Price wars. Ridiculous or benneficial!!

[Militia]

We have all gone to notice that high quality games that took a lot of time and money to develop are being dropped to extremely low prices 99 cents. Many of these games that are participating in these pricing wars may have appeared in the app store at the premium price of ten dollars. Game such as Hero of Sparta, Asphalt Elite and many other games taking massive price cuts not just to the point of 99 cents. Rolando is the perfect example a high quality game with hours of replaybility and months of support following release is currently at a price of 5.99 when it is to many disserving of a price point of ten dollars due to the amount of content in the game. We as gamers hold the fate of the iphone as a gaming device in our hands. If we refuse to support more high quality expensive endeavors such as Doom:ressurection we are forcing the iphone as a gaming device to go the path of the wii where only cheap casual games can be successful and hardcore more expensive/premium titles can not thrive. As a result of this hardcore developers will stop making games for iphone because they can not be successful. Do we want the iphone to go the path of the wii or will we choose to support these particular endeavors to ensure we as iphone gamers receive high quality titles. (more expensive games don't necessarily mean better or high quality games i am not arguing that). So are these price wars hurting the future of iphone wars. Are we as consumers more concerned with the immediate benefits of paying for cheaper games or the future of the software we will receive.

[Militia]

Another title like mentioned above has joined the ranks today that being Toki Tori. This is the perfect example. This exact game which i believe originated on wii-ware stills sells at ten dollars. Their is no difference between the wii version and iphone version outside of the platforms they are on so why is this high quality game 99 cents on iphone and remaisn ten dollars on wii.

[Militia]

Wake up ta

[Hodapp]

This has been debated hundreds of times by now. There are two camps of people on Touch Arcade:

1. Those who don't mind spending money on games and like supporting the efforts of developers who make "premium priced" games to encourage more high-quality titles on the App Store.

2. People who refuse to buy anything for more than 99 cents, will argue for days about how something isn't "worth" the asking price, and will do anything for a promo code.

There isn't much compromise between the two. :P

[Militia]

This has been debated hundreds of times by now. There are two camps of people on Touch Arcade:

1. Those who don't mind spending money on games and like supporting the efforts of developers who make "premium priced" games to encourage more high-quality titles on the App Store.

2. People who refuse to buy anything for more than 99 cents, will argue for days about how something isn't "worth" the asking price, and will do anything for a promo code.

There isn't much compromise between the two. :P


I agree with you and the people you mentioned in category 2 will be the doom of serious titles appearing on the app store and i will be most displeased since i consider the iphone personally a true gaming system.

[robertf224]

I agree with you and the people you mentioned in category 2 will be the doom of serious titles appearing on the app store and i will be most displeased since i consider the iphone personally a true gaming system.

I am certainly in camp 1, but I have to disagree with you. Developers who race to 99 cents will be the doom of serious titles appearing on the app store. They are the ones controlling the price. They are trying to get noticed on the top 100 apps so they have to sell more copies. Like many people have said before, this could be fixed so easily. All apple has to do is base the top 100 on revenue instead of total sales. The app store would be so much better if they did that and we would start seeing more premium, well-developed titles. We really should just blame it on apple:)

[wikoogle]

Here's what I know. I usually buy one $60 console game every two months but since these pricewars took off, I spent a $120 so far on $1-$5 apps and love every game I bought. It was very reinforcing and I bought premium titles like fast, doom and real racing that I really wanted and that I felt truly warranted the higher price as well. A few dollars for a game is chump change.

Basically iPhone debs earned and got $150 from me in a month. Console game developers take six months to get me to spend that much money on games. With 50 million idevice owners If even 2 percent of them did the samething that's great news for developers.

[Grumps]

The only one that win out of a price war is $0.99. There is just too many Indie out there and more coming everyday in App Store to meet a pricing standard between each others. Big studio is trying to compete with mini indie who top the store with their one week work.

Premium category is the only solution now. Similar to staff pick but quality product will be listed in premium section and within it, theres similar sorting/category function for browsing.

[Brinkman]

App store is completely different than your standard brick and mortar or online store.

ANYONE can develop for the iPhone and release their games. The market can be hugly saturated with games (and it is). Which is why price point is a huge factor.

There are a ton of iDevices out there, people know that, devs know that. If you sell your game for $10 or $1 you'll probably get more people trying it out for the $1 price tag. 2 million people buy that game at $1 andyou're rolling in cash.

Again, the reason these high cost developers are selling their expensive games for so cheap is because they need people to buy it to make money and because the market is so saturated with clone games, your game can be outsold simply because it's at $1 as opposed to $2.

If anyone could develop for the Wii market or xbox 360 and get published with the same ease as the iPhone then you'd see a ton of $1 games on their too.

[CDubby94]

This is ridiculous. I'm getting really sick of people saying "99 cent games are killing the market!". Please shut up.

You can't control the market. Consumers as a whole choose what they want to buy, not you as an individual. Developers will need to accomodate to that, and if that means making 99 cent games, so be it. Your whining isn't going to change anything, so please stop making threads about this.

[Militia]

This is ridiculous. I'm getting really sick of people saying "99 cent games are killing the market!". Please shut up.

You can't control the market. Consumers as a whole choose what they want to buy, not you as an individual. Developers will need to accomodate to that, and if that means making 99 cent games, so be it. Your whining isn't going to change anything, so please stop making threads about this.

the argument is not that 99 cent games kill The market. Quite the contrary i love 99 cent games i have a slew of games that were 99 cents. The argument is that if we refuse to support premium high quality titles becuz they are at a ten dollar price point. We are forcing devs to drop their prices on their games. Toki tori, hero of sparta, and many others. If we are not willing to support endeavors like doom:ressurection. Just be prepared to see titles like that dwindling. Rolando 1 and 2 came at ten dollar pricepoints. BOth being loaded with tens of hours of content and support months after release. Disserving of a premium price. If we want more premium titles expect to pay a premium pricee. The person i quoted is rite about one thing consumers decide the market. If u want a device similar to the wii saturated with microgames that is up to us how serious of a game device do YOU as the consumer want the iphone to be???

[wikoogle]

Consumers aren't dumb though. They can tell the difference in presentation and production values between a .99 cent brick breaker variant and doom resurrection. You will never ever see Doom: R at .99. A drop to $6 an yr from now like Assasins Creed or Rolando is likely but never .99 cents.

Hero of Sparta is an anomoly. It's graphics look dated now, but even then $3-4 would have been a smarter price point for it.

[robertf224]

Consumers aren't dumb though. They can tell the difference in presentation and production values between a .99 cent brick breaker variant and doom resurrection. You will never ever see Doom: R at .99. A drop to $6 an yr from now like Assasins Creed or Rolando is likely but never .99 cents.

Hero of Sparta is an anomoly. It's graphics look dated now, but even then $3-4 would have been a smarter price point for it.

i beg to differ: the moron test vs. harbor master

[bware218]

This is ridiculous. I'm getting really sick of people saying "99 cent games are killing the market!". Please shut up.

You can't control the market. Consumers as a whole choose what they want to buy, not you as an individual. Developers will need to accomodate to that, and if that means making 99 cent games, so be it. Your whining isn't going to change anything, so please stop making threads about this.

I agree that the market cannot be controlled . . . this whole conversation is about understanding user consumption patterns and making titles that do well when placed against these consumption conventions. The whole thing of raving successes and failures on the App Store is still due in large part to chance. So with that said a little chance will definitely play a part in determining if this iPhone platform that we enjoy will be here for advanced titles or just for the cheap, quick and easy 99cent apps.

The platform is still relatively young so don't expect any resolutions to be made soon. We'll see how everything pans out but my hope is that there will be a healthy balance of both simple and complex, cheap and not cheap. Only time will tell.

[super6ft7]

To the Toki Tori point. That just proves that the iPhone/IPod Touch is not a gaming console, its is a phone/mp3 player. The Wii however is made for games and everyone buys them for games. Because of this you are more likely to pay for games.
The reason premium games have to put down their prices is because most people want a cheap game, not wanting a game to become cheap

[Militia]

To the Toki Tori point. That just proves that the iPhone/IPod Touch is not a gaming console, its is a phone/mp3 player. The Wii however is made for games and everyone buys them for games. Because of this you are more likely to pay for games.
The reason premium games have to put down their prices is because most people want a cheap game, not wanting a game to become cheap

Not a gaming device. Lol this whole site is dedicated to iphone gaming and it being a gaming device.

[pirkle]

This debate will become more magnified once the larger price apps start to appear...such as GPS.

The current GPS Turn-by_turn in the appstore costs about $130. I would definitely like to see TomTom come in and try to undercut that intro price and lower the total cost to us consumers.

And, I'm sure the larger companies are looking at expected return rates of multiple price points to see where they can make the most $.

[CDubby94]

the argument is not that 99 cent games kill The market. Quite the contrary i love 99 cent games i have a slew of games that were 99 cents. The argument is that if we refuse to support premium high quality titles becuz they are at a ten dollar price point. We are forcing devs to drop their prices on their games. Toki tori, hero of sparta, and many others. If we are not willing to support endeavors like doom:ressurection. Just be prepared to see titles like that dwindling. Rolando 1 and 2 came at ten dollar pricepoints. BOth being loaded with tens of hours of content and support months after release. Disserving of a premium price. If we want more premium titles expect to pay a premium pricee. The person i quoted is rite about one thing consumers decide the market. If u want a device similar to the wii saturated with microgames that is up to us how serious of a game device do YOU as the consumer want the iphone to be???

Nobody should HAVE to buy a ten dollar game. Obviously if consumers don't want to buy ten dollar games with actual production value, then they shouldn't be made for the iPhone. Don't get mad about it, there's other gaming alternatives but since the iDevice market is dominated by casual gamers, only cheap, casual games should be made for it.

It may not be the way I want it, but if that's what the consumers choose, I can't stop it, so so be it.

[Hodapp]

It may not be the way I want it, but if that's what the consumers choose, I can't stop it, so so be it.

It's what the developers choose. If all the developers got together and agreed to never release anything for less than $5, people would pay $5 if they wanted to buy a game.

[Booch138]

Not a gaming device. Lol this whole site is dedicated to iphone gaming and it being a gaming device.

You get the point though man. And I agree with him. Though millions of people own an iDevice, of the 7 people I know IRL that have one, only 2 of them (including myself) treat it more as a gaming device than an mp3 player. Meaning, we buy games on the regular, spending $50-100 a month or so on games. The others spend about 2-3 dollars a month, if that, and they arn't even usually 'games'. Of course this isn't the standard or anything, and in no way an accurate way of comparing the way the market runs for users all over the world, I am just speaking of experience.

I think all apple needs to do is change the way the Top 10 market works and thats that. If it was based on revenue (like someone said earlier) and not how many copies sold more, this would bridge the divide more of people buying Premium games vs .99 cent games and an even visibility of both (or even just change how searching functions, so you can search by price). Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with .99 cent games, and there is nothing wrong with 9.99 premium titles. I think they should both be able to co-exist just fine. So that way the people that don't want to spend more than .99 cents don't have to, and the people that want those, and premium titles in addition to .99 cent titles, can. Plain and simple...

Nobody should HAVE to buy a ten dollar game. Obviously if consumers don't want to buy ten dollar games with actual production value, then they shouldn't be made for the iPhone. Don't get mad about it, there's other gaming alternatives but since the iDevice market is dominated by casual gamers, only cheap, casual games should be made for it.

It may not be the way I want it, but if that's what the consumers choose, I can't stop it, so so be it.

Nobody does HAVE to. I like paying 10 dollars for games because they are usually worth it in the long run. Thats not to say I havn't been burned a couple times and could have waited for a possible sale, but regardless, 10 bucks is still cheaper than retail DS and PSP games. And 9.99 isn't the only game price for games. I have spent far less for great games too. I carry around my iPod touch EVERYWHERE because of it's multi-functionality. I love having games on it too, it just makes it that much more of a handy-to-have system. I know it's not dominatly a game system, but pushing the hardware is proving that it is a beast of a machine, and can do some great things. So why the f*ck not lol. That's my .02 though. *shrugs*

[CDubby94]

It's what the developers choose. If all the developers got together and agreed to never release anything for less than $5, people would pay $5 if they wanted to buy a game.

Yeah but so many casual gamers will look at the price and say, "I remember when tons of games were 99 cents," and then decide not to buy the game because it's overpriced compared to before. They're not going to care that much about the games to buy them unless it's just a cheap thrill. The people who post on this site are in the minority, the majority of the iPhone user base could go on without games no problem if they feel they're overpriced.

Plus, that's not the way marketing works. Nobody could get ahead and draw more appeal to their game because they couldn't utilize one of the oldest and most successful tricks in the book: sales.

[nizy]

There are a ton of iDevices out there, people know that, devs know that. If you sell your game for $10 or $1 you'll probably get more people trying it out for the $1 price tag. 2 million people buy that game at $1 andyou're rolling in cash.

Again, the reason these high cost developers are selling their expensive games for so cheap is because they need people to buy it to make money and because the market is so saturated with clone games, your game can be outsold simply because it's at $1 as opposed to $2.

Firstly, the best selling paid apps of all time have only just past the 1M sales mark - 2M will be a long while yet.

As I stated in the Doom Res price discussion, selling your game for $.99 is not always very profitable. Take Flight Control, probably the best selling paid game ever, breaking the 1M mark not too long ago. I would assume its budget is pretty low as its a pretty simple (but very clever) game, that would have been developed pretty quickly by a small team of devs. So lets assume it cost $100K to do some maths.
Budget = $100,000
Sales = 1,000,000 @ $0.99 = $990,000
Apple's 30% Cut = $297,000
PROFIT = $593,000

Now the only other "premium" title I have numbers for is Super Monkey Ball. To be fair, I don't care that it was a launch game and the store was different back then as my focus is the numbers, the profit vs sales. Anyway it was a small, quick project for Sega, so we'll assume the same $100K budget.
Budget = $100,000
Sales = 300,000 @ $9.99 = $2,997,000
Apple's 30% Cut = $899,100
PROFIT = $1,997,100

There are 2 main things that these numbers show:
1) The $.99 price strategy will ONLY BE PROFITABLE FOR SMALL GAMES. Anything with a large budget is not feasible. As an example, lets say Doom Res was launched for $.99. Carmack has stated that it took about 9 months to develop, so lets say the budget was $400K. That means to break even they would need to sell 600K copies of the game or only a tenth of that at $9.99. If that budget was more like $1M, it might never make a profit at $.99!
2) Look at the amount of profit. SMB made 3 x the profit of FC. Why would any dev, whose spent a large amount of time and money of a game want to make $600K when they could make almost $2M?

The problem with pricing games at $.99 for a bigger, more resource hungry game is that profits are small, so therefore budgets will be low and therefore quality will take a dip. Why do we find so many unpolished games on the app store? Could it be that devs want to spend the bare minimum on a game in order to maximize profit margins? The other problem is that low profits will deter devs from the store as what's the point if your investment isn't going to be returned?

[super6ft7]

Not a gaming device. Lol this whole site is dedicated to iphone gaming and it being a gaming device.

Its a phone with games, and I said console:

dictionary:

game console:

A dedicated electronic device that is designed to play video games



Now if i remember clearly, my iPod touch couldn't play ANY games when it came out.
Face it, the iDevice is a mobile phone with good games but certain things keep it from being a proper console, the main being the fact that its consumer base is probably 98% not gamers



Yeah but so many casual gamers will look at the price and say, "I remember when tons of games were 99 cents," and then decide not to buy the game because it's overpriced compared to before. They're not going to care that much about the games to buy them unless it's just a cheap thrill. The people who post on this site are in the minority, the majority of the iPhone user base could go on without games no problem if they feel they're overpriced.



EXACTAMUNDO!

In fact, most of the people I know only have the odd game, usually free on 59p, on their iTouch. My uncle has Championship Manager and nothing else, my sister has a whole page of free games, and that keeps her attention.
Honestly, if games were priced at what the anti 99p people wanted, I would never have made an account on this site.

[nizy]

Yeah but so many casual gamers will look at the price and say, "I remember when tons of games were 99 cents," and then decide not to buy the game because it's overpriced compared to before. They're not going to care that much about the games to buy them unless it's just a cheap thrill. The people who post on this site are in the minority, the majority of the iPhone user base could go on without games no problem if they feel they're overpriced.

The point is, if you sell your game for $5, you can sell 4x less to make the same money!

Also, at $5 you can gradually lower the price over time, to tempt more and more buyers.

[CDubby94]

The point is, if you sell your game for $5, you can sell 4x less to make the same money!

Also, at $5 you can gradually lower the price over time, to tempt more and more buyers.

How many indie devs successfully sell their game for five bucks? Only Gameloft, EA, ngmoco, etc. can sell games for that much and still sell as well as 99 cent games. The small guys need that 99 cent price tag because it's the cheap price that attracts the casual gamer.

Even though you can sell 5x less and still make the same amount of money, it's very unlikely you'd be even to sell 5x less as a small developer because your game probably wouldn't attract anybody looking for a cheap thrill.

[Militia]

Someone used this definition to exclaim how the iphone is not a console or whatever but it seems like the iphone meets the requireme ts to be calld a console. Quote is below.


Quote:
dictionary:

game console:

A dedicated electronic device that is designed to play video games

anyone can argue it is just as much designd as a phone as a gaming device. Especially for ipod touch owners.

[HJJ]

It's what the developers choose. If all the developers got together and agreed to never release anything for less than $5, people would pay $5 if they wanted to buy a game.

Honest question. Isn't that considered price fixing? And isn't price fixing illegal in most instances in the US?


As for the question at hand. I think I'm kind of in the middle. I have no problem paying $10 for games I want. I have hundreds of games, ranging from free to $9.99. I generally get annoyed by all the promo code grubbing around here, but I think that's just a result of allowing promo codes in the forum, which I'm fine with. I'm not crazy about price whining, but I do think cost is a relevant piece of the discussion. Lately, I'm getting equally tired of hearing all the same old bullying tactics being used to mock price whiners. "It's the price of a cup of coffee", "It's only a dollar!" Yeah, we get it. My laptop cost as much as a TV. Going to the movies costs as much as a haircut. An ice cream cone costs as much as a magazine. Yes, for every purchase we don't make, we could purchase something else at an equivalent value. Got it. I understand where some of you are coming from. Whining or bitching about prices can be annoying to some us. But I don't think it's fair to belittle other people's buying decisions. A lot of you talk about how $0.99 apps are going to ruin the App Store. It seems like a major concern for many. However, the economics of the App Store might not matter to others. Let's face it. Some people have different budgets and different priorities. They might just want inexpensive games to play on their mobile devices. They might not have any need for the App Store to progress into some kind of "hardcore" gamer's paradise.

I visit this site everyday. I am interested in reading about and discovering new games. On average, I'd say that I buy at least one game a week. I bought The Sims when it first hit the App Store for $10. I bought Peggle at full price even though I didn't see the appeal of the web version -- I was curious and took the word of the members here. But I'll be honest. If the App Store were to close down tomorrow, I don't think I'd be all that upset. As much of a hobby as this is for me, there are other things to worry about than the state of mobile gaming. If people have their priorities in order and prefer inexpensive apps, then props to them. Who are any of us to judge the motivations of others? I know it's irritating for game lovers to see post after post complaining about prices when the easy thing to do would be to just not buy a game you don't want to pay for (then again, it's just as easy to not reply to price whiners, and that hasn't stopped too many of us). But there's nothing inherently wrong with these types of complaints.

I don't know. There seems to be this war between these two factions, but I can see the merit in both.

[wikoogle]

Real Racing Doom Need for Speed Tiger Woods FAST and AC are all in the top 100 list despite being $7-10 each.

So clearly the iPhone is a gaming device and devs are and will continue to make premium games for it.

Clearly millions of idevice owners don't mind buying high quality premium games and developers are making money enough that they feed a desire to do free additions and updates.

I do feel bad about the occassional stellar top notch game (quantum collapse) that doesn't sell well but it happens on all platforms.

[Jeremy1026]

I am certainly in camp 1, but I have to disagree with you. Developers who race to 99 cents will be the doom of serious titles appearing on the app store. They are the ones controlling the price. They are trying to get noticed on the top 100 apps so they have to sell more copies. Like many people have said before, this could be fixed so easily. All apple has to do is base the top 100 on revenue instead of total sales. The app store would be so much better if they did that and we would start seeing more premium, well-developed titles. We really should just blame it on apple:)

The developers are not the ones causing the doom of the app store. Unless you have a big name behind you (something along the lines of EA) you can't put out a game at more then 99¢ because 'it isn't worth it.' Smaller developers have to price extremely low to get some sales. The odds of pulling a top 100 app are so poor. Charging $2.99 vs 99¢ really doesn't affect your chances of making the top 100, but that difference in pricing does affect (and greatly) your chances of making back your investment.

[Militia]

The Rgument is not that 99cent gamez ruin the market. WhAt is ruining the mArket is that. Consumers lack of support for premium high quality titles becuz they are at a ten dollar price point. As a result of this devs feel pressured and force to drop prices on games that were worth every cent of the original asking price. This will inevitably lead to premium games dissapeRing becuz they cant truly be succesful in terms of sales.

[walsh06]

The appstore prices have always been smaller than full xbox/ps3 etc... games. But lately there have been serious drops in new games for consoles too. Like New games only a few months go cost €60. Now i can buy a new game for €45 and there are even some cheaper. So price drops in the apps market could happen too.

[Militia]

We dont want higher pricd games. We want games that are more expensive but worth it to get the support they disserve.

[walsh06]

i never said that. Im saying that prices for everything are dropping. I never said anything about pricing games high. I only mention low. Plus fix your spelling

[Militia]

the iphone is a true gaming device. Any one to say other wise is wrong. IGN has even gone as far as to devote its own section to iphone and iphone game reviews. Also its more powerful than DS in every aspect. so that mst not be a gaming device either;

[super6ft7]

the iphone is a true gaming device. Any one to say other wise is wrong. IGN has even gone as far as to devote its own section to iphone and iphone game reviews. Also its more powerful than DS in every aspect. so that mst not be a gaming device either;

Are you replying to what I said? If you are then you are getting my point wrong. I never said it wasn't a gaming device, i mean my calculator is a gaming device. I said it wasn't a CONSOLE. This is because they just aren't built for games and that is not what their main purpose is.
Also the iPhone doesn't even get close to the DS in game quality, same with the PSP.

[chukwuka13]

Man who cares. If they want to drop the price of their game, they can, it's their game. And y would u fight, say the u want the price to be higher. That just makes no sense to me. I'm not a cheap person, I own many high priced games from EA, Gameloft, etc. When I see a price drop thats a benefit. I don't like purposly throwing my money away on all these games.

[Militia]

The iphone is what u make it. I use my iphone more as a gaming device then anything else. So i consider it just as much as a game device i wuld my ds or psp.

[Scott30]

Games such as Heros of Sparta have been out for months now and even on consoles games that have been out for months recieve price drops, so theres nothing wrong with that. Now I understand that some games have gotten big price drops just a week or two after release and that at times can be crazy but also needed since the app store is so packed right now.

This is why the prices are as they are because there is SO much competetion on the app store right now, its not all bad considering the user base for the device is alot as well. People have supported games like Doom, Tiger etc as they are in the Top 20.

Games like Real Racing while maybe really good are not quite name brands like NFS so they wont sell all that well at 10 bucks even though they aren't doing terribly bad either but wont be in the top 10 at that price. Dollar games are always gonna dominant the top 10 its just how it is. People are always looking for a cheap, pick up and play game they wont have to think twice before clicking the buy button.

The recent price drops of gamelofts games have obviously worked for them most of these games have already been out awhile and prob would be passed over, it also gives them attention to their newer higher priced games as well if users check out what other games they have. And as mentioned this is common practice even in console games that games naturally drop in price after some months.

Its not a perfect system no, but the app store is very new and very crowded that things will be hectic and crazy for sometime with pricing.

Sure devs can stick to their guns and their original price tags but then I and alot of others would own about 80% less games then I do know. I know theres a ton of games I would never buy and have a limited budget I would spent on mobile games when I already buy console games and everything else I spend money on. I've already have way too many games I've never played but bought for a dollar just cause of the price.

[Retean]

Im lazy so im commenting on first page...

If you make app store top 100 go off revenue then you are making it harder for the casual 99 cent games to get recognized. Meaning my 99 cent game has to sell 10 copies to a 9.99 games every 1. If I sell 100 copies and you sell 10. I think i deserve a spot way above yours.

They need a formula that includes revenue sale and anything else (maybe length to keep or move out older games after a prolonged period of time)

but i doubt apple wants to take the time to do that :P

[Militia]

The appstore should have a premium section.

[jshmrsn]

This has been debated hundreds of times by now. There are two camps of people on Touch Arcade:

1. Those who don't mind spending money on games and like supporting the efforts of developers who make "premium priced" games to encourage more high-quality titles on the App Store.

2. People who refuse to buy anything for more than 99 cents, will argue for days about how something isn't "worth" the asking price, and will do anything for a promo code.

There isn't much compromise between the two. :P

I agree that those are the two camps, but I propose that there is a compromise. In my opinion, the solution to all this is for Apple to rank apps by revenue. This will place $0.99 and high-dollar games on an *EQUAL* footing. It shouldn't be said that this would be a "disadvantage" to $0.99 games, it's just that it will remove the advantage they have now over higher priced games.

I think this is the best solution for gamers and developers. Apple, however, is another story. Their primary interest is in value-adding the hardware. I posted about this here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=330135&postcount=22

[cookiemonster]

the only reason devs sell their apps for 99 cents is because apple will promo their work based on sales and sales alone and an apple promo (what im referring to here is either a listing on itunes under top paid apps or whats hot apps or so on and so forth) is worth tens of thousands of dollars if utilized correctly. in the app store, its all about visibility. if youre not already selling hundreds or thousands of apps, its very difficult to make any kind of money...

[Yagami_Light]

Another title like mentioned above has joined the ranks today that being Toki Tori. This is the perfect example. This exact game which i believe originated on wii-ware stills sells at ten dollars. Their is no difference between the wii version and iphone version outside of the platforms they are on so why is this high quality game 99 cents on iphone and remaisn ten dollars on wii.

Actually, it started out as an obscure GameBoy Color game.