Where all all of the good games? Why are none of the big titles releasing for Thursday in the US (Thanksgiving) and black Friday? It seems like this is a really underwhlming week for releases. Made even more surprising given this week is the Thanksgiving holiday, as well as the biggest shopping day of the year, on Friday. Disappointed is all.
But it's still Wednesday. Gameloft has already put a lot of their top titles, including Hero of Sparta 2, on sale for $0.99. Something new and exciting may still come out tomorrow, or on Friday.
I think part of the reason is that quite a few of the big games are being saved for Christmas. I'm actually quite pleased to have a rest for a while, because I know we're going to get barraged with a load of amazing games soon
Gotta be a tough week to release in, with all the Black Friday crazyness - it wouldn't surprise me if a large pile of apps appear next week...
Yeah the focus on the app store this week will be sales sales sales. New games that may otherwise climb to the top of the charts will have a lot more competition this week from games on sale climbing the charts as well. Six of the current top ten games are on sale and would otherwise be in the back half of the top 200.
Let's say: real racing 2, nova 2, infinity blade, Aralon, dungeon defenders, dungeon hunter 2, Battleheart, shadow sun, shadow guardian or any high profile releases... Let's say they all release in December, or any combination in the same week. The developers may have a tough sell. I wouldnt want to compete against nova or infinity blade. Some of those titles may have been better served to release earlier.
I think last week was pretty damn good enough: LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4 Spirit (update) Gunstar Heroes Rage Lord of the Rings: Middle Earth Defense Splatterhouse Mushihimesama Bug Panic ...I probably missed a few, too. With a release list like that, I think it's fine to have a week or two of downtime from any other ginormous releases.
Anything being released this week would get overlooked or looked at poorly based off how many high quality apps are being put on sale this week. If an awesome game is released this week at full price but even 2 other games that people wanted go on sale and now equal the same price as the new game, which do you think will get bought? I'd go for the 2 for the price of one and easily just assume that eventually the new game will go on sale too. It would be a pretty poor marketing choice to release games this week with the knowledge of all the sales going on.
Understood. Very rarely do iPad apps (big names) have deep discounted sales, like iPhone games. So I very much look forward to the big, new releases. I was trying to convey, that, with a lot of high profile releases happening next month some will release on the same day as others. For example: No matter how fabulous Aralon may end up, Nova 2 will surely garner much more in sales. Money is finite therefore, if Customer A purchases Nova 2, they may hold off on purchasing Aralon. So, in my hypothetical certain games will sell less than expected, because big name titles will be releasing in groups alongside each other. Relatively, consider the console world for a moment. Many games this year and last, released ahead or behind schedule. They tried to avoid launching alongside Call of Duty. I think the same thing of the AppStore.
This is the way I see it: If a developer had a strategy to get the most $$$ for their game, they would not release it this week, or possibly next week mainly because of the PRICE drops on all the Black Friday sales (and Cyber Monday). And now that there are so many GREAT big company releases coming soon after Cyber Monday, it's gonna be tough for any developer to get huge sales before Christmas. :/
When you really think about it the best possible time for a dev to release a new game would be right around Christmas Day. Unlike console games that obviously have a physical disc that has to be bought online or in a store, App store games are obviously instantly able to be downloaded directly to the device. People probably aren't giving and receiving App store games as gifts (even though it is possible) like they give and receive Xbox of PS3 games as gifts. Instead they give or get iTunes cards. With so many people using iTunes cards as gifts, there will be hundreds of thousands of iDevice gamers with brand new iTunes credit looking to spend it on awesome new games on Christmas day and the days thereafter. I know that I for one will be doing my best to hold off on buying any new games within the next month just like I hold off on buying a lot of things because I know that Christmas is near and I'll likely have fresh iTunes credit on Christmas. Of course, with some of the awesome sales going on, I'll certainly be taking advantage of a few of them
My point was December will be so saturated by big name releases. All grouped together. Had some of those releases been coming this week or next, it might have spread out the release calendar - thereby giving their own (or other titles) a better chance of success by not having to launch the same week as another big name title. Especially so, as it seems this week and next are slower release periods. Some of the other games may have ended up owning the weekly chart (which is important for an app to gain attention), had they released in the slow week.
Might be an underwhelming week for releases but I went a bit crazy buying games on sales and others I'd been curious about for a while. Last few days I've picked up Asphalt 5 Assassins Creed Brothers In Arms 2 Castle Frenzy Game of Life Ferrari GT Fumes Hero of Sparta 2 Iron Man 2 Lego Harry Potter Lets Golf 2 Meteor Blitz Monopoly Worldwide Prince of Persia Warrior Within Scrabble The settlers So plenty to keep me busy and the vast majority of them were on sale the whole lot I think was only about £15. Next release I'm really interested in is probably sentinel 3 and I've kept credit for that and anything else that pops up by surprise. I think it's a pretty good week on itunes.
