What Gameloft did will probably hurt them more. It's like shooting your own leg. They've been telling a long while they not gonna sell anything for 99c because they make good quality titles and need to recoup expenses, but now they did THIS. They will probably earn some more this time, but in the long run they'll suffer - when they come out with the next 9.99 title, people will wait for 99c sale, even if it's not gonna happen. We ourselves had no choice but to drop price too - first to 2.99, now temporary 99c to reach the top-10. Other huge games like Sims3, Myst, Sonic are suffering from Gameloft new politics right now, not the indies - these games are dropping, others like Flight Control stay there because they are priced low, too. Customers will get what they want - a lot of cheap games with a minimum of content. Why waste your time making Flight Control with 20 levels, 50 planes, story, features, etc when in the end it will sell best at 99c? You release it with 1 level, 4 planes and no story, and then go to the next game which will also have this little of content. Then later you can release Flight control 2 (Sorry Firemint, didn't mean anything - just an example), which will contain another 3 levels and little more stuff. Firemint probably spent at least 30x the time of Flight Control on Real Racing, and still FC probably outsells Real Racing (or they are about the same).
This is a big point. It's not that their selling more that's an issue (if you look at the prices) It's that flight control took ALOT less time and effort and yet it still makes more money.
Once a game has been out for a few weeks and purchases have dropped off, a sale (e.g., $.99 - $1.99) makes sense to scoop up purchases from folks who are either super-patient or just can't afford to buy it when it's hot and new. For a quality game from an indie developer, the price can stay higher (e.g., $1.99 - $3.99) and still be a solid investment if it offers enough content and polish. And if it does, people will review it and draw attention to it. Note: Actual people will review it and praise it, not just app websites that praise every app they get .) There are a number of games out there from indie devs that are shining examples of quality iApps that are worth their greater-than-$.99 price. The real crime is how the big name studios get away with launching some real garbage apps at $9.99, That hurts the indie devs who might like to take the time and effort to build a superior game with a ton of features and content that merits a $9.99 price. How does it hurt them? Because after being 'screwed' by paying $9.99 for one or more big name games from big name studios that turn out to be lousy, consumers are less likely to trust anything at that price, let alone something from an unknown dev. That behavior is what is really hurting the indie devs.
