussion is pretty much pointless. We can't discuss the price of a game on a forum. I am both a game developer (for the past 8 years) and a gamer. Whenever I set the price for a game, I try to push it as low as possible, but without "hurting" myself. There are pretty much 3 types of developers: - those that want to make money out of some cheap crap - those that want to get filthy rich out of some excellent game - the rest of us. Do I make a good living out of games? Yes. Is my revenue based on the App Store? No. I only make 10% of my revenue from there. It has taken me 8 years and daily discussions like this on our forums, with our gamers, to find a good formula that works for everyone.
I get the whining, if it's for a game without a 'lite' version. I've bought games for $5 or more, only to discover that I don't enjoy it. If more games had a lite version so you could try before you buy, you'd see a lot less whining.
These guys are complaining all the way to the Bank ! If it wasn't for the .99 cent price I doubt they would be at 1million a month. http://appadvice.com/appnn/2009/12/success-story-tapulous/
for the first time since i used this site, i felt the need to rant at someone in the simpsons arcade thread who complained about the price, to the point it was specific, '4.99 no 99c maybe!!' no inbetween, the game looked 99c to them, at a push. most of these pathetic comments happen in licensed game threads also, hence the higher prices in the 1st place. do any of these numpties know that it costs large sums of cash these days to aquire the rights to use? im sure they do, but there they go again, having to clutter up a thread with useless comments like that. its almost as bad as the 'downloading now' posts. eventually nearly everything goes on sale at some point, wait and be happy you saved a few coins. but every single thread this is happening, and in many cases from regulars!
As a developer, I ask myself this question: How long until there will be no $0.99 or $4.99 games in the App Store, considering that for every title approved, 20-50 spam/shovelware titles are approved, slowly killing decent developers. I saw a spam APP priced at $99.99 ... I guess it can be easily mistaken for $0.99. It was some simple one-screen app that did nothing.
The developers that consistently make good games and provide updates should do well. Utilities allow us to filter out the CR%P developers. As far as prices go the lure of making the million dollars is too great and the .99 cent game will live on.
I think most people don't want to pay more than $0.99 because these games are from unknown developers (mostly) -- look at EA Games, they're charging plenty because people know who they are and trust them.
