This is what I mean..... Say you bought XCOM at $20 and absolutely love it... You play it a ton. Now let's say your favorite all time iOS game is Kingdom Rush.... And you play that a ton..... Knowing that you love KR more than any other game, even XCOM, would you have been willing to pay $20 for it? Feel free to sub any games you like. And of course the scope of these games is entirely different.
I find that I'm generally not willing to pay much for mobile games. XCOM, Final Fantasy, and other apps around that price point might be absolutely amazing, but I just don't enjoy gaming on my mobile devices enough to drop that kind of money on a game. If it's REALLY good, I might pay around $5.00, but I personally wouldn't go much beyond that.
In the case of X-Com, I wouldn't spend $20 even though I like the game, because it's a slightly inferior version of the one I can get on other platforms for around the same price. If it was equally as good, I'd want to pay a small amount less (as I already own it), but buying a second time AND the missing features/graphical & performance downgrades calls for a bargain.
There's only one game I would pay $20+ for. That game is - Streets of Rage: Remake. That game is on my PC & CAANOO. It was in development from 2003 until 2011. SEGA are aware of it, and pulled it from the main SORR site. U highly doubt it will come to App Store. BUT there is hope! The program in which it was written in (Bennugd) has been ported for iOS & other platforms recently last month! Hope this means someoe will port SORR to iOS through Cydia for Jailbroken devices 8 years in the making. Best. Game. Ever. IMO
I bought it for $30 new, but I've been seeing it recently on sale for less. I don't think I'd stretch to best game ever, but possibly the best fan remake I've ever played.
It does affect me quite a lot, because I always contemplate whether to buy the game now or later, since if it goes on sale I can save money. In addition, if I buy it now, it seems like I am making a bad call. I think if developers wanted to sell an IOS app/game at a high price, they should keep their pricing consistent, so it is fair on early adopters, etc., who pays you the full price. This should apply for other developers as well: 1. Set a reasonable price 2. Keep the pricing consistent 3. Reward early adopters/ hardcore fans 4. avoid annoying IAP, reasonable IAP (that doesn't require to complete the game) is acceptable. I understand that many developers try to pay their bills, etc. and they wanted put game on sale to boost the sales, but this actually discourage hardcore ios gamers (with limited budget) from adopting the game early. Of course there are people with really high budget who can pay full price for any games, but 90% of people don't belong to this category.
Console is generally more expensive, but there still bargains to be had like Max Payne 3 for $8 on the US PSN store. As for PC I got the recently ported XCOM, along with Spec Ops the line, Bioshock and Bioshock Infinity for $10. More than XCOM sells for on iOS. there's bargains nto be had, throw in Dishonoured, Borderlands 2, RAGE, Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider etc for $5-$10 each and you play quite cheaply on PC.
Price doesnt affect me on iOS. Not saying i'm rich or that but after years of buying computer and console games, the prices of iOS games are SOOO cheap. Even triple AAA titles, last one i bought was Baldurs Gate, bargain after paying about $60 for it back in the 90's. The thing which does affect me (apart from IAP crazy games) is the size of the game. I wanted to get X-Com but i just dont have no where near the spare space to install it.
My usual limit is 69p. I did push it up to £1.50 for Badland (two weeks before it went free # ) and £4 for Magic 2013, but that's all. I don't have double standards about consoles though. The price is one of the reasons I do t bother with consoles or computer games any more.
On the App Store: $2.99 is my limit for a blind buy, $0.99 is generally all I want to pay, with some exceptions. If it's from a studio I know and love and respect, I will probably buy their apps at any price when they launch. On consoles and handhelds, I will usually buy the game at full price if I'm looking forward to it ($40 to $60, generally). The App Store is very difficult to keep track of with developers, game releases, updates, etc... but the console and handheld worlds aren't hard to keep track of at all, plus there are always tons of previews and screenshots for the games; it's easy to get a gauge of how much I'll enjoy the game, so it's much easier for me to jump in at full-price. Plus, I expect deeper experiences on the consoles, but let's not get into that debate
